 | 67 Years of US / Iran History |
1953 Iran had a democratically elected Prime Minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh, who was concerned with the influence that Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (now BP) had over Iranian oil reserves. A coup d’état was arranged by British Intelligence and Eisenhauer’s CIA. Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was installed as monarch and ruled for the next 26 years until he was overthrown by the Iranian Revolution in 1979.
1979 The Muslim Student Followers of the Imam’s Line stormed the US embassy and kidnapped 52 American citizens and held them hostage for 444 days. The deposed Shah Pahlavi was granted asylum while he sought cancer treatment in the US. The Iranians accused him of committing crimes with the help of his secret police, but were rebuffed in their efforts to get him extradited to stand trial. The hostages were released in 1981, minutes after Ronald Reagan was sworn in.
1980 The Iraqi military invaded Iran, beginning the Iran–Iraq War. The United States provided political and logistic support for Iraq, while Iran was largely isolated. Eight years later, war-weariness, economic problems, decreased morale, repeated Iranian military failures, recent Iraqi successes, Iraqi use of weapons of mass destruction, lack of international sympathy, and increased U.S.–Iran military tension all led to a ceasefire brokered by the United Nations.
1983 A suicide truck bomber detonated a bomb at the building serving as a barracks for US peace keeping forces in Lebanon, killing 242 service members. The Islamic Jihad, which took credit for the attack, was a front for Hezbollah which was acting as a proxy for Iran, affording Iran plausible deniability.
1988 Iran Air 655 was shot down over Iran’s Territorial waters in the Persian Gulf by the USS Vincennes. 290 people (66 children) perished. Contrary to the accounts of various Vincennes crew members, the cruiser’s Aegis Combat System recorded that the airliner was climbing at the time and its radio transmitter was squawking on only the Mode III civilian frequency, and not on the military Mode II. The threat posed by flight 655 did not exist but the Navy decorated the commander of the Vincennes for “exceptionally meritorious conduct.”
2015 The Iran Nuclear Deal was signed by China, Russia, France, UK, Germany and US with hopes of building on a rational foundation.
2018 The US pulls out of the Iran Nuclear Deal and reverts to “Maximum Pressure”.
2020 The US assassinates General Qassem Soleimani and Iran fires ICBM’s at 2 US bases in Iraq.
Now What happens?