A Crash Course In US-Iran Relations
If you were to open any news source right now, you would surely find lengthy, complicated pieces on all of the details of the killing of Iranian General Quasem Solemeiani and what will happen next. However, while all of these articles are surely well done, sometimes journalists forget that the average American could not point out Iran on a map, much less understand the overwhelming complexities of our foreign policy history with the country. For that very reason, below you will find a brief summary of US-Iran relations starting with the Iranian Revolution.
1979: Iranian Revolution
In 1979, the Iranian government completely shifted from a monarchy to a dictatorship, after years of protests. Let’s slow down. There are two main characters here: Rez Shah Pahlavi and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Basically, the Shah was a part of a large dynasty that lasted in Iran for over 50 years. Iranians hated the Shah. Not only was he incredibly corrupt, many Iranians felt that he cared too much about Western politics and not enough about what his people wanted. There were massive, massive protests met with aggressive government response and lots of bloodshed. One thing led to another and eventually, Khomeini, the leader of the protests, gets into power and creates the “Islamic Republic of Iran.” While Iranians celebrated this, it’s important to note that this didn’t mean Khomeini had some peaceful agenda. Khomeini coming into power was extremely dangerous in terms of world politics and shook up foreign policy internationally even more.
At this time, the United States was led by President Jimmy Carter who, frankly, wasn’t doing so hot. Carter was making arguably naive decisions and demonstrated how out of touch America was with the actualities of what was happening on the ground. It’s also noteworthy that the United States was very focused on the Arab-Israeli War happening practically simultaneously with the revolution in Iran.
1979-1981: Iran Hostage Crisis
So, Khomeini’s now in power after this intense revolution, and the US is working with Iran to actually normalize relations. Just when they’re getting somewhere, though, the old Shah is dying of cancer and begs President Carter to let him into the US for medical treatment. In possibly one of the biggest errors to occur in a US presidency, Carter allows the Shah to enter but promises this action is only coming from a place of humanitarianism. But it was too late. Iranians started to suspect there was something shady going on with Carter and the Shah.
On November 4, 1979, a mass of 3,000 Iranian students stormed the US embassy in Tehran, Iran and took about 60 US ambassadors hostage for 444 days. This was in response to the so-called humanitarian acceptance of Khomeini into the United States and a display of Iranian’s distrust in US-Iran relations. Americans were absolutely outraged and beyond disturbed by the images of Americans tied up and blindfolded completely helpless. Conditions got exponentially worse over time with several hostages trying to escape and attempt suicide, all ending in solitary confinement. President Carter implemented severe economic pressure on Khomeini as well as attempted negotiations with the leader that brought pretty much nothing. In the last days of his presidency, Carter finally reached an agreement, and the hostages returned home after well over a year of captivity.
1980-1988: Iran-Iraq War
As there’s all this chaos going on in Iran, its neighbor Iraq has the grand idea to start a war to capitalize on Iran’s turmoil. While this is not too justifiable, the US was selfishly satisfied with this for the moment because it meant they got a moment of relief. Under Ronald Reagan’s administration, the US aided Iraq in their war so Iran would lose. Iraq uses chemical weapons against Iran, which the US condemns, but continues to look the other way and supports Iraq. During this time, the US has imposed severe sanctions and has deemed Iran to be a sponsor of terrorism.
2015: Iran Nuclear Deal
What happened in the end of the Iran-Iraq War didn’t involve much exciting action, the US just continued to hail Iran as a sponsor of terrorism, especially following 9/11. After much debate and talk, the US, Iran, and five other countries reached the historic agreement called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which we know as the Iran Nuclear Deal. This deal meant that Iran could have enough uranium, the country’s main economic resource, but not enough to build a nuclear bomb. Despite being said to be a total game-changer, the deal was structured with sunset clauses, which basically means parts of the deal will decay over time. The common conservative argument was that these sunset clauses make this deal worthless, and, needless to say, President Trump withdrew the United States from the deal in May of 2018. Additionally, Iran withdrew from the deal just a few weeks ago after ramping up the amount of uranium made within its borders.
The point of this article is not to bore you, but to educate you. It’s important to realize the complex history behind the headlines you are seeing in order for you to form proper opinions. Sometimes news sources can make it seem as though the United States is attacking an innocent country with ethical leaders and, if this article has taught you anything, that is not the case.