A history of US meddling in Iran brought us here

Everyone is so concerned with how the war with Iran will end that few people have considered how it started. That consideration would reveal that the conflict has deep historical roots and that the United States and Israel have contributed to the crisis. 

Trouble with Iran began, not in 1979 when the Islamic Revolution installed a brutal theocratic regime, but 28 years earlier. In 1951, the democratically elected prime minister of Iran, Mohammed Mosaddegh, nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. At the instigation of the British, Shah Mohammed Riza Pahlavi tried to remove Mosaddegh, only to be driven from the country by his supporters.  

Mosaddegh threatened Western economic interests and raised concerns as to Iran’s reliability as an ally in the depths of the Cold War. The British decided he had to go, and they asked the U.S. for help. The CIA funded a movement to overthrow the Mosaddegh government. 

After returning to power, the shah ruled Iran with an iron fist, using torture and brutally suppressing opposition, the same behavior for which the Trump administration criticized Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But he was a dependable ally, so the U.S. overlooked his abuses, just as it did those of autocrats in Africa and Latin America. 

In 1979, a mass uprising led by Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini caused the shah to flee. Initially relieved by his overthrow, Iranians soon realized that they had jumped from the frying pan into the fire as the cleric and his successors presided over a theocratic state that oppressed women, LGBTQ people and anyone who opposed them. 

When President Carter allowed the ailing shah into the U.S. for treatment, his followers seized the embassy in Tehran, held its staff hostage for more than a year and created enmity lasting to the present. In retaliation, the Reagan administration supported Saddam Hussein’s war with Iran (1980-88), even though they knew he used poison gas, not only against the Iranians but also against Iraqi Kurds. In 1988, the USS Vincennes accidentally shot down an Iranian airbus, killing all 290 people on board during the tanker wars. The tragedy contributed further to the animosity between the two countries. 

Although Iranian nuclear experiments had begun in the 1970s, the war prompted the regime to pursue acquiring nuclear weapons. Objectionable though it is to the U.S. and Israel, Iran’s enrichment program made perfect sense to a regime that felt under siege. President Obama understood this reality when he entered into the 2015 nuclear agreement, which eased economic sanctions in return for limitations on Iran’s nuclear program. The deal was imperfect and controversial, but it allowed inspectors to monitor Iranian nuclear facilities and eased the suffering sanctions inflicted on the Iranian people. 

After taking office, President Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2018 and pursued a more aggressive policy towards Iran. In 2020, he assassinated Iranian General Qassim Sulemani, and Iran restarted its nuclear enrichment program. President Biden resumed negotiations but they had not progressed far by the time he left office. 

Five months into his second term Trump launched B-2 strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, claiming he had “obliterated” them. Less than a year later he launched another attack, insisting without evidence that Iran was “weeks away” from getting a nuclear weapon. 

The administration also accused Iran of being a state sponsor of terrorism. While this charge is true, it obscures a complex reality. Consider the case of Hezbollah. Hezbollah has certainly engaged in terrorism, but it is much more than an extremist organization. It is what some experts call a “state within a state,” providing aid and social services to its supporters and contributing cabinet members to the Lebanese government. Iran supports but did not create the organization. 

Hezbollah formed in response to the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and has battled the Jewish state ever since, denying Israel’s right to exist. Since Oct. 7, Israel has severely degraded but not destroyed Hezbollah’s military capability, as evidenced by the group’s missile attacks this month. The Israel Defense Forces is once again occupying part of southern Lebanon ostensibly to create a buffer zone as it did in 1982. That incursion did not go well.  

This historical survey makes three things abundantly clear. First, U.S. policy over the past 75 years led to the creation of the Islamic Republic of Iran and has perpetuated conflict with it. Second, the Iranian, Lebanese and Israel-Palestine conflicts are linked, so only a comprehensive peace plan can resolve them. And third, regime change does not work. The U.S. reinstated the shah and ended up with the ayatollah. 

Replacing Iran’s theocratic regime with a democratic one would benefit everyone, the Iranian people most of all, but a bombing campaign that kills innocent people, destroys infrastructure, and adds to the legacy of Iranian bitterness towards the U.S. cannot accomplish that. 

Tom Mockaitis is a professor of history at DePaul University and the author of  “Conventional and Unconventional War: A History of Modern Conflict.”    

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