Iranian Hostage Crisis By

Iranian Hostage Crisis

By

david

Hlasnick

The beginning

originally strong anti British

resentmentDue to: establishment of Anglo-Persian oil company in 1908 This was the first company to extract petroleum from Iran and was taking the majority of oil without paying much of anything to the Iranian people. 10 percent of the earnings were given back In 1935 the Anglo-Persian Oil company was renamed the Anglo Iranian Oil Company

Opposition continues to grow

Anglo-Soviet Invasion of Iran

Iran was united under Reza Shah (king) who favored trade with the Germans over the British and Russians who had a history of imperialism In the region.At the onset of the war Iran declared itself neutralBritish government fearing a Iranian-German alliance would mean the loss of the Anglo Iranian oil company who produced over 8 million tons of oil per year

a railway going through Iran was also a very high priority for the Britsih military which would make easier to transport supplies.

On August 25 the British and Soviets invaded the nation of Iran

result was a complete allied victory against Iran resulting in the allied occupation of Iran throughout the rest of the war

this created even more British opposition as riots against British occupation broke out in the capital of Tehran and throughout the rest of the entire country.

Shah Reza Pahlavi

United the Nation of Iran and crowned himself the Shah of Iran

Nationalist who wished to make Iran into a strong independent nationBuilt up the military to protect the nationOn September 17, 1941 Reza Pahlavi surrendered to the British and soviets He was humiliated by this defeat after building up the military and spending millions of dollars on the military Reza Pahlavi was replaced by the crown prince of Iran Mohhamad Reza Pahlavi

Outcome of the Anglo-Soviet invasion

Allied victory in Iran giving allies control of Iran and its oil reserves

This created resentment within the people of Iran towards the British Replaced the Shah with his son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi who was western educated and pro democratic idealist The victory of Iran caused the country to be broken up into two occupation zones British occupied south and Soviet occupied north

Post world war two/ cold war

The surrender of the Germans in 1945 was followed by nearly two more years of allied occupation of Iran

In march of 1946 British troops began to withdraw from Iran However the Russian led by Joseph Stalin did not withdrawal with the hopes of influencing communism in the region. Soviets founded the Tudeh communist party of Iran Azerbaijan and other small states

Fear of Soviets causes Mohammad Reza Shah to seek American help

when president Truman issued the Truman doctrine it sent help to Greece and Turkey this gave way to intelligence of Russian troop movement in Iran

Iranian complaint of Russian troop movement in a neutral country was brought to the newly developed United Nations security council fearing American involvement Joseph Stalin withdrew all Russian troops from Iran The American support of the Shah was the beginning of an alliance between the United States and Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Increased intelligence in the Middle East

The situation with the Soviet military in Iran encouraged the United States CIA to increase their involvement in the middle east in every way that they could think of

The Shah- western puppet.. Exactly what they U.S wanted in charge Rear Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter and Secretary of State Dean Archeson

Change is met with change

on April 28th 1951 Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi nominates Mohammad Moassadegh for prime minister of Iran Iranian Parlament voted in favor of him elected?

Mohammad Mosaddegh

Extreme nationalist Similar to former Shah Reza PahlaviMay 1st 1951 Mosaddegh nationalizes the Anglo-Iraninan oil company giving Iran complete control over the company International court of Justice Iran deems the issue a domestic issue

Mosaddegh takes power

following the nationalizing of the Anglo Iranian oil company

Mosaddegh makes a decree in October of 1951 that diminishes the power of the shah and makes him to be the supreme ruler of Iranweak and a western puppet rebuild the government in the chaos the Shah flees to Bagdad as a refugewestern allies of the shah are now in fear

Britain institutes 1951 embargo on Iranian profucts

The U.S. partakes in the embargo as a way to support the British

embargo causes Iran to go into a depression

On the brink

In the months following the takeover of British oil fields no progress was made by the British government towards getting the oil fields back

Britain began to prepare for war in 1952 Eisenhower strongly advised Britain to not make any moves of aggression towards Iran for two reasons KoreaSoviet Union and possibly world war threeEisenhower and Churchill come together to come up with a way to get rid of Mosaddegh from power Outcome of these meeting is operation TP-AJAX

Operation TP-AJAX

U.S. CIA plan to covertly overthrow the leader of Iran

did not like western nations, extreme nationalist, supported by the Tudeh communist partyThe plan… Infiltrate, persuade, and bribe. Allen Dulles, Eisenhower, and Churchill first attempt with general Zehedi

second attempt at the operation result was a successful overthrow of

Mosaddegh while basically eliminating the Tudeh communist party

Zehedi

was initially put to replace Mosaddegh until the Shah returned in the following week outstanding victory for the Americans and the CIA it restored a western ally as the leader and America was able to seem neutral this operation was so successful that it would inspire the government takeover in Guatemala and the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961

Pahlavi again causes rise of tension

He was doing exactly what he did before, he was a western puppet.

Gave Britain back 80 percent of its oil reserves buying millions of dollars in American high tech weapons banned certain political parties was encouraged by Americans to start a secret police named the SAVAK was not making any progress in getting Iran out of the economic depression that it was in.

All of these factors contributed to the resentment of the Shah by his own people

The Shah is overthrown again

riots erupted in the streets everyday for months starting in 1978

inspired by Ayatollah Khomeini who then took control as leader following the overthrow of Shah by the people Khomeini’s teachings Shah once again flees the country this time going to Cairo Egypt. In 1979 the Shah was diagnosed with cancer and needed to be admitted to the United States for treatment. President Carter admitted the long time ally of the U.S. to be admitted for treatment

this was the final straw before the outbreak

The storming of the embassy

on the morning of November 4

th 1979 in Tehran Protesting the admittance of the shah into the U.S. Hundreds of students storm the walls 66 Americans were taken captive 6 others were able to escape form the chaos out a back door students were backed by Khomeini

stated that the hostages would be released when the Shah was returned to the Iran for crimes against the people of Iran

Months of stalemate and failed negotiations

President Carter immediately sends former judges

Ramsey Clark and William Miller to Iran to try and negotiate the release of the hostages November 5th 1979 all defense treaties between U.S. and Iran are cancelled. the United States froze all Iranian state bank accounts in U.S. November 29th Khomeini ordered the release of eight African hostages along with five other femalesNegotiations went on a standstill until December 15th

America begins to take action

on December 15

th the Shah officially left the U.S. for Panama this would cause the U.S. to believe the hostages would be realesed when they were not the United States was very confused on what the plans of the students were Americans in the CIA knew it was time to take action Argo American-Canadian operation to rescue the six Americans that initially escaped from the embassy

boost in American moral

April 7th of 1980 the United S

tates breaks all diplomatic ties with Iran as the hostages are still not released and due to the fact that Iran is still refusing to sit down and negotiate with the U.S.

President Carter deems that more action needs to be taken and the preparations for operation Eagle Claw begin.

Operation Eagle Claw

full scale military rescue mission of the hostages set to take place between April 24

th and 25th of 1980 joint army and navy operation including Delta Force commandos and army rangers Rangers would take a nearby air base for the hostages to be flown out of once the commandos had freed the hostages complete failure after mechanical failure of helicopterscombined with a sand storm cause the crash between two

American aircraft caused the death of 8 American servicemen

President carter immediately calls off the operation

Back to a standstill

Negotiations continue to fail

July 11th 1980 one hostage is released due to illnessNumber of hostages is dropped down to 52 July 27th 1980 Mohammad Reza Pahlavi dies of cancer This causes Khomeinin to put new terms on the release of the hostages stating that all of the Shahs American bank assets had to be given back to the Iranian government United States had agreed to release several billion dollars in Iranian gold and bank assets, frozen in American banksAlgeria agrees to negotiate with the Iranians on the Americans behalf.

The release

7.977 billion dollars would be given back to the Iranians for the 52 hostages

.January 20th 1981 Ronald Reagan was sworn into office as president.Carter Doctrine stating that America would defend its assets in the middle east was given on January 23th 1980 After 444 days and a tug of war negotiation process the Iranian hostage crisis was finally overProve to be the beginning of the American problems in the middle east.