In January of 1991, President H.W Bush played a significant role in organizing the international community of thirty-two nations against an aggressive Iraq who violated international law by annexing Kuwait, which is also known as the first Persian Gulf War (Gulf Wars, 2005). The United States led the coalition of nations and on January 18th of 1991, began an enormous air war to destroy Iraq's forces and military infrastructure. Iraq retaliated by launching missiles at…
In 1979, an Iranian government supported terrorist group overtook the US embassy. They captured 52 people. In an order to obtain the release of the American hostages being held in Lebanon, The Reagan Administration secretly began to sell weapons to Iran. This went against an American ban on arms sales to Iran, which had been in affect since the embassy had been seized. (Corrigan 40-41)…
Its position makes a strategic key to the rest of South East Asia, and losing it to communism was something that the US couldn’t afford (Source 2). Zinn explains this in an attempt to make the reader realize that although the United States was interested in winning against communism, it also had interests for resource possession that would bring wealth along with trade to its allies and consequently there would be an input of wealth for it as well. Also, the United States broke Iraq’s sovereignty for allegedly possessing weapons of mass destruction, which posed a threat to it. In this case, the strategic position of the United States didn’t involve the economic interests but national defense ones for sure. ProCon.org says, “Legally, the conflict regarding access for United Nations’ inspectors and possible Iraqi procurement of ‘weapons of mass destruction’ (WMDs) had always been between Iraq and the United Nations, not between Iraq and The United States. The United States therefore has no legal right to act on the dispute…
The coalition could break up with differing goals and was not in the UN resolution. It would be difficult and costly and embarrassing if not achieved. A less pragmatic leader can rise to power with same views of Saddam.…
For 60 years and counting, the United States and Iran have had a very turbulent relationship. From a coup d'état performed by the United States and Britain to an Iranian Revolution, this is a seesaw of tensions by frenemies America and Iran. Since the 1950s, both nations have had tricky issues revolving around Operation Ajax and the U.S Embassy Hostage Crisis.…
The U.S. and Iranian conflict started more than 60 years ago. It started when the U.S. and British intelligence agencies killed the Prime Minister of Iran. The U.S. then sought them for help almost 30 years later, by selling them weapons, but Iran had a plan of their own, America did not receive their help. In 2002, Bush declared Iran as an “axis of evil,” this angered Iran. That same year, it was revealed that Iran is developing nuclear facilities. During a phone call between the Presidents of the U.S. and Iran, the men expressed their desire to end the long running dispute between the two nations. They are still discussing ways on which to finish it.…
American international relations are extremely scattered, and when examined can be interpreted in many different ways. This may be because there is perhaps a blend of these major schools of American foreign policy in all of our international relations. The major schools that will be used as lenses are isolationism, liberal internationalism, Kissingerian realism, democratic globalism, and democratic realism. I am going to use these lenses to examine how the liberation in Iraq was handled, and what foreign policy was mainly used.…
What was supposed to go down in history as the heroic rescue of 52 hostages in during the Iranian Hostage Crisis is now labeled as one of America’s greatest military blunders. The failed rescue mission, known as Operation Eagle Claw, was devised as the result of a climactic point of tension in Iran-US relations. Since reading All the Shah’s Men, I have gained an interest in Iranian history and our diplomatic relations with them. Researching Operation Eagle Claw has given me another taste of what this rich history has to offer. In the late 1970s, Iran was experiencing severe domestic discontent. According to http://www.airpower.au.af.mil/apjinternational/apj-s/2006/3tri=06/kampseng.html, when the Shah lost favor with his people he fled to America and was replaced with a theocracy under the leadership of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The Iranian people demanded that the Shah return but when he remained abroad, a group of militant students seized the American embassy and held captive several American diplomatic personnel. As much as President Jimmy Carter wanted to diplomatically solve the problem, he was forced to go in militarily. As detailed in the website http://www.mindef.gov.sg/safti/pointer/back/journals/ 2002/ Vol28_2/5.htm, the plan was to send in eight Sea Stallion helicopters from the aircraft carrier Nimitz and six other transport aircrafts to Desert One, a secret Iranian landing strip where they would be refueled. Once the helicopters were ready to fly, they would take counterterrorist Delta Force troopers to Desert Two, a remote mountain hideaway near Tehran. After waiting a full day, the troopers would then use all necessary force to free the hostages and escape the country in the ready helicopters. However, things did not go as smoothly as Carter would have hoped, according to http://www.specwarnet.net/miscinfo/eagleclaw.htm. Due to a flying height limitation, the…
For most Americans, the story begins in 1979 with the Iranian Hostage Crisis, when a group of revolutionary university students took over the American Embassy in Tehran, Iran, and held 52 American diplomats, intelligence officers and Marines hostage for 444 days. But for most Iranians, and to fully understand the repercussions of this aforementioned event, the story begins almost three decades prior, in 1953. This was the year that the United States overthrew the recently established democracy in Iran, led by Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh. He had become very popular in the country for having the ambition to finally take advantage of the wealth that Iran needed to grow by nationalizing his country’s oil supply, which was for the previous 50 years under the control of the British Petroleum company. By proving that Mossadegh’s regime was relying on the communist party of Iran for power, and in turn not wanting to lose Iran as an ally in the Cold War against the Soviet Union, England was able to persuade the U.S. to assist in engineering a coup d’état against the new Iranian democracy and return Iran to its previous Pahlavi dynasty. Through what was named “Operation Ajax”, the CIA and MI6 reinstalled the Shah and instituted a pro-U.S. dictatorship of Iran that was willing to comply to Western interests in regards to the vast oil supply that the “British and American corporations had controlled the bulk of almost since their discovery” 1.…
Despite the fact the war was fought at minimum cost, it would have lingering effects for years to come, both in the Persian Gulf region and around the world. President Reagan's military build-up is largely recognized as a reason for President Bush’s success in the war which also led to the disintegration of the Soviet Union. For the next seven years, Saddam Hussein pushed his limits by attempting to assassinate President George H.W. Bush, violate the no-fly zones, and continuous military strikes. The attacks were either easily suppressed or not an immediate threat. In President George W. Bush's term, Bush issued an ultimatum, demanding that Saddam Hussein step down from power and leave Iraq within 48 hours, under the threat of war. Hussein refused, and thus the second Persian Gulf War–more generally known as the Iraq War–began. In 2006 they captured Saddam Hussein and sentenced him to hang for his crimes thus ending the era of the Iraq War.…
The Author Steinbeck presents Crooks in Chapter 4. The character Crooks is a black person who work in a ranch in California. In 1930 in America there were segregation between white and black people, and this relates onto how Crooks is segregated from and by other workers in the ranch ‘they don’t let me play card, cause I’m black’ even they don’t let them play a game so this also shows how black people was treated.…
Among the many foreign relation events in American History only a few have left the nation in a state of shock and realization of their true enemies overseas. In a time when building a relationship with the Middle East was at the top of American policies, a crisis arose during the presidency of Jimmy Carter. In November 1979 Iranian students took hostage of the United States Embassy in Tehran for 444 days. The shaping of the national agenda and the organizing of the 1980 presidential campaign was drastically altered. At the same time the United States economy was in a recession by a doubling of oil prices, which was closely associated with the crisis. Iran supplied about 65 percent of the world’s exported oil in 1979, if this oil was to stop or prices were dramatically raised it would result in a collapse economically in the West. The year it took to get the hostages released resulted in the failure of Jimmy Carter as a United States president and the lose of his re-election for a second term. Carter allowed the hostage crisis to consume him and to not concentrate on the real matters of winning his re-election and dealing with the other needs of the American people. The Iran hostage crisis proved to be the last event Jimmy Carter would deal with in his time as president. With the international media broadcasting the event everyday, a failed rescue attempt, and a failed attempt to release the hostages sooner, Carter was unable to appeal to the American public as a strong leader. The United States interference within Iran caused major problems inside the Iran government, which later led to the hostage situation of innocent Americans. This caused a blowback in the foreign relation between the United States and Iran, and led to the election of Ronald Reagan.…
Since 1908, the United States have repositioned their foreign interests towards the Middle East for the abundance of Petroleum within the region. Attracting the west, Britain and the United States have maintained a dominating role in Iran for their rich supply of oil. In 1953, Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh nationalized the Iranian oil fields. The United States responded by implementing a coup d’état in Iran, overthrowing Mossadegh, and placing “Shah” Reza Pahlavi in power. With a steady flow of oil and luxuries being sold to the United States, the Shah brought prosperity to Iran. However, there was a growing resentment towards the Shah from the Shi’ite Muslims community for allowing western influence into Iran. This was the beginning of a turbulent relationship between the U.S. and Iranian governments. Relations escalated to the point where radical Muslims led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini overthrew the Shah, who sought refuge to America in the 1979 Iranian revolution. The radicals then stormed the American embassy in Tehran, seizing more than 60 Americans hostages in what is now known as the Iranian Hostage Crisis. The hostage crisis was the most heated in a series of issues that arose during the last year of Carter’s presidency. Many Americans wondered if Jimmy Carter was at fault for the crisis. Gaddis Smith, an American historian, described the situation in the following quote: “President Carter inherited an impossible situation and he and his advisors made the worst of it” (PBS.org). Smith’s statement is an accurate summarization of Carter’s actions during the hostage crisis. Carters failed rescue mission known as Operation “Eagle Claw”, the emergence of the American media, and the rising gas prices due to the relations between the countries frustrated American people, as well as hurt Jimmy Carter’s image. When the presidential election of 1980 occurred, American people were anticipating a battle for…
On August 2, 1990, Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait. While Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had been making threats against Kuwait for quite some time.the actual invasion caught most of the world by surprise. everyone expected just a limited attack to seize Kuwaiti oil fields but Instead, within a couple of hours, Iraqi forces had seized downtown Kuwait City.Iraqi forces began to assemble at the Saudi border . King Fahd of Saudi Arabia asked for American assistance. The minute the meeting ended, orders were issued that began the largest buildup of American forces since Vietnam. Within a short period, forces of the 82nd Airborne division were heading for Saudi Arabia, as well as 300 combat aircraft.By the end of September, there were nearly 200,000 American forces in Saudi Arabia.The question was,how to remove Iraqi forces from Kuwait. The initial plan called for a "direct offensive aimed at Kuwait City"but Commanders thought it was too risky against the heavily armed Iraqis. Instead, they called for additional troops to prepare for an offensive. President Bush, with Saudi's approval, ordered 140,000 additional troops, including the 3rd Armored Division with its Abrams M1A tanks. During this period, troops from many other nations arrived, including British, French, Egyptian and even Syrian forces.The first air attack was On the morning of January 16, Allied forces began the first phase "the attack on Iraq." American forces destroyed the Iraqi border radar stations, then the Iraqi anti-aircraft network and finally began bombing key targets in downtown Iraq, including the Presidential palace, communication centers and power stations. after two weeks of air attacks, the Iraqis started they're one…
Ever since oil was discovered in Iran in 1908, it had attracted interest from the west including the United States. In 1953, the U.S. became involved and worked to place a new ruler in power in Iran—Reza Shah Pahlavi. From this time forward, the U.S. supplied Iran with military equipment and oil flowed to the U.S. In 1963, the people of Iran became increasingly anti-western, because Shah sent all of the religious leaders including Ruhollah Khomeini into exile in Iraq. President Carter continued to ignore the signs of instability and revolution under the Shah. On January 16, 1979, the Shah feared for his life so he fled to Egypt, and Khomeini returned. “President Carter inherited an impossible situation and he and his advisors made the worst of it”.…