How The U.S. Created An Enemy In Iran

Brett Popplewell
STAFF REPORTER
Jan 31, 2009 04:30 AM
Courtesy Of The Toronto Star

In week two of his presidency, Barack Obama tried to make friendly with a long-standing American adversary, saying America would "extend a hand to Iran" if Iran would just "unclench its fist."

In response, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad demanded Obama apologize for all crimes committed by the U.S. against Iran. To many, it sounded like yet more sabre-rattling. But others found traces of reason in Ahmadinejad's words.

The history of Iranian-American relations dates back to when much of Iran was part of the British Empire, a bulwark between British India and then-Tsarist Russia.

Stephen Kinzer, a former Middle Eastern correspondent for The New York Times and author of All the Shah's Men, says the first Americans to venture into what was then Persia were missionaries, including Howard Baskerville, still considered by many a Persian martyr. He was killed in 1909 while leading revolutionaries who were rising up against the British-backed Shah.

They went on to establish a constitutional monarchy in Iran and cemented America's reputation as having no imperialistic intent on the Iranian people.

That reputation was lost soon after World War II, as Washington became mindful of the threat of Communist expansion in the Middle East. Iran had become increasingly important to Britain as its major source of oil. Integral to Britain's prosperity was the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, owned by the British government.

Crisis erupted in 1951 when the democratically elected prime minister of Iran, Mohammad Mossadeq, announced plans to nationalize the company's assets. Then Prime Minister Winston Churchill sought help from a wartime ally in Washington, newly elected President Dwight Eisenhower, who was worried about losing Iran in its entirety to the Soviet Union.

And so Eisenhower sanctioned a CIA-orchestrated coup in 1953 that toppled Mossadeq and helped His Majesty Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi to take control. The Shah soon abolished the multi-party system and instituted two decades of repressive violence.

The Shah was eventually overthrown in the Iranian Islamic Revolution. For having backed the Shah, in 1979 America's embassy in Tehran was stormed by militants, who took about 70 people hostage.

As a result, Washington supported Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who launched an all-out war against Iran in 1980. Eight years of fighting left more than a million dead.

Tensions between Iran and the U.S. escalated through the '90s, leading to a full trade embargo against Iran in 1995.

Kinzer believes his country bears much responsibility for the current state of Iran. "If we had left Iran alone (in 1953), you can at least imagine it might have developed into a thriving democracy in the heart of the Middle East."

The closest Washington has come to apologizing for the coup was in 2000, when outgoing secretary of state Madeleine Albright said: "It is easy to see now why many Iranians continue to resent this intervention by America into their internal affairs."