Confronting Iran In The 1950's

Confronting Iran explains Iranian- U.S. relations from the early 1950’s when the Mosaddeq Coup (1953) occurred until present day relations involving nuclear politics. Ali Ansari makes it clear that conflict has always been at the forefront of these two nations history and in the conclusion Ansari says “The cultural structure of their relationship is such that it encourages conflict (Page 241).” From Carter all the way to Bush, Ansari feels that U.S. presidents have failed at their goal of negotiating with Iranians, and for some of these presidents they lost their subsequent election in part because of their failings. Carter had the Iranian hostage crisis, Reagan had the Iran-Contra scandal, George H. W. Bush had allegations of secret meetings
With the British need for oil and other Iranian resources they knew that Mosaddeq needed to be removed in order for them to successfully integrate back into a relationship with Iran. Unfortunately for the British they had no troops in Iran to attempt the coup so they convinced the U.S. CIA to execute the coup. So in 1953, the CIA (U.S.) and SIS or MI6 (British) coordinated the coup. They were to deliver a “Firman” to Mosaddeq, which will dismiss him as prime minister. The first attempt failed but the second attempt was successful and the shah was reinstated. This was the first step in U.S.-Iranian relations in most people eyes and it was not a good one. This move removed a very popular leader out of office who was liked and was trying to move the country forward and was done simply for the profit of the U.S. and the British. The view of Americans and British was very sour after this point and this began a trend of trouble the continued into 1979. In 1979 the Iranian hostage crisis was yet another slip up in U.S. - Iranian relations that some Iranians liked and some are still apologizing about
entered the Iran-Iraq war on the sides of the Iraqi’s and Saddam Hussein. The U.S. put Kuwait’s navy under U.S. protection. A U.S. ship was attacked by an Iraqi missile strikes and 37 Americans were killed, prompting President Reagan to blame the Iranians and causing yet more trouble between the two. However Reagan and The Iran-Contra scandal caused even more trouble as Ansari said, “The idea that the United States was effectively negotiating the exchange of weapons for hostages caused enormous embarrassment and irritation (Page 110).” The animosity was even further grown when the USS Vincennes (a U.S. ship in Iranian waters) shot down an Iranian civilian flight, claiming they thought it was an attacking war plane, killing all 290 people on board. The shocking fact was that Reagan later awarded the captain of the Vincennes with a medal for distinguished service, which to the Iranians was an offensive