The Iran hostage crisis began November 4, 1979 when a group of Iranian militants stormed the American embassy in Tehran like a swat team. There were 70 hostages held for 444 days. Americans were angry and President Carter was labelled a coward by not taking a harsher line with the newly formed Islamic Republic under the leadership of the Ayatollah Khomeini.
Here's the story which really began in 1953 with the British and American actions that had the CIA get rid of the elected Mossadeq and returning the cruel Shah of Iran into power in Iran.The Shah was paid well to consider American interests over and above the interests of Iran and the Iranians. Therefore, the national movement to take back the ownership of Iran's oil was suppressed and Britain agreed to share the oil with the US. This is how British/American Oil - B/A - was created. There was a B/A service station at the end of my street when I was child.
Rioting in 1963 was suppressed by the Shah. The rioters had condemned the US puppet regime of the Shah.
Between 1963 and 1979 the Shah spent billions upon the Iranian military and weaponry mostly from the US. January 1979 the Shah fled in exile and the exiled Khomeini returned home. Iranians, under the leadership of Khomeini, vented their built up frustrations over American dominance in Iran and a small military type group raided the US embassy taking the American personal hostage for 444 days. The Ayatollah Khomeini was not about to help the Americans and the following will show why.
Ten years after coming to power over Iran by the interference of Britain and America the Shah, in 1963, the Shah put forward a six point program of reform called the White Paper. This was an American promoted resolution to give the Shah's regime a liberal and progressive facade. The relationship between the Shah and Khomeini became dysfunctional.
The Shah's regime continued its pro-American stature and in 1964 the Shah agreed with the US want to have all American personnel and dependants made immune from prosecution in Iran. This put American citizens in a class of there own above that of any ordinary Iranian. Americans could get away with whatever they wanted with no fear of the state of Iran.
Khomeini vehemently stood strong against this appeasement of the Americans through Iran's subjugation to the US of power over its own country. Due to his continued protests of the Shah's embedded acquiescence to the US will Khomeini was exiled, in 1964, to Turkey. Oppressed in Turkey he then moved to Iraq in 1965 and he remained there, in exile, for 13 years. All this because of American Interests and the lack of freedom of speech.
In June 1975, in Qom (the centre for religious teachings) the students held a demonstration within the building as a sympathetic crowd demonstrated outside. These protests continued for four days until the Shah's American armed military attacked killing many.
It is important to note that on January 7, 1978 an article was printed in the pro-Shah newspaper, Ittila'at, attacking Khomeini as a traitor. On January 8 a mass protest took place at Qom. The Shah"s forces quelled the event killing many protesters.
The Shah sought to have Khomeini exiled from Iraq. On September 24, 1978 Khomeini's home in Iraq was surrounded by Iraqi soldiers. Khomeini was told to keep out of Iranian politics or be kicked out of Iraq. Khomeini did not agree and Iraq sent him to Kuwait but at the border Khomeini was refused entrance to Kuwait. Eventually he was accepted in France and supported by other Iranian exiles until his return to Iran.
In March 1979, after Khomeini's return to Iran, a nationwide referendum drew huge voter turnout in favour establishing an Islamic Republic. (It is interesting to note that America is still a Christian Republic.) The Ayatollah Khomeini obviously had no interest in aiding the American hostages. America's search for the 'right people' to be in charge of Iran caused terrible strife and animosity within Iran and led the country back into a theocracy.
Today the media, especially Fox News, is harping about Iran and continuing Bush's verbal assault about Iran being "an evil empire". Excuse me but the shoe is quite obviously on the wrong foot. It is also interesting that America still applies the stigma of college students being liberalized. Perhaps this is true because they are availed with an understanding of history quite distant from the lies accepted otherwise. RC
