Iran, America, several decades of hostility
Iran, America, several decades of hostility. Americans usually make fewer mistakes in identifying their interests. For example, it is believed that they will not allow Donald Trump to become the President of the United States again in the upcoming November 5 elections.
They engage in all sorts of political maneuvers and place Trump at the top in various polls. However, in the final analysis, they know he is harmful to their national interests, especially on an international level, and eventually, they will arrange the game so that he loses by a small margin to Harris and is permanently removed from the American political scene.
Even most Republicans are satisfied with this outcome and do not wish to see Trump in the White House again.
Of course, the aim is not to question their democracy, but rather to highlight this characteristic of Western politicians, who are usually very perceptive and forward-thinking in recognizing their interests. However, sometimes they also make analytical errors and have made significant mistakes in history, one of the biggest being their involvement in the 1953 coup and their direct interference in Iran’s internal affairs after this event.
The bitterest event in the minds of Iranians regarding the United States government is undoubtedly this disgraceful point. This wrong decision of theirs led to significant harm, and although Iranians are often labeled as forgetful, the Iranian nation could never erase this American action from their minds and sought to rectify it on November 4, 1979.
Revolutionary Iranian youths, fearing a repeat of the 1953 coup and direct American presence in Iran after the revolution, saw the solution in occupying the American embassy in Tehran and severing relations between the two countries.
Thus, they also created the bitterest event that Americans could remember about Iranians by taking over the American embassy in Tehran, creating subsequent crises for both the American and Iranian governments.
On August 19, 1953, Americans crippled Mossadegh’s national government, uprooted the sapling of democracy in Iran, and left the Iranian people powerless against the government for years.
They stood behind the weak Shah of Iran to empower him, but despite their pro-democracy slogans, they strangely disarmed the Iranian nation and did not stand behind them to form a civil society in Iran. This was their most significant strategic mistake in the Middle East and the world.
From a diplomatic perspective, the occupation of the United States embassy was a wrong action that even had serious opponents in Iran. The Prime Minister and the government of the time, as well as the then Chief Justice, were the most important among them. However, the revolutionary young society, with this historical background, saw the continuation of the revolution only in this action and was uncompromising in this regard.
Certainly, this action by the students following the line of Imam caused numerous harms to Iran, but understanding this event is almost impossible without comprehending this historical background.
After this event, Americans were entangled with the hostage crisis for months and lost their relations with Tehran and the associated benefits. However, they quickly tried to compensate for it in relations with other countries in the region. Nevertheless, no country could replace Iran for them, leaving a great regret for the Americans.
The same regret that years later led Madeleine Albright, the then U.S. Secretary of State, to admit that the U.S. doctrine in supporting Mohammad Reza Shah against the Iranian people was a mistake, and prompted Bernie Sanders to clearly state in the 2016 Democratic presidential campaign that the U.S. government should officially apologize to the Iranian nation for the 1953 coup.
On August 19, Americans directly destroyed the democracy, independence, and freedom of Iran’s popular government, causing a feeling of depression and humiliation that did not leave Iranian dissenters for years.
The same feeling that sparked the revolution in the minds of the Iranian people and subsequently led to the takeover of the American embassy in Tehran.
Yes, from today’s perspective, both the Americans on August 19 and the Iranians on November 4 made mistakes, but their mistake had no moral premise and was purely self-serving. However, history proved that they also made a miscalculation in understanding it. Yet, the mistake of the Iranians stemmed from their wounded national pride and can be seen as an effort to restore their dignity.
Incidentally, this action was not in the interests of Iranians and can only be justified from an ideological and normative perspective, being the only strategy of the revolutionaries to continue the revolution.