At a time when Iranians have taken it upon themselves to stand up and fight for the democracy they have been cheated out of, for the past three decades, the United States, contrary to previous measures, has decided to stay neutral and “not meddle”.
Generations have been yearning indictment for continuous bloodshed occurring in Iran, in hopes of discovering the undelivered promise of democracy originally made by late Ayatollah Khomeini, former supreme spiritual leader (Valy-e-Faqih) of Iran, a designated label, since 1979. The mullahs, the British, Jimmy Carter, resentment of the Iranian population against the Shah and his secret police SAVAK, Shah’s cancer and lack of cash, despite Iran’s economical growth, have all been held accountable for the 1979 Iranian revolution.
However, most Iranians have always believed United States was key player in the overthrow of the Pahlavi regime and foundation of Islamic Republic.
A notion as clear as water, yet hard to prove.
If true, then why on Nov. 4, 1979, less than 10 months after Khomeini returned to Iran from exile, Islamic revolutionaries overran the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking more than 60 Americans hostage? A crisis that had more extensive coverage by the media than any other event since World War II, wrote historian Gaddis Smith.
Was it all a cover up or mere entertainment?
Yet, the Shah had always been a loyal U.S. ally. John F. Kennedy recognized Iran and the U.S.’s parallel interests in freedom, peace and providing a better life for their people in 1961, while welcoming the Shah to United States. Jimmy Carter referred to Iran under the Shah as “an island of stability” in the turmoil Middle East at a state dinner in Tehran, on New Year’s Eve in 1977. After all wasn’t it the CIA that directed an operation in 1953 to oust Mohammad Mossadegh and consolidate power under the young Shah, in fear of the alluring prime minister moving Iran closer to Soviet Union?
What a fascinating twist.
A study sourced on previously classified document by scholar Andrew Scott Cooper, indicates the Nixon and Ford administrations created conditions that led to the overthrow of the Shah and contributed to the foundation of Islamic Republic with Saudi Arabia as a key U.S. ally in Persian Gulf.
“The Shah is a tough mean guy. But he is our real friend,” said Kissinger to Ford as he was trying to find ways to maneuver the Shah into lowering oil prices, in a 1974 conversation cited by the report. “We can’t tackle him without breaking him.”
That was easier done than said.
The report suggests that high oil prices in the 1970s began hurting the U.S. economy and when an oil embargo over the U.S. support of Israel ended in March 1974, U.S. officials looked at the Shah as the main perpetrator in keeping oil prices high. He simply had to go.
Ironically, Donald Rumsfeld, George W. Bush’s former Secretary of Defense, warned an Iranian official that Tehran was losing friends in Washington. “Don’t try to get around me,” said Rumsfeld in an encounter with Gen. Hassan Toufanian, reported by Washington Post three decades ago and cited in Cooper’s report. “Remember, Kissinger and I have to approve all [arms] exports.”
I wonder who Mr. Rumsfeld blames for today’s unpredictable and inconsistent oil prices and the struggling U.S. economy.
After 30 years, it is owed to Mr. Cooper who has taken the time and consideration to suggest a population’s sanity and bring light to a nation’s roar. Finally, what most Iranians have known in their hearts has taken a live image.
Subsequently, for those who fantasize about another Iranian revolution, it might just be a while until the Islamic Republic of Iran crosses boundaries or steps on any toes brutal enough to be placed on the CIA’s agenda.
