Iranian Revolution

Examples of Iranian Revolution in the following topics:

• The Iranian Crisis

  • President Carter’s biggest foreign policy problem was the Iranian hostage crisis, whose roots lay in the 1950s.
  • In February of 1979, the shah was overthrown when revolution broke out, and a few months later, he departed for the United States for medical treatment.
  • Carter's negotiations with the Iranian activists failed to free them.
  • In Iran, the taking of hostages was widely seen as an act of resistance against U.S. influence in Iran, its attempts to undermine the Iranian Revolution, and its longstanding support of Shah Pahlavi of Iran, recently overthrown by the revolution.
  • Explain the background, resolution, and aftermath of the Iranian Hostage Crisis.

• Energy and Environmental Reform

  • The 1979 (or second) oil crisis in the United States occurred in the wake of the Iranian Revolution.
  • Protests severely disrupted the Iranian oil sector, with production being greatly curtailed and exports suspended.
  • President Jimmy Carter's decision to order the cessation of Iranian imports, driving the price far higher than would be expected under normal circumstances.

• NATO and the Militarization and Interventions Abroad

  • When the Iran–Iraq War broke out following the Iranian Islamic revolution of 1979, the United States initially remained neutral in the conflict.
  • The US mainly sided with Iraq, believing that Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini threatened regional stability more than Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
  • US officials feared that an Iranian victory would embolden Islamic fundamentalists in the Arab states, perhaps leading to the overthrow of secular governments—and damage to Western corporate interests—in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Kuwait.
  • After initial Iraqi military victories were reversed and an Iranian victory appeared possible in 1982, the American government initiated Operation Staunch to attempt to cut off the Iranian regime's access to weapons (notwithstanding their later shipment of weapons to Iran in the Iran-Contra Affair).

• The Iran-Contra Scandal

  • The scandal began as an operation to free seven American hostages being held by a group with Iranian ties connected to the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution.
  • The Iranian recipients promised to do everything in their power to achieve the release of the U.S. hostages.
  • While President Ronald Reagan was a supporter of the Contra cause, the evidence is disputed as to whether he authorized the diversion of the money raised by the Iranian arms sales to the Contras.

• Central America

  • The Iran-Contra scandal began as an operation to free seven American hostages being held by a group with Iranian ties connected to the Islamic Revolution; however, the plan deteriorated into an arms-for-hostages scheme.
  • While President Reagan was a supporter of the Contra cause, the evidence is disputed as to whether he authorized the diversion of the money raised by the Iranian arms sales to the Contras.

• Interventions in Latin America and the Middle East

  • The Cuban Revolution (1953–59) was an armed revolt conducted by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement and its allies against the U.S.
  • The revolution began in July 1953, and continued sporadically until the rebels finally ousted Batista on January 1, 1959, replacing his government with a revolutionary socialist state.
  • The Cuban Revolution had powerful domestic and international repercussions.
  • Iran in particular became a key U.S. ally, until a revolution led by the Shi'a clergy overthrew the monarchy in 1979 and established a theocratic regime that was even more anti-western than the secular regimes in Iraq or Syria.
  • Iraq invaded Iranian Khuzestan in 1980 at the behest of the latter's chaotic state of country due to the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

• The Middle East

  • On May 6, 1995, Clinton signed Executive Order 12957 which implemented tight oil and trade sanctions on Iran, and made it illegal for American corporations or their foreign subsidiaries to participate in any contract "for the financing of the development of petroleum resources located in Iran. " On May 6, 1995, President Clinton also issued Executive Order 12959, which banned almost all trade between U.S. businesses and the Iranian government, with the exception of informational materials.
  • That year, Secretary Albright and President Clinton mandated what could be considered an apology to the Iranian people for the 1953 CIA-assisted coup that overthrew the democratically-elected Prime Minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, and replaced him with the Shah, thus contributing to the 1979 Islamic Revolution two decades later.

• Modern Republicanism

  • In the first year of his presidency, Eisenhower deposed the leader of Iran in the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, and used nuclear threats to conclude the Korean War with China.
  • In 1958, he sent fifteen thousand U.S. troops to Lebanon to prevent the pro-Western government from falling to a Nasser-inspired revolution.

• A Grinding War Against Iran

  • The purpose was to secure Iranian oil fields and ensure Allied supply lines for the Soviets fighting against Axis forces on the Eastern Front.
  • Two diplomatic notes were delivered to the Iranian government on July 19 and August 17 urging the Iranian government to expel Axis nationals or force would be used against Iran.
  • After the invasion, Iran was defeated, the oilfields were taken, and the valuable Trans-Iranian Railway changed into Allied hands .
  • Severe inflation imposed great hardship on the lower and middle Iranian classes.
  • The Iranian warship Babr (Tiger) after being shelled by the British sloop HMS Shoreham during the surprise attack on Iran, August 1941.

• The Revolution and Churches

  • Nonetheless, the Revolution split some denominations.
  • Religion played a major role in the American Revolution by offering a moral sanction for opposition to the British—an assurance to the average American that revolution was justified in the sight of God.
  • The Revolution strengthened millennialist strains in American theology.
  • Ministers were often supporters of the Patriot's cause during the Revolution.
  • Discuss the role that religious leaders played in the American Revolution.