Iran and the United States: Foreign Policy during the Khomeini Years
Iran and the United States share a relatively brief but troubled history. America’s involvement in Iran began in the aftermath of the Second World War and intensified as the American-Soviet Cold War smoldered during the later half of the 20th Century. Iran never loomed large upon the horizon of the American public’s list of foreign concerns. For the United States, the defining moment in their relationship came on 4 November 1979, when on the heals of the Iranian Revolution, 66 Americans were seized from their embassy in Iran and held hostage for 444 days.1 Americans saw this as a blatant and undeserved attack and felt powerless as the hostage crisis dragged on. This left a terrible scar on the American psyche and has colored foreign policy decisions towards Iran ever since. Americans today, for the most part, remain cloaked in a shroud of ignorance, ever asking, ‘Why do they hate us?’ For Iranians, America’s 1953 bloodless coup d’état that toppled Mosaddeq was a pivotal moment, creating a legacy etched into the Iranian consciousness. While Mosaddeq’s strategy for oil nationalization relied heavily upon American economic aid, in Iran he is remembered as the man who stood up to the West. The coup brought the Shah back. Iranians who looked to the United States to rid themselves of Britain’s yoke woke up to the new reality that they had merely replaced the British with the Americans. The Iranian sense that other nations have constantly meddled in their internal affairs has remained a driving force behind foreign policy decisions since the 1979 revolution.
A new generation of Iranian intellectuals emerged in the 1960s, reversing previously held convictions and espousing the view that the West was the cause of Iran’s problems.2 By 1977, Iran had become a tinderbox due to economic conditions, the Iranian people’s dissatisfaction with the Shah’s modernization efforts, and disenchantment with the influence of Western values penetrating the country. With nearly all segments of society rising to challenge the Shah, many sought to mold and control the revolutionary explosion.
