International Relations between the United States and Iran

            International relations between the United States and Iran have not always been great, and the past century is a prime example of that. This rocky relationship began in 1953 with Operation Ajax. This was the CIA’s mission to reinstate the shah by overthrowing Mohammad Mossadeq’s democratic government. He had come into power after the Iranian people came to believe that a British company controlling the oil fields was ripping them off causing a political controversy to occur.  Mohammad Mossadeq also frightened the U.S. after he refused to cooperate with them, causing many to believe he would join forces with the Soviet Union, the United State’s enemy. Therefore Operation Ajax was born. It was headed by Kermit Roosevelt, the grandson of Theodore Roosevelt and was created to return the Shah to power through several CIA organized protests and the bribery of different Iranian officers. Although the first attempt was a failure causing the Shah to flee Tehran, the second attempt was a complete success and allowed the Shah to return to power. But along with the Shah came the Savak, a brutally frightening police force. And after all of the violence and interference by the United States, the United States government kept the mission a complete secret from the Americans.

            Arguably the most important and widely known incident between the United States and Iran was the Iranian Hostage Crisis of 1979. It began on November 4, 1979 after Islamic fundamentalist students against the Pro-American Shah seized the United States embassy in Tehran. Sixty-six diplomats and military personnel were taken hostage for a total of 444 days. But in the midst of the commotion and confusion, on November 19, 1979 four women and six black men were released, because Islam respects women and Iranians considered American blacks to be suppressed.  And a result of everything that had happened the Iranian prime minister resigned in protest, leaving Ruhollah Khomeini, an Iranian religious leader and politician, in charge. The militants agreed that they would release the hostages if the Shah returned to Iran. This entire situation left the United States at a point of weakness, something the Soviet Union took advantage of. In 1979, the soviet-supported Marxist rebels began to make gains in Ethiopia, Angola, and Mozambique. Also, Vietnam won a border war with China, as well as taking over Cambodia from the Khmer Rouge, and the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. This all led to the United States breaking off diplomatic relations with Iran in April 1980. But, that did not stop them from attempting a rescue mission on April 24, 1980 by an elite paramilitary unit. Unfortunately the mission, led by Colonel Charles Beckwith, was a complete failure, and caused President Carter’s popularity to drop by twenty percent. Another result of the crisis was the television program Nightline. It was on each night to discuss the hostage situation and to be a constant reminder of President Carter’s failure.

            The hostage crisis went on for several more months, until the United States agreed to release several billion dollars in Iranian gold and bank assets that had previously frozen in U.S. banks. Because Iran was now in a war with Iraq, this money was needed now more then ever, the only problem was that Iran refused to directly communicate with the United States, causing Algeria to act as the intermediary. It had been established that the hostages were to travel through the American medical facility in Wiesbaden, Germany before re-entry into the United States, but a series of problems arose before this

could happen. First, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York did not have their part of the money, so funds had to be shifted among the twelve different banks where the money was located for the problem to be solved. Then, because of the blackouts of airport lights and the time difference the Algerian planes carrying the hostages would need to leave by 9:30 in the morning EST or wait another eight to ten hours. So the morning of the agreement, Carter woke up at two in the morning to wait for news on all the moving parts. Thankfully, later in the morning, word reached him that the hostages were near the airport ready to leave. The only problem was that the Iranian bank officials didn’t agree to the terms of accountability in the banking agreements. So on Tuesday January 20, 1980, at 6:35 in the morning the Bank of England certified that they held $7.977 billion, and notified the Algerians by telex to inform Iran. From there, at 8:04am Algeria confirmed that the bank certification was complete. And at 9:45am President Carter learned that the planes would take off at noon. And at 12:33 in the afternoon the first plane holding the hostages took off with the second leaving nine minutes later, only minutes after President Carter’s term ended. This made announcing that the hostages had been released President Reagan’s first official announcement.

            Another major event between Iran and the United States was the Iran Contra Affair of 1985. It began because President Reagan had been in favor of the insurgent’s cause in Nicaragua. This prompted the CIA to train and assist Nicaragua and other anti-communist insurgencies around the world. But unfortunately the Boland Amendment was passed which banned the CIA and Department of Defense from conducting operations in Nicaragua. At the same time this was happening, Iran and Iraq were at war. So Iran decided to make a secret request to buy arms from the United States. But at the time there was an embargo against selling to Iran. This did not stop National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane from telling President Reagan that selling to Iran would improve relations with them and possibly even with Lebanon, increasing American influence in the Middle East. To make it seem like an even more desirable option, Reagan had become distraught over not being able to secure the release of seven American hostages that were being held by Iranian terrorists in Lebanon. So President Reagan convinced himself that the arms deal would not be a negotiation with terrorists, but the duty he had to make sure the hostages returned safely. In total 1,500 missiles were eventually shipped to Iran, and only three hostages were released before another three Americans were captured. And to add to the scandal Al-Shiraa, a Lebanese newspaper, published an article on the exchange in November 1986. Which uncovered that only $12 million of the $30 million that had reportedly been paid by the Iranians reached the United States government, which further revealed that Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North of the National Security Council had been diverting funds from the arms sale to the Contra in Nicaragua with the permission of National Security Advisor Admiral John Poindexter and what they believed to be the unspoken permission of President Reagan. Eventually Poindexter resigned and North was fired, leaving no evidence linking Reagan to the diversion. Fourteen people were then charged with either operational or cover-up crimes, six of which were to be granted pardons by President Bush.

            Something between Iran and the United States that still continues today are the tensions in the Persian Gulf. During the 1980’s Iraq and Iran enter into war, dragging Saudi Arabia and Kuwait into not too long after. And in order to protect the traffic within the Persian Gulf, the United States re-flagged tankers, which in turn created even more tension between the United States and Iran. One of the first events in this series was the sinking of a US flagged ship by Iranian forces. This catastrophe led to the bombing of an Iranian occupied oil platform in October 1987 and the sinking or damaging of six Iranian vessels. But tensions began to rise even further when the American ship, the USS Vincennes, shot down a civilian Iranian passenger plan after they mistakenly thought it was an Iranian Air Force F-14 Tomcat. Iran sued the United States as a result, from which the Americans agreed to pay $61.8 million in compensation to the victims’ families. This event caused the most strain on the relationship between Iran and the United States because people began to believe that it meant the U.S. had decided to side with Iraq in the war, which even went on to cause the Iranians to call a cease fire because they did not believe that they could handle a war against Iraq and the United States.

              Americans return to the US after being held captive by Iran for 444 days

                             Oliver North testifying at the Iran-Contra hearings

         Iran occupied rig burns after an attack by American Forces in the 1980s

                           A Times Magazine Cover on the Iran-Contra Affair

        An American hostage is paraded before cameras by his Iranian captors, 1979

Operation Ajax: The Cold War Museum

This website described what happened with the Shah and Iran during Operation Ajax. And although it was a brief article, the majority of the facts were easily found and all together. I was able to learn about the people involved and why this mission was important.

The Iranian Hostage Crisis: U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian

This was a much more brief version of what happened during the Hostage Crisis, but it was the first website I looked at and it gave me a good perspective and idea of what I needed to find out. And because it was one of my most credible sources I was able to check my facts with this website.

Jimmy Carter and the Iranian Hostage Crisis: The White House Historical Association

This was an excellent website because it gave a very detailed account of what happened during the Hostage Crisis. I was able to better understand why it happened and how lengthy of a process it was to try and settle a deal. There were even a few pictures, which helped me to better understand the scenario and what was going on.

Iran, the United States and a Political Seesaw: The New York Times

This site was mainly a timeline between the years 1923 to close to present day in 2012. This was different then the other websites because I was able to see the long term affect of some problems because of how far the timeline went. Like the other timelines there were only brief paragraphs with not much information, but I was able to read about new and different topics that helped me to find more topics to research.

Timeline of US-Iran Relations: Council on Foreign Relations

This website gave a brief description of the major events between Iran and the US in timeline from 1979 all the way until 2006. Although the paragraphs were brief and did not provide all of the information that I needed, it was a good guide as to what else I could research and what I needed to further study.

The Iran-Contra Affair: PBS

This website was helpful because it gave me a step by step guide as to how and why the Iran-Contra agreement happened. I learned about the people involved and the two different sides to the argument. I had never heard of this affair before reading about it on this website, and I was able to find all the necessary information from it.

U.S.-Iran Relations, 1906-2002: Frontline, PBS

This website contained yet another timeline and had short paragraphs on major events between the U.S. and Iran. It did provide me with even more information that I did not know about before which helped me a lot, because it gave me more information to do research on.

Remembering Iran Air Flight 655: PBS

This article focused only on the Iranian passenger plane that was shot down, but gave a very good retelling of what had happened. It described what happened afterwards as a result and why the plane was shot down in the first place. I thought that it really helped me to add valuable information to my paragraph, and it was one of the events that had the biggest impact on the relationship between Iran and the United States.