US & Iran Relations
The United States has had long standing tensions with Iran that have been present since the Islamic Republic was claimed in 1979. The Iranian hostage crisis began in November of 1979, but there were many events that were leading to the crisis that took 52 Americans hostage for 444 continuous days. Iran has been attracting many countries from the west since the discovery of oil in 1908, it became an international hub for oil drilling and trading. Until 1953, the US mostly stayed among the sidelines, while advocating for an independent Iran under ruling of the Shah. Throughout our standing among the sidelines and silently cheering for an independent Iran, we were supplying Iran with military equipment in exchange for oil and Iran was immensely prospering, all was right between the US and Iran.
The British oil company AIOC controlled Iran’s oil fields and the Iranian people believed AIOC was purely benefitting their company and the British people instead of the Iranian people. They felt as if they were being robbed of something that was rightfully theirs, after all it was their land and they were the ones who lived upon it. The Iranian people were led by the Shah and he was failing to stand for the rights of his people. This sense of wrong-doing created political controversy within the land and people of Iran. Mohammed Mossadeq, who was a strong political leader at the time,demanded renegotiation of the standing oil agreement and all Iranian people agreed. The Iranian people backed him and rallied behind him to make him their honorable leader, setting people against the Shah. Becoming the honorable leader of all of Iran, Mossadeq became the first democratic leader of Iran. The Iranian people rallying up against the Shah however, was very bad news for the United States because if Mossadeq was successful in renegotiating oil terms, the US would take a major hit in losing their source of oil.
However, Mossadeq was successful. "Oil revenues decreased, there was a boycott of Iranian oil and the economy declined" (New York Times). Mossadeq, having been a high strung independent leader of Iran, refused to work with the US. The US now began to fear that Mossadeq would soon join forces with America’s enemy, the Soviet Union. And because of America’s fear for alliances that would negatively affect them, they decide to take it upon themselves to “fix” Iran. The CIA staged a coup d’etat in Iran, headed by FDR’s grandson, Kermit Roosevelt. The CIA’s goal was to return the Shah to power through engineered protests and bribery of Iranian officials and officers.
Phase 1 of the CIA’s coup d’etat was declared unsuccessful and they had to brainstorm on a plan B to restore the Shah to power. The CIA’s first attempt caused riots in the streets of Iran and further boycotts of the Shah that led the Shah to feel as if his life was in danger in Tehran, for participating in the attempted overthrow of Mossadeq. The Shah was so afraid for his life that he fled Iran and requested entry into the United States for medical treatment to treat his Lymphoma. The Shah believed that entry into the US would give him protection against Iran where he now feared his life, but President Carter was reluctant to grant him entry into the US. President Carter feared that if he allowed the Shah to enter the US, that Americans and Iran would be punished for interfering with Iranian relations. Vice President Walter Mondale says, “Carter relented on humanitarian grounds. He went around the room and most of us said ‘Let him in.’” and President Carter replied, “And if [the Iranians] take our employees in our embassy hostage, then what would be your advice?” VP Walter Mondale recalls that, “The room fell dead. No one had an answer to that. Turns out we never did.” After further consideration, Carter granted the Shah entry into the US and like Carter predicted, the hostage did occur.
Because of the anger Iranians had towards the US for the allowing of the recently "deposed" (Pbs) Shah into the US, an angry group of students who called themselves, “Imam’s Disciples,” kidnapped 52 American hostages from the embassy. The American hostages were held for 444 days from November 4, 1979 until January 20, 1981. The US attempted many rescue missions for their American people, but failed time and time again. One attempted mission, Operation Eagle Claw, resulted in 8 American servicemen deaths and one Iranian civilian. Throughout the time of the hostage crisis, 2 presidents were seated in office, Carter and then Reagan. Both of these presidents wrote many ‘secret letters’ to Iranian leaders to plea for the freeing of their people. And the crisis finally concluded 444 days later with the signing of the Algiers Accords in Algeria on January 19, 1981.
In April of 1981, the US ended all diplomatic relations with Iran, which have still not been restored to this day. Iran and the US have had many long standing issues including the crisis along with multiple attempted terrorist attacks against the US. The Iranian Revolution included multiple terrorist attacks against the US including a US embassy bombing in Beirut, Lebanon that killed 17 Americans and bombings on Beirut barracks killed 241 American peacekeepers. According to the New York times, in 1986 the US was exchanging weapons to Iran to fund anti-communist contras militants in Nicaragua to help free US hostages held by Hezbollah in Lebanon. In 1988, and Iranian Airbus was shot down by the US Navy, killing 290 civilians from 6 nations including 66 children. The US claims that this Airbus was mistaken for a fighter jet outside the civilian air corridor and was not responding to radio calls. In January of 2002, Iran, North Korea, and Iraq formed the “Axis of Evil” and spoke about a long range missile that they would fire to the US as a terrorist attack.
The US and Iran have had interesting events take place between them and will probably never get along because of the tension between from past situations and events. Many events even occurred after 2002, including tension over atomic energy, denying solving of tension between the two countries and the comment by Ahmadinejad that 9/11 was conspired by the US. Obama in 2014 decided he wanted nuclear agreement with Iran and sent yet another secret letter to try and resolve the tensions between the two countries. Throughout the many attempts to solve problems with Iran such as secret letters and supplying weapons for their military, the tension has never decreased and probably never will because our two countries want completely different things and are run in different manners. Iran and the US are just two countries that will never completely click.
I never really understood the relationship the US has with Iran and I never understood why there has always been so much tension between our two countries. Throughout learning about this topic it was hard for me to understand why the US got so involved with something that really wasn’t their place to intervene with. The US has always been a country that has seemed to me to get involved with things that do not pertain to them but after further researching this topic I have understood that the US does what is for the good of the people of our country and that they will not cut corners when it comes to the safety of our people.
Primary Sources:
The National Security Archive- The National Security Archives was a helpful because it showed me CIA documents from the Iranian hostage crisis and their view on the hostage crisis and their role. This is a credible source because the National Security Archives is a national organization that documents the security of the country and the events that unfold.
Secondary Sources:
New York times Timeline- This credible source gave me insight on what the order of events were in the relations with Iran and when things happened so I could further understand why. This is a credible source because the New York Times is a national newspaper that releases all credible news to the public.
PBS- I used this source to gather insight on the broad aspects of the relationship between the US and Iran. This source is a credible source because PBS is known for having credible information on a variety of topics.
History Britannica- I used this source to understand the details of the crisis and the background of the situation and the ways they handled the crisis. This is a credible source because scholars created this website for useful research material.
History Online- I used this source to learn about the role Reagan played in getting the hostages back and the reason why the hostages were taken in the first place. History online is a credible source because it is related to the history channel and it is known as credible information.
Cold War Museum- I used this source to gain insight on Operation Ajax and what the reasoning behind Operation Ajax was and why the government was including themselves in Iranian affairs. This is a credible source because the Cold War Museum is a national museum and they are known for credible information pertaining to the Cold War.
