Americans had relatively little contact with Iran until the 1940s. The United States largely deferred to British policy, whose commercial and diplomatic approach focused on extracting oil for a nominal fee and confronting Russian influence in Iran. In August 1941, fearing German influence, the British and the Soviets invaded Iran and deposed the pro-Axis ruler Reza Shah Pahlavi. They installed his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, depriving the new shah of popular legitimacy. Franklin D. Roosevelt attended the November 1943 Teheran Conference of the Allied leaders, the first visit of an incumbent U.S. president to the country.
As the Cold War began, the USSR tried to over-whelm Iran, Turkey, and Greece, while the mantle of protecting Western interests moved from the British to the Americans. The continued Soviet occupation in Iran triggered the first threat of direct U.S. intervention in the Near East. President Harry S. Truman's threat to send marines to aid Iran coupled with Iranian diplomatic maneuvering in the United Nations convinced the Red Army to retreat in May 1946. In March 1947, the Truman Doctrine promised support to those resisting Soviet subversion. Iran became part of the American sphere of influence thanks to its abundant supply of oil and its strategic location at the juncture of the Persian Gulf, the Middle East, and the Caucasus.
In August 1953, the United States orchestrated a military coup to overthrow the popular Iranian prime minister Mohammad Mosaddeq, who opposed the shah, briefly forcing him into exile, and the predominance of the West in his country, especially the exploitation of oil companies. The restoration of the pro-American regime, while damaging its credibility, secured an alliance between the two countries. The growing revenues generated by more local control over oil transformed Iran into a consumer of American products, such as advanced technology and defense equipment. A stronger, more industrialized Iran became an anti-Soviet pillar.
The October 1973 oil crisis, in which Iran remained loyal to the United States and to Israel, in stark contrast to its Arab neighbors, further increased Iran's importance to the United States. The shah's aspirations to regional hegemony and accelerated modernization in Iran heightened commercial, military, cultural, and educational ties with the United States. While U.S. training of Iranian pilots was a mutual source of pride, the presence of American military personnel and their alleged help to the notorious secret police, the SAVAK, were controversial.
The shah's downfall was due in part to corruption and to the widening disparity in wealth caused by his aggressive White Revolution. These failures were compounded by his weak legitimacy and by opposition of the leading members of the Muslim clergy, who portrayed him as an agent of incursion for American interests and a promoter of Western decadence, which they claimed jeopardized the values and structure of a traditional society.
The most memorable year in U.S. relations with Iran was 1979, which reversed decades of collaboration. The year began with mass demonstrations against the shah and his overthrow. He left for exile on 16 January. President James Earl Carter refused to intervene for the fledgling regime, and even had he chosen to act, success would have been unlikely. The Muslim fundamentalists prevailed on 11 February. Previous U.S. support for Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's foe, an internal struggle between factions vying for control, and U.S. permission for the cancer-stricken shah to receive medical care in New York City triggered a hostage crisis that lasted 444 days. On 4 November, members of the Revolutionary Guards attacked the American Embassy and seized dozens of staff members. Among their explicit demands were the extradition of the shah for a public trial and an American apology for aiding his regime. Some leaders of the new government also feared a covert action to reverse their political gains.
The Iranian government sided with this violation of diplomatic immunity partly because of its domestic election campaign in early 1980. As negotiations to redeem the remaining fifty-two American hostages proved futile, President Carter turned to coercion. After freezing Iranian assets, he ordered a rescue attempt in April 1980. Eight U.S. soldiers died in an accident during the aborted mission. This debacle, coupled with alleged Republican manipulations to delay any release of the hostages prior to the presidential elections, sealed Carter's loss to Ronald Reagan in November 1980. The shah had died in August 1980, and the hostages were released in exchange for unfreezing Iranian assets on 20 January 1981, the day of the presidential transition from Carter to Reagan.
In the mid-1980s, during the Iran-Iraq War, the Iran-Contra scandal unfolded in the United States. National Security Council officials, notably Colonel Oliver North, secretly sold arms to Iran, and some of the proceeds were diverted to help the anticommunist Contras in Nicaragua in contravention of the U.S. Constitution. The hope was to gain influence among moderates in Iran and to secure the release of American hostages in Lebanon. The contacts had only limited success. During the 1990–1991 Persian Gulf War, Iran remained neutral as the United States and its allies defeated Iraq.
Only in 1997, when the reformer Mohammad Khatami won the presidential elections in Iran, did relations visibly improve, although rhetorical animosity remained the norm, especially among Iranian clergy. The June 1998 World Cup soccer game, in which Iranian and American players exchanged mementos, embodied the hopes for more friendly relations.
Bibliography
Bill, James A. The Eagle and the Lion. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1988.
Kuniholm, Bruce Robellet. The Origins of the Cold War in the Near East. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1980.
Sick, Gary. October Surprise: America's Hostages in Iran and the Election of Ronald Reagan. New York: Times Books, 1991.
