Iran Hostage Crisis
Iran Hostage Crisis Presentation by Robert Martinez Images as cited. http://www.conservapedia.com/images/7/7d/US_Iran.gif In February 1979, less than a year before the hostage crisis, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, had been overthrown in an Islamist, nationalist revolution. http://img.timeinc.net/time/magazine/archive/covers/1978/1101780918_400.jpg For decades following WWII, the U.S. had been an ally and backer of the Shah. http://content.answers.com/main/content/img/webpics/mohammadrezashahpahlavi.jpg In the early 1950s, America helped the Shah regain power in a struggle against the democratically elected Prime Minister, Mohammed Mosaddeq. Mosaddeq had nationalized (took back) Iran’s foreign-owned oil fields. http://www.mideastweb.org/iran-mosaddeq.jpg In 1953, the CIA and British intelligence organized a coup to overthrow the elected prime minister with the Shah. These actions would cause bitterness among Iranians. http://www.thememoryhole.org/espionage_den/pic_45_0001.html After WWII and during the Cold War, Iran allied itself with the U.S. against the Soviet Union, Iran’s neighbor, and America provided the Shah with military and economic aid. http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2007/pic/Shah-Reza-Pahlavi-Last-Shah-Iran.JPG Shortly before the Islamic revolution in 1978, President Jimmy Carter angered anti- Shah Iranians with a televised toast to the Shah, declaring how beloved the Shah was by his people. http://www.iranian.com/History/Feb98/Revolution/Images/shah-carter2.jpg Next, on October 22, 1979, the U.S. permitted the exiled Shah, who was ill with cancer, to attend the Mayo Clinic for medical treatment, which angered the anti-Shah Iranians.
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