A Road Over Rough Terrain: US- Iranian Relations
(2/22) For anyone following the news, the Islamic Republic of Iran is no stranger. Starting with President Obama’s inauguration in January 2009, the U.S. has attempted to mend a half-century of sour relations between the West and the Persian Gulf. Under the auspices of “a new beginning,” Obama announced in Cairo last spring that the U.S. was prepared to move forward with Iran. “The question now is not what Iran is against, but rather what future it wants to build.”
Unfortunately, the current administration’s attempt to mend relations with Tehran has not gone according to plan. After six months of cat-and-mouse diplomacy over Iran’s nuclear program, current negotiations with the Islamic Republic bare a closer resemblance to a Tom and Jerry cartoon than to Nixon’s game-changing 1972 trip to the People’s Republic of China.
Prior to the administration of Harry S. Truman, U.S. foreign policy with Iran had been fairly uneventful. The actions of U.S. administration since the Second World War, however, have made Obama’s job a Herculean task.
When negotiations between the British and Iranians over the nationalization of Iranian oil stalled in 1953, newly elected President Dwight Eisenhower feared that Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh’s actions reflected pro-communist sympathies. To block further Soviet influence in Iran, Eisenhower organized the overthrow of the democratically elected Mossadegh with the help of the British secret service. Operation Ajax – led by TR’s grandson Kermit Roosevelt – successfully removed Mossadegh from office and installed a pro-American leader, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi – the “Shah.”
As the Cold War continued, future U.S. administrations would prop up the Shah, even as he grew increasingly authoritarian. Over a decade, the United States pledged $1 billion in foreign aid to Iran, mostly in the form of arms. The Shah’s cozy relationship with the “decadent West,” and his attempt to secularize the nation, infuriated Iran’s hard-line, conservative, Muslim clerics.
U.S. support continued even as the Shah’s popularity declined precipitously. When Jimmy Carter won a closely fought election contest against Gerald Ford, he promised that U.S. foreign policy would respect human rights. The Shah did not have a stellar record in this regard. His secret police routinely tortured opponents of the regime. Other Iranians were put off that Carter offered a New Year’s Eve toast to the Shah, stating, “Under the Shah’s brilliant leadership Iran is an island of stability in one of the most troublesome regions of the world. There is no other state figure whom I could appreciate and like more.” Continue
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