8 - The Gendarme of the Region

Summary

This chapter traces the evolution of Iran’s international relations from the oil nationalization episode until the outbreak of the 1978–1979 revolution. Iran’s oil nationalization was met with the stiff opposition of Britain and the United States, culminating in a CIA-sponsored coup that reinstalled the Shah back to power and placed Iran firmly in the Western camp. Practically every presidential administration in the United States paid special attention to Iran as a central component of its Cold War strategy against the Soviet Union, an attention which the Iranian government used to its advantage in order to receive large amounts of military hardware from United States. Seeing Iran and the United States as “natural allies,” the Shah assumed that Washington would rescue him from the tide of revolution. Long after his overthrow, the Iranian monarch felt abandoned and betrayed by his American allies.