Us Iran Relations

The American public was so captivated by the Iran Hostage Crisis because they were blindsided by this radical action and their knowledge of America’s involvement in Iran was limited. The media played a major role in influencing their emotions and they already had trouble trusting the American government. This unknown involvement began in 1943 when President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin met in Tehran to discuss how to remove the British and Soviet military forces from Iran because Iran wanted to be its own nation. The United States aided the young Shah, the ruler of Iran, and his government with military weapons and loans. Over time, Prime Minister Mossadegh, of Iran, gained more and more power until he was the true ruler of Iran and the Shah was just a figurehead. The United States, fearing the spread of communism, devised a secret plan for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), to over throw Prime Minister Mossadegh.

The Iranian hostage crisis was one of the most dramatic events in a series of problems that took place during President Jimmy Carter’s term. The crisis, beginning in November of 1979, received the most coverage of any major event since World War II. It was one of many problems faced in light of the United State’s complex relationship with Iran. The effects on both the US and Iran were astronomical, especially politically as well as economically and socially. It took a heavy toll on American relations with the Middle East and changed the way we engage in foreign affairs. In light of this crisis, Iran started an international war that we are still fighting thirty-two years later.

The American government is known to promote democratic values throughout the world. Though the ideals America was fighting for during the Cold War, the government still managed to participate in the overthrow of democratically elected Prime Minister, Mohammed Mossadegh. Mossadegh threatened to nationalize Iran’s oil in 1951 and later gained the support of the Iranian government. The British companies had many investments in Iranian oil. It is with the approval of nationalization that the economies of both British and Iran were ultimately harmed. The British government requested the help of the US so that they could perform a coup to overthrow Mossadegh. With suspicions of Mossadegh supporting communism, and being supported by the Tudeh Party, the United States government was willing to sacrifice their democratic ideologies and credibility in the region for the insurance of an anti-communist leader. This would prove to cause problems that still resonate in today’s political and military negotiations in this region.

The “Preface to the 2008 Edition: The Folly of Attacking Iran”, highlights the decades that have followed the coup and reasons for the United States attacking Iran. It concludes by introducing the idea that Operation Ajax, which was the code name of this operation, brought tragedy to Iran, which led to the rise of anti-American terror, and weakened the security of the United States. The author explains how most Americans are unfamiliar with the history of what the CIA did in Iran in 1953 and the reason why the country had such hatred for America following the hostage crisis in 1979. The chapters begin with a clear overview of Iranian history and ends with explaining the effects of the countries because of the coup. This book is written like a thrilling story rather than a history book, which makes the information easier to comprehend, for those uneducated about the topic.

In the following essay, I will describe the unique set of circumstances and reasons as to why a war between Iran and the United States was

Negative relations between Iran and the United States likely began in 1953 when the U.S. assisted in a coup which ousted then Prime Minister Mohammad

From the 1953 CIA led overthrow of Iran 's prime minister to the present day increase in dialogue between Washington and Tehran leading to direct talks on Iraq 's security and an interim agreement on Iran’s nuclear program, there has been more than 60 years of complex and evolving relations between the United States and Iran. In 1953, British and US intelligence services executed Operation Ajax. Operation Ajax led to the ouster of the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran, Mohammad Mossadeq. In 1954, the US and Britain would support and install Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi as the Shah of Iran. Despite claims and evidence of human rights violations against his people and the use of the Iranian security services (SAVAK) to silence his critics, Pahlavi was often publically praised by and maintained strong relations with the US and many regional leaders. By 1979, the Iranian public’s discontent with Pahlavi had reached a critical point and the Shah would be force to

The Iranian Hostage Crisis of 1979 was an event that profoundly impacted Western-Iranian relations, to the extent that its residual effects still linger today. Iran’s revolution of 1979 resulted in a regime change that saw U.S.-supported Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi toppled by the formerly-exiled Ayotollah Khomeini, who promptly instated a strongly anti-Western regime that established itself as ideologically in direct opposition to many Western values. This anti-Western, and particularly anti-American sentiment was common amongst many Iranians due to their resentment of U.S. support for Shah Pahlavi and his oppressive and unsatisfactory regime. This resentment was markedly exhibited to the international community with the seizure of the American Embassy in Tehran by Khomeini-supporting Islamist students, who took 66 Americans hostage. Since the Western “realm” is held together by shared values and sense of community, amongst other features, and Khomeini’s Iran had proven itself to be not only an ideological threat to Westerners, but a security one as well as exemplified by the hostage-taking, Canada swiftly worked bilaterally to defend its realm by sheltering 6 American diplomats in the home of Canadian Ambssador Ken Taylor, and covertly aiding the C.I.A. in the hostages’ extraction . Canada’s role in the hostage crisis internationally reinforced its loyalty to the Western realm, and in particular, its strong bilateral relationship with the United States. This paper will

The U.S. and Iran used to have a great relationship back in the day. President Jimmy Carter even spent New Year 's Eve in 1977 with the Shah, and toasted Iran as "an island of stability in one of the more troubled areas of the world".(Bakhtavar) This just goes to show how close the two countries were at the time. But all that changed later into the 1970’s when a series of unfortunate events eventually lead to the complete deterioration of US and Iran relations. These events shifted U.S. Iran relations in a way that still impacts both countries. Even to this day the US have expressed their dislike of the Iranian regime. Similarly, the Iranian leaders have shown their dislike, more like hatred, for the United States. But that brings up the

The newly released papers do show that the U.S. had reservations and suspicions about the spread of communism in Iran. The change of governments in the United States, as well as the Dulles brothers certain conflict of interest all played into this coup taking place. These documents also show that the British desperately wanted to regain access and control over Iran’s

The origin of this source is valuable because Abrahamian is a well written author on the history of Iran and has published multiple other books on the political system of Iran. Additionally, Abrahamian teaches at the City University of New York as Professor Emeritus of Iranian and Middle Eastern history and politics. This source is also limited in the fact that this book is written by a Persian author and this brings in a possibility of Bias as there were many views the Persian people had on the coup. The purpose of this source is to outline CIA's involvement in overthrowing the Shah and the beginning of the Modern U.S.-Iranian Relations. This book provides a valuable insight into how the U.S. was a cause of the revolution and how they instituted a weak Shah to create a more controllable country and a puppet government. This was also in the favor of the U.S. because of Iran had an auspicous oil industry. Abrahamian challenges conventional interpretations of the events that fail to highlight how the coupling of oil and Iranian nationalism motivated the CIAs

The United States and Iran (then Persia) relations began in the late 1800’s. King Nasser-al-Din Shah sent an ambassador to Washington D.C. although Americans had been traveling to Iran since the mid 1800’s (1,1). From the late 1800’s till World War II, relations were very friendly and many of the representatives for Iran saw the United States as a “third force” in there drive to break free from the British and Russian dominance in Persian affairs (1,1). The United States relations with Iran led was very costly as it led to many highly appointed officials to be killed by those affiliated with the British and Russian influence (1,1). Although relationships with the United States were very friendly for more than half a century, many changes

During early 1950’s, everything changed, and superpowers shifted. The U.S strengthened its political relations with Iran during the years. However, they were ignoring what was really happening in Iran, and the strong opposition to their interference and to the shah. The Iranian Revolution of 1979 was an accumulation of misjudgments by the U.S. foreign policy makers of Washington D.C.

What if I told you that Iran was once an ally of the United States? That there was a moment in time where there was peace and much cooperation among the Iranians and Americans? Today I am here to tell you that despite our current and recent hostile relationship with the country of Iran it was not always that way. I will take you through the origins of this relationship between these two countries throughout the Cold War all the way up until now. I will expand upon the key people that were involved and what their roles were well as the conflicts that arose between these two countries that brought much controversy both to Iran and the United States.

Although the hostage crisis took place in 1979, the disapproval of the United States and Iran foreign relations took place over a century before the overthrow of the embassy. A major threat to the United States was the fear of the Soviets spreading their communist beliefs internationally. Due to this, the United States came to conclusion that the best way to stop the Soviets was to use a containment strategy (Cold War Intervention 1954). This entailed the United States doing what they thought was necessary to stop the spread of communism. Unfortunately, the prime minister of Iran at that time supported Soviet beliefs along with the idea of nationalism. The nationalist beliefs of the prime minister gave him the idea of nationalizing the Britain and American owned petroleum refineries in Iran, and god forbid someone touches the U.S. oil. With the fear of Soviet communism having an influence on Iran, the United States successfully completed a covert CIA operation that overthrew Mossaegh. Thus, replacing him with a pro-western Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who despised the Soviets just as much as the United States. With the new anti-communist Shah in place, the fear of the Soviets influencing Iran had finally subsided. However, even though the United States needs were satisfied, American intervention with Iranian affairs was deeply resented. By the time of 1970 the Iranian people