Kamala Harris recently called Iran a “destabilizing, dangerous force” in the Middle East. The appropriate context for understanding this remark is the US’s own decades-long history of destabilizing Iran.
by Seraj Assi
Part 3 - Just the Beginning
In the name of fighting Communism, the United States helped sabotage a thriving democracy in the Middle East. To cite American historian Douglas Little: “Having convinced themselves that Iran was about to fall to communism, Eisenhower and the Dulles brothers had encouraged pro-American forces to overthrow a democratically elected Iranian leader and place an increasingly autocratic ruler back on the Peacock Throne.”
The 1953 coup, known in Iran as the 28 Mordad coup d’état, was a prelude to a long history of US covert regime change operations against democratically elected leaders across the Global South. Two decades later, in Chile, the United States infamously conspired to overthrow the elected socialist president Salvador Allende, helping usher in an authoritarian right-wing dictatorship.
The 1953 coup, known in Iran as the 28 Mordad coup d’état, was a prelude to a long history of US covert regime change operations against democratically elected leaders across the Global South. Two decades later, in Chile, the United States infamously conspired to overthrow the elected socialist president Salvador Allende, helping usher in an authoritarian right-wing dictatorship.
In Iran, the 1953 coup was just the beginning. As Iranian resentment against the shah grew, the United States responded with a new convert operation in Iran in the early 1960s. Shortly after his inauguration, John F. Kennedy hatched his own plan to counter civil unrest in Iran: a “White Revolution.” In April 1962, Kennedy, fresh off the Bay of Pigs debacle, invited Shah Pahlavi to Washington, where the two leaders reviewed a “blueprint for stability in Iran.” Nine months later, the shah unveiled his White Revolution, a package of modernizing, “top-down” reforms designed to avert radical “bottom-up” change along the lines of Fidel Castro’s red revolution in Cuba. In the spring of 1963, US Peace Corps volunteers descended on Iran to preach American modernization, and as hundreds of US corporations began investing in the shah’s “economic miracle,” millions of barrels of oil flowed from Iran to the United States’ Cold War allies in Asia and Western Europe.
Meanwhile, Iranian opposition leaders, led by Ruhollah Khomeini, mocked the shah as an American puppet, and denounced the US-backed reforms as “Westoxification” (Gharbzadegi in Persian).
By late 1960s, US officials believed Iran was basking in the shah’s White Revolution. They cheered as the shah clamped down on dissent, while toasting his decision to exile Khomeini, who they saw as nothing but an “annoying Islamic rabble-rouser.”
By late 1960s, US officials believed Iran was basking in the shah’s White Revolution. They cheered as the shah clamped down on dissent, while toasting his decision to exile Khomeini, who they saw as nothing but an “annoying Islamic rabble-rouser.”
In came Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger. Desperate to boost US expansion in the Middle East and get out of the Vietnam quagmire, the Nixon administration eyed monarchical Iran as a US proxy. In 1972, the pair visited Tehran, where they presented the shah with their “Nixon doctrine”: in exchange for the United States’ help in ensuring political stability in Iran, the United States would permit the shah to purchase nonnuclear weapon systems from the US arsenal, including helicopter gunships, jet fighters, and guided-missile frigates.
The shah embraced the new Nixon Doctrine with enthusiasm, embarking on lavish purchases of $13 billion worth of US military hardware from the increased revenue generated by skyrocketing oil prices following the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and the Arab oil embargo. But the oil boom only alienated the Iranian middle and working classes, who viewed with growing disdain the shah’s wasteful spending on US arms. Riots erupted in the streets of Iran and were met with a brutal crackdown by the shah, with US blessing.
From his exile in Iraq, the increasingly popular Khomeini condemned the bloodshed, calling for the overthrow of the US-backed tyrant. The Iranian Revolution was soon underway.
On January 16, 1979, Shah Pahlavi boarded a Boeing 707 at Tehran’s Mehrabad airport and headed, after a brief stop in Egypt, for exile in the United States. For many Iranians, giving refuge to the shah was a bitter reminder of the CIA’s conspiracy to overthrow Mossadegh: the United States, it seemed, was a rogue superpower that rewarded reviled tyrants and punished legitimately elected leaders.
On January 16, 1979, Shah Pahlavi boarded a Boeing 707 at Tehran’s Mehrabad airport and headed, after a brief stop in Egypt, for exile in the United States. For many Iranians, giving refuge to the shah was a bitter reminder of the CIA’s conspiracy to overthrow Mossadegh: the United States, it seemed, was a rogue superpower that rewarded reviled tyrants and punished legitimately elected leaders.
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