Scholars have traditionally attributed the CIA-backed coup in Iran (1953) to Western-based oil interests and the Iran-Contra Affair (1984-86) to misappropriations of power in the executive branch. However, these analyses fail to account for the underlying role of gendered and racist cultural norms prevalent among the elite political and non-political actors that surrounded the White House. Drawing on comics, political cartoons, newspaper articles, and transcripts from the Iran-Contra hearings, this paper redefines and historicizes American exceptionalism. Tracing the evolution of American exceptionalism from the 1940s to the 1980s, I argue that American exceptionalism manifested broadly to support U.S. imperialism. But, more specifically, its content evolved in conjunction with historical events of the 1940s and 1980s. Robert Vitalis identified the connection between race, American exceptionalism, and its role in U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. He states that American exceptionalism is the belief that America's past is distinct and superior to all other nations. However, I found that American exceptionalism does not exist above history but instead is deeply historical. Therefore, the coup in Iran and the Iran-Contra Affair were rooted in American exceptionalism of varying forms. Shifts in the expressions of American exceptionalism between the 1953 coup and the Iran-Contra Affair were due to perceived threats made to American masculinity and white supremacy by the loss of the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement, respectively, and were compounded by the events of the Cold War.
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