Iran, America, several decades of hostility
Iran, America, several decades of hostility: Americans usually make fewer mistakes in identifying their interests. For instance, it is believed that in the upcoming November 5th elections, they will not allow Donald Trump to become President of the United States again.
They engage in all sorts of political games, placing Trump at the top in various polls, but in the final analysis, they know he is harmful to their national interests, especially on the international stage. Ultimately, they orchestrate the game so that he narrowly loses to Harris and exits American politics for good.
Even most Republicans are content with this outcome and do not wish to see Trump in the White House again.
The aim is not to question their democracy but to highlight this characteristic of Western politicians, who are usually very insightful and forward-thinking in recognizing their interests. However, they sometimes make analytical errors and have also made significant mistakes in history, one of the biggest being their involvement in the 1953 coup and direct interference in Iran’s internal affairs after this event.
The most bitter event in the minds of Iranians regarding the United States government is undoubtedly this disgraceful point, and this wrong decision led to significant harm for them. Despite being often labeled as forgetful, the Iranian nation could never erase this action of the Americans from their memory, and on November 4, 1979, they sought to rectify it.
The revolutionary youths of Iran, fearing a repeat of the 1953 coup and direct American presence in Iran after the revolution, saw the solution in their revolutionary perspective as occupying the American embassy in Tehran and severing the relationship between the two countries.
Thus, they created the most bitter event that Americans could remember from Iranians and, by seizing the American embassy in Tehran, initiated subsequent crises for both the American and Iranian governments.
On August 19, Americans crippled Mosaddegh’s national government, uprooted the democracy in Iran, and left the Iranian people powerless against the government for years.
They stood behind the weak Iranian king to empower him, but despite their pro-democracy slogans, they strangely disarmed the Iranian nation and did not stand behind the people to allow the formation of a civil society in Iran. This was their most significant strategic error in the Middle East and the world.
From a diplomatic perspective, the occupation of the United States embassy was a mistaken action that even had serious opponents in Iran, including the then Prime Minister and government, as well as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. However, the revolutionary youth, with this historical background, saw this action as the only way to continue the revolution and were uncompromising in this regard.
Certainly, this action by the students following Imam’s line brought numerous harms to Iran, but understanding this event is nearly impossible without grasping this historical background.
After this incident, the 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. Nonetheless, no country could replace Iran for them, leaving a significant 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 of supporting Mohammad Reza Shah against the Iranian people was a mistake, or made Bernie Sanders determined 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 sense of depression and humiliation to linger among Iranian dissidents for years.
The same feeling that sparked the revolution in the minds of the Iranian people and subsequently led to the seizure of the American embassy in Tehran.
Yes, from today’s perspective, both Americans on August 19 and Iranians on November 4 made mistakes, but their mistakes lacked a moral prelude and were purely self-serving. However, history proved that they also made a miscalculation in understanding it. Yet, the Iranian mistake stemmed from their wounded national pride and can be seen as an effort to restore their dignity.
Ironically, this action was not in the interests of Iranians and can only be justified from an ideological and normative perspective, serving as the only strategy for revolutionaries to continue the revolution.