by Larry C. Johnson, The Unz Review:
During a Zoom meeting today I listened to a retired US General make the case for going to war against Iran… He was not advocating that Trump do so, but he provided a fascinating summary of how he, and most Americans, view Iran as a threat that must be destroyed. His basic charge is that Iran has killed thousands of Americans, especially US military personnel, and is an irredeemable terrorist state. Stay tuned… I’m going to show you how wrong that gentleman is.
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When he finished talking, I asked for the floor and stated that Iran’s attacks on US personnel over the last 45 years were largely in response to US actions. What follows is a full explanation of my disagreement with his premise. I gave him the Reader’s Digest version… Here is the Full Monty.
Iran’s anger with the US begins in 1953, when the democratically elected President, Mohammad Mossadegh, was ousted from office in a CIA- and MI6-backed coup on 19 August 1953. The event is commonly referred to in Iran as the “28 Mordad” coup, after the corresponding date in the Iranian calendar.
Jump ahead to 1979, when the Iranian Revolution toppled the US-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, usheried in the Islamic Republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The revolution stemmed from deep-seated grievances against Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who had ruled since 1941 as an autocratic monarch closely aligned with the West, particularly the United States and Britain. The Islamic Revolution was fueled by a variety of factors:
Repression and autocracy — The Shah’s regime used secret police (SAVAK) to suppress dissent, political parties, and opposition figures.
Rapid Westernization — His White Revolution (launched in 1963) promoted land reform, women’s rights, and modernization, but alienated traditional landowners, the clergy (ulama), and conservative segments of society who saw it as eroding Islamic values and cultural identity.
Economic inequality and inflation — Oil wealth boomed in the 1970s, but benefits were unevenly distributed, leading to corruption, urban migration, and economic hardship for many.
Foreign influence — Resentment lingered from the 1953 CIA-backed coup that restored the Shah after ousting Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, who had nationalized oil.
Religious revival — Shi’a Islam provided a unifying force against perceived secularism and imperialism.
This seismic shift severed diplomatic ties, with the US imposing sanctions and viewing the new regime as a threat to regional stability and American interests in the Middle East. Tensions peaked with the Iran Hostage Crisis (November 1979–January 1981), when students seized the US Embassy in Tehran, holding 52 Americans for 444 days — a direct response to US support for the Shah. The hostage crisis at the US Embassy in Tehran, lasted 444 days, deepened the enmity, setting the stage for decades of confrontation.
As tensions simmered, the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, sensing weakness in post-revolutionary Iran and with the encouragement of the US, launched a full-scale invasion of Iran. Though the US did not directly orchestrate the assault, Washington quickly tilted toward Baghdad, providing critical military and intelligence support to prevent an Iranian victory, fearing that it could destabilize the Gulf.
