A chocolate cake shaped like a key waits on the top floor of a Tehran hotel, for meetings that never begin.
⟡ This narration features AI-assisted voice production, carefully crafted for consistency and clarity.
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IRAN WAS AMERICA'S ENEMY. IN ITS WAR WITH IRAQ, THE US HELPED BOTH SIDES.
In 1953, American agents helped put a king back on his throne in Tehran. A generation later, the revolution that drove him out made America its enemy, just as Saddam Hussein's tanks crossed the border. This is the story of how Iran and the United States became enemies, and of the eight-year war in which Washington quietly helped both sides.
◈ A coup in 1953 that returned the Shah to power
◈ An embassy seized, and fifty-two Americans held for 444 days
◈ Eight years of trenches, minefields, missiles and poison gas
◈ American missiles sold to Iran, American intelligence passed to Iraq
And when the guns finally stopped, the border ran almost exactly where it had begun.
A history of US–Iran relations from the 1953 coup through the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988), from Tehran and Baghdad to Khorramshahr, Basra, Halabja and the waters of the Persian Gulf.
History told with space to breathe.
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Sources & further reading
Ervand Abrahamian — The Coup: 1953, the CIA, and the Roots of Modern U.S.-Iranian Relations (2013)
Stephen Kinzer — All the Shah's Men (2003)
Kermit Roosevelt — Countercoup: The Struggle for the Control of Iran (1979)
Mark Bowden — Guests of the Ayatollah (2006)
Pierre Razoux — The Iran-Iraq War (2015)
Dilip Hiro — The Longest War: The Iran-Iraq Military Conflict (1989)
Theodore Draper — A Very Thin Line: The Iran-Contra Affairs (1991)
Joost Hiltermann — A Poisonous Affair: America, Iraq, and the Gassing of Halabja (2007)
U.S. Navy — Formal Investigation into the Circumstances Surrounding the Downing of Iran Air Flight 655 (1988)
National Security Archive — Shaking Hands with Saddam Hussein: The U.S. Tilts toward Iraq, 1980–1984 (2003)
#IranIraqWar #IranContra #IranAir655 #USSVincennes #Halabja #Khorramshahr #IranHostageCrisis #1953Coup #Mossadegh #Khomeini #SaddamHussein #MiddleEastHistory #ModernHistory #HistoryPodcast #History
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