Very good analysis. There are plenty of other instances where the US interferred with the internal affairs of Iran: Iran Contra Affair under Reagan, supporting Irag in the Iran/Iraq War. Etc, etc.....
In the early 1980s I was working swing shift with an Iranian immigrant, and I gave him lifts home after work since we lived near each other. He explained that the Iranian Revolution was shocking because for Shias to take political power was like a Protestant becoming Pope.
One of the things the US Embassy in Teheran did was track the communist Tudeh Party. When the Iranians took over the US Embassy they found the files on the Tudeh Party and killed all of its members. This convinced the Soviet Union that the Iranian Revolution was an American plot.
The Soviets were not the only side blinded by ideology. When Ayatollah Khomeini said he was not interested in setting the price of oranges, he was signaling his support for free market policies. But the US wasn't listening.
The CIA has been meddling in the political affairs of other countries for a very long time and in ways the US citizens know nothing about. The citizens are kept in the dark because we would NOT agree with the things being done in our name, but we don't get a vote.
Thank you for bringing up this history. I was fully aware of it, but I'm an exception. The shah was the most hated man in Iran before his overthrow. There were warnings that the revolt was coming and the religious leaders were taking control, but those warnings were ignored. It wasn't even just intelligence; it was the actions of the Iranian people. One of my best friends from high school went to Iran with her father three years before the embassy takeover. She was aware of the tensions and why they existed because her Iranian friends would talk about it. If a 17 year-old high school student was aware of the situation, it's hard to believe the US government was unaware of the threat level. Her family escaped two weeks before the embassy was taken. Her father left just a few days before it fell.
My brother's girlfriend left Iran just before the fall. She was on a student visa and later granted residency. She's been a citizen for a few decades now, but her mother and extended family still live in Iran. She fears everyday that she's going to hear that her mother was killed in the US attacks. What's currently being done there is no less horrifying than what was done in 1953. I guess the plan is to kill them all so we can take the oil. It's always about the oil. Even Venezuela was about the oil, but no one seems to have paid attention to that.
Very good analysis. There are plenty of other instances where the US interferred with the internal affairs of Iran: Iran Contra Affair under Reagan, supporting Irag in the Iran/Iraq War. Etc, etc.....
Thank you Lauran. You're right to bring those up. The 1953 coup gets the spotlight, but the pattern runs much deeper.
Insightful as always
Thank you, Phillip!
Well back to Australia mate
What an eye opener this is!
Thank you for your article. It's fairly accurate, but I think it has some blindspots. May I recommend: https://3amthoughts.substack.com/p/from-tobacco-fatwas-to-constitutional
And especially part II:
https://3amthoughts.substack.com/p/building-a-nation-pahlavi-iran-the
Best greetings
David
In the early 1980s I was working swing shift with an Iranian immigrant, and I gave him lifts home after work since we lived near each other. He explained that the Iranian Revolution was shocking because for Shias to take political power was like a Protestant becoming Pope.
One of the things the US Embassy in Teheran did was track the communist Tudeh Party. When the Iranians took over the US Embassy they found the files on the Tudeh Party and killed all of its members. This convinced the Soviet Union that the Iranian Revolution was an American plot.
The Soviets were not the only side blinded by ideology. When Ayatollah Khomeini said he was not interested in setting the price of oranges, he was signaling his support for free market policies. But the US wasn't listening.
The CIA has been meddling in the political affairs of other countries for a very long time and in ways the US citizens know nothing about. The citizens are kept in the dark because we would NOT agree with the things being done in our name, but we don't get a vote.
Thank you for bringing up this history. I was fully aware of it, but I'm an exception. The shah was the most hated man in Iran before his overthrow. There were warnings that the revolt was coming and the religious leaders were taking control, but those warnings were ignored. It wasn't even just intelligence; it was the actions of the Iranian people. One of my best friends from high school went to Iran with her father three years before the embassy takeover. She was aware of the tensions and why they existed because her Iranian friends would talk about it. If a 17 year-old high school student was aware of the situation, it's hard to believe the US government was unaware of the threat level. Her family escaped two weeks before the embassy was taken. Her father left just a few days before it fell.
My brother's girlfriend left Iran just before the fall. She was on a student visa and later granted residency. She's been a citizen for a few decades now, but her mother and extended family still live in Iran. She fears everyday that she's going to hear that her mother was killed in the US attacks. What's currently being done there is no less horrifying than what was done in 1953. I guess the plan is to kill them all so we can take the oil. It's always about the oil. Even Venezuela was about the oil, but no one seems to have paid attention to that.