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134-566: The following key sentence, written by Zbigniew Brzezinski , President Carter's National Security Adviser , concludes the section: Let our position be absolutely clear: An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force. Brzezinski modeled

268-471: A national energy crisis that resulted from the Iranian Revolution, President Carter delivered his "Crisis of Confidence" speech, urging Americans to reduce their energy use to help lessen American dependence on foreign oil supplies. Recently, some scholars have claimed that Carter's energy plan, if it had been fully enacted, would have prevented some of the current economic difficulties caused by

402-648: A "Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals ." He also supported the Vietnam War . In 1966, Brzezinski was appointed to the Policy Planning Council of the U.S. Department of State (President Johnson's October 7, 1966, "Bridge Building" speech was a product of Brzezinski's influence). In 1968, Brzezinski resigned from the council in protest of President Johnson's expansion of the war. Next, he became

536-715: A "foreign policy hardliner" on some issues, such as Poland–Russia relations . Brzezinski served as the Robert E. Osgood Professor of American Foreign Policy at Johns Hopkins University 's School of Advanced International Studies , a scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies , and a member of various boards and councils. He frequently appeared as an expert on the PBS program The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer , ABC News ' This Week with Christiane Amanpour , and MSNBC 's Morning Joe , where his daughter, Mika Brzezinski ,

670-608: A "smaller shock", in tandem with tensions that were rising due to the Iranian Revolution. This played a role in shifting Carter's viewpoint on the Soviet Union to a more assertive one, a shift that finalized with the Soviet-Afghan War. Brzezinski constantly urged either the restoration of the Shah of Iran to power or a military takeover, whatever the short-term costs in terms of values. On November 9, 1979, Brzezinski

804-698: A 1962 book Brzezinski argued against the possibility of a Sino-Soviet split , saying their alignment was "not splitting and is not likely to split." In 1964, Brzezinski supported Lyndon Johnson's presidential campaign and the Great Society and civil rights policies , while on the other hand he saw Soviet leadership as having been purged of any creativity following the ousting of Khrushchev . Through Jan Nowak-Jezioranski, Brzezinski met with Adam Michnik , future Polish Solidarity activist. Brzezinski continued to support engagement with Eastern European governments, while warning against De Gaulle 's vision of

938-678: A Harvard professor, he argued against Dwight Eisenhower 's and John Foster Dulles 's policy of rollback , saying that antagonism would push Eastern Europe further toward the Soviets. The Polish protests followed by the Polish October and the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 lent some support to Brzezinski's idea that the Eastern Europeans could gradually counter Soviet domination. In 1957, he visited Poland for

1072-513: A campaign of civil resistance that included communism , socialism , and Islamism . In August 1978, the deaths of about 400 people in the Cinema Rex fire —claimed by the opposition as having been orchestrated by Pahlavi's SAVAK —served as a catalyst for a popular revolutionary movement across Iran, and large-scale strikes and demonstrations paralyzed the country for the remainder of that year. On 16 January 1979, Pahlavi went into exile as

1206-1012: A coherent approach to the Iranian situation. Vance's resignation following the unsuccessful mission to rescue the American hostages in March 1980, undertaken over his objections, was the final result of the deep disagreement between Brzezinski and Vance. During the 1960s, Brzezinski articulated the strategy of peaceful engagement for undermining the Soviet bloc, and while serving on the State Department Policy Planning Council, persuaded President Lyndon B. Johnson to adopt (in October 1966) peaceful engagement as U.S. strategy, placing détente ahead of German reunification and thus reversing prior U.S. priorities. During

1340-536: A country experiencing relative prosperity, produced profound change at great speed, was very popular, resulted in a massive exile that characterizes a large portion of Iranian diaspora , and replaced a pro-Western secular and authoritarian monarchy with an anti-Western Islamic republic based on the concept of Velâyat-e Faqih ( Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist ), straddling between authoritarianism and totalitarianism . In addition to declaring

1474-531: A coup d'état was initiated to remove Mosaddegh, with the support of the United States, the United Kingdom and most of the Shia clergy. The Shah fled to Italy when the initial coup attempt on August 15 failed, but returned after a successful second attempt on August 19. Mosaddegh was removed from power and put under house arrest, while lieutenant general Fazlollah Zahedi was appointed as new Prime Minister by

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1608-433: A democratic revolution. Khomeini worked to unite this opposition behind him (except for the unwanted ' atheistic Marxists '), focusing on the socio-economic problems of the Shah's government (corruption and unequal income and development), while avoiding specifics among the public that might divide the factions —particularly his plan for clerical rule , which he believed most Iranians had become prejudiced against as

1742-514: A foreign policy advisor to Vice President Hubert Humphrey . For historical background on events during this period, see: The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia further reinforced Brzezinski's criticisms of the right's aggressive stance toward Eastern European governments. His service to the Johnson administration, and his fact-finding trip to Vietnam, made him an enemy of the New Left . For

1876-543: A large-scale Soviet nuclear attack had somehow transferred to the actual early warning network, which triggered an all-too-real scramble. Brzezinski, acting under a lame duck Carter presidency—but encouraged that Solidarity in Poland had vindicated his style of engagement with Eastern Europe—took a hard-line stance against what seemed like an imminent Soviet invasion of Poland. He even made a midnight phone call to Pope John Paul II (whose visit to Poland in 1979 had foreshadowed

2010-535: A major voice in the shaping of foreign policy. While he knew that Carter would not want him to be another Kissinger, Brzezinski also felt confident that the President did not want Secretary of State Vance to become another Dulles and would want his own input on key foreign policy decisions. Brzezinski's power gradually expanded into the operational area during the Carter Presidency. He increasingly assumed

2144-672: A matter of immediate concern to the United States." The Eisenhower Doctrine called for US troops to be sent to the Middle East to defend US allies against their Soviet-backed adversaries. Ultimately, the Nixon Doctrine's application provided military aid to Iran and Saudi Arabia so that US allies could ensure peace and stability there. In 1979, the Iranian Revolution and the Soviet intervention of Afghanistan prompted

2278-469: A person's death. Encouraged by Khomeini (who declared that the blood of martyrs must water the "tree of Islam"), radicals pressured the mosques and moderate clergy to commemorate the deaths of the students, and used the occasion to generate protests. The informal network of mosques and bazaars, which for years had been used to carry out religious events, increasingly became consolidated as a coordinated protest organization. On 18 February, 40 days after

2412-534: A positive message to Soviet dissidents. The Soviet Union and Western European leaders both complained that this kind of rhetoric ran against the "code of détente" that Nixon and Kissinger had established. Brzezinski ran up against members of his own Democratic Party who disagreed with this interpretation of détente, including Secretary of State Cyrus Vance . Vance argued for less emphasis on human rights in order to gain Soviet agreement to Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT), whereas Brzezinski favored doing both at

2546-617: A puppet of—a non-Muslim Western power (i.e., the United States) whose culture was affecting that of Iran. At the same time, support for the Shah may have waned among Western politicians and media—especially under the administration of U.S. President Jimmy Carter —as a result of the Shah's support for OPEC petroleum price increases earlier in the decade. When President Carter enacted a human-rights policy which said that countries guilty of human-rights violations would be deprived of American arms or aid, this helped give some Iranians

2680-580: A religious cleric who had headed one of the rebel factions. The ousting of Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran , formally marked the end of Iran's historical monarchy . Following the 1953 Iran coup , Pahlavi aligned Iran with the Western Bloc and cultivated a close relationship with the US to consolidate his power as an authoritarian ruler. Relying heavily on American support amidst the Cold War , he remained

2814-472: A result of propaganda campaign by Western imperialists . In the post-Shah era, some revolutionaries who clashed with his theocracy and were suppressed by his movement complained of deception, but in the meantime anti-Shah unity was maintained. Several events in the 1970s set the stage for the 1979 revolution. The 1971 2,500-year celebration of the Persian Empire at Persepolis , organized by

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2948-729: Is co-anchor. He supported the Prague Process . His elder son, Ian , is a foreign policy expert, and his younger son, Mark , is the current United States Ambassador to Poland and previously served as the United States Ambassador to Sweden from 2011 to 2015. Zbigniew Brzezinski was born in Warsaw , Poland, on March 28, 1928 into a Roman Catholic family originally from Brzeżany , Tarnopol Voivodeship (then part of Poland, currently in Ukraine). The town of Brzeżany

3082-399: Is now known that those fears were overblown. For example, U.S. intelligence closely followed Soviet exercises for an invasion of Iran throughout 1980, while an earlier warning from Brzezinski that "if the Soviets came to dominate Afghanistan, they could promote a separate Baluchistan   ... [thus] dismembering Pakistan and Iran" took on new urgency. These concerns were a major factor in

3216-516: Is thought to be the source of the family name. Brzezinski's parents were Leonia ( née Roman) Brzezińska and Tadeusz Brzeziński , a Polish diplomat who was posted to Germany from 1931 to 1935; Zbigniew Brzezinski thus spent some of his earliest years witnessing the rise of the Nazis . From 1936 to 1938, Tadeusz Brzeziński was posted to the Soviet Union during Joseph Stalin 's Great Purge , and

3350-514: The Majlis ), and approval of the first constitution. Although the constitutional revolution was successful in weakening the autocracy of the Qajar regime , it failed to provide a powerful alternative government. Therefore, in the decades following the establishment of the new parliament, a number of critical events took place. Many of these events can be viewed as a continuation of the struggle between

3484-682: The 1968 U.S. presidential campaign , Brzezinski was chairman of the Humphrey's Foreign Policy Task Force. Brzezinski called for a pan-European conference, an idea that would eventually find fruition in 1973 as the Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe . Meanwhile, he became a leading critic of both the Nixon - Kissinger détente condominium, as well as George McGovern 's pacifism . In his 1970 piece Between Two Ages: America's Role in

3618-600: The 1979 revolution , or the Islamic revolution of 1979 ( انقلاب اسلامی , Enqelâb-e Eslâmī ) was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution led to the replacement of the Imperial State of Iran by the present-day Islamic Republic of Iran , as the monarchical government of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was superseded by the theocratic Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ,

3752-697: The Allies allotted Poland to the Soviet sphere of influence. The Second World War had a profound effect on Brzezinski, who stated in an interview: "The extraordinary violence that was perpetrated against Poland did affect my perception of the world, and made me much more sensitive to the fact that a great deal of world politics is a fundamental struggle." After attending Loyola College in Montreal, Brzezinski entered McGill University in 1945 to obtain both his Bachelor and Master of Arts degrees (received in 1949 and 1950 respectively). His Master's thesis focused on

3886-491: The American dependency on foreign oil . The 1979 oil crisis also led to a vast surge in energy wealth for the oil-rich Soviet Union, which along the lines of resource curse literature, has been hypothesized to have caused the boldness of Soviet Politburo in the intervention in the first place. Previously, the Soviet Union's " Third World " strategy combined largely cautious support of revolutions with covert action. However,

4020-878: The British embassy to be closed in October 1952, forcing all British diplomats and agents to leave the country. Although the British were initially turned down in their request for American support by President Truman, the election of Dwight D. Eisenhower as U.S. president in November 1952 changed the American stance toward the conflict. This, paired with Cold War paranoia and fears of communist influence, contributed to American strategic interests. On 20 January 1953, U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and his brother, C.I.A. Director Allen Dulles , told their British counterparts that they were ready to move against Mosaddegh. In their eyes, any country not decisively allied with

4154-511: The John F. Kennedy campaign, urging a non-antagonistic policy toward Eastern European governments. Seeing the Soviet Union as having entered a period of stagnation, both economic and political, Brzezinski predicted a future breakup of the Soviet Union along lines of nationality (expanding on his master's thesis). As a scholar, he developed his thoughts over the years, fashioning fundamental theories on international relations and geostrategy . During

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4288-763: The March 1979 Islamic Republic referendum , in which 98% approved the shift to an Islamic republic , the new government began drafting the present-day Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran ; Khomeini emerged as the Supreme Leader of Iran in December 1979. The success of the revolution was met with surprise around the world, as it was unusual. It lacked many customary causes of revolutionary sentiment, e.g. defeat in war, financial crisis, peasant rebellion , or disgruntled military. It occurred in

4422-623: The Rapid Deployment Force , which would eventually become CENTCOM . In the interim, the administration asked Congress to restart Selective Service registration, proposed a five percent increase in military spending for each of the next five years, and expanded the US naval presence in the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. A negative response came from retired strategist George F. Kennan . United States Senator Edward Kennedy charged that Carter had overreacted, exaggerated

4556-770: The SALT II treaty from consideration before the Senate, recalled the US Ambassador Thomas J. Watson from Moscow, curtailed grain sales to the Soviet Union, and suspended high-technology exports to the Soviet Union. President Carter, in his State of the Union Address on January 23, 1980, after stating that Soviet troops in Afghanistan posed "a grave threat to the free movement of Middle East oil," proclaimed: The Carter administration began to build up

4690-481: The aristocracy in the city. What the Shah did not expect, however, was that the White Revolution led to new social tensions that helped create many of the problems that he was trying to avoid. The Shah's reforms more than quadrupled the combined size of the two classes that posed the greatest challenges to his monarchy in the past — the intelligentsia , and the urban working class . Their resentment of

4824-636: The " plundering " of Muslim land by foreign non-believers. This idea of rule by Islamic jurists was spread through his book Islamic Government , mosque sermons, and smuggled cassette speeches by Khomeini among his opposition network of students ( talabeh ), ex-students (able clerics such as Morteza Motahhari , Mohammad Beheshti , Mohammad-Javad Bahonar , Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani , and Mohammad Mofatteh ), and traditional businessmen ( bazaari ) inside Iran. Other opposition groups included constitutionalist liberals—the democratic, reformist Islamic Freedom Movement of Iran , headed by Mehdi Bazargan , and

4958-491: The 1950s he worked on the theory of totalitarianism . His thought in the 1960s focused on wider Western understanding of disunity in the Soviet Bloc , as well as developing the thesis of intensified degeneration of the Soviet Union. During the 1970s he proposed that the Soviet system was incapable of evolving beyond the industrial phase into the "technetronic" age. Brzezinski continued to argue for and support détente for

5092-501: The 1970s and 1980s, at the height of his political involvement, Brzezinski participated in the formation of the Trilateral Commission in order to more closely cement U.S.–Japanese–European relations. As the three most economically advanced sectors of the world, the people of the three regions could be brought together in cooperation that would give them a more cohesive stance against the communist world. While serving in

5226-902: The Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and became a national hero. The British, however, were outraged and accused him of stealing. The British unsuccessfully sought punishment from the International Court of Justice and the United Nations, sent warships to the Persian Gulf , and finally imposed a crushing embargo . Mosaddegh was unmoved by Britain's campaign against him. One European newspaper, the Frankfurter Neue Presse , reported that Mosaddegh "would rather be fried in Persian oil than make

5360-427: The British would "regard the establishment of a naval base or of a fortified port in the Persian Gulf by any other power as a very grave menace to British interests, and we should certainly resist it with all the means at our disposal." The Persian Gulf region was first proclaimed to be of national interest to the United States during World War II . Petroleum is centrally important to modern armies. The United States,

5494-494: The Carter Doctrine. The Truman Doctrine, which stated that the US would send military aid to countries threatened by Soviet communism, was used to strengthen both Iran and Saudi Arabia's security. In October 1950, President Truman wrote to Ibn Saud that "the United States is interested in the preservation of the independence and territorial integrity of Saudi Arabia. No threat to your Kingdom could occur which would not be

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5628-601: The Iranian constitution, political corruption, and the political oppression, torture, and killings, by the SAVAK secret police. The White Revolution was a far-reaching series of reforms in Iran launched in 1963 by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and lasting until 1979. Mohammad Reza Shah's reform program was built especially to weaken those classes that supported the traditional system. It consisted of several elements including land reform ; sales of some state-owned factories to finance

5762-479: The Muslim year 1355 to the royalist year 2535." The oil boom of the 1970s produced an "alarming" increase in inflation, waste and an "accelerating gap" between the rich and poor, the city and the country, along with the presence of tens of thousands of unpopular skilled foreign workers. Many Iranians were also angered by the fact that the Shah's family was the foremost beneficiary of the income generated by oil, and

5896-556: The NSA chairman of only one of the two committees, he would prevent the NSC from being the overwhelming influence on foreign policy decisions it had been under Kissinger's chairmanship during the Nixon administration. The SCC was charged with considering issues that cut across several departments, including oversight of intelligence activities, arms control evaluation, and crisis management. Much of

6030-515: The National Assembly, to be known thenceforth as Reza Shah, founder of the Pahlavi dynasty . There were widespread social, economic, and political reforms introduced during his reign, a number of which led to public discontent that would provide the circumstances for the Iranian Revolution. Particularly controversial was the replacement of Islamic laws with Western ones and the forbidding of traditional Islamic clothing , separation of

6164-670: The Nixon-Kissinger over-reliance on détente, a situation preferred by the Soviet Union, favoring the Helsinki process instead, which focused on human rights, international law and peaceful engagement in Eastern Europe. Brzezinski was considered to be the Democrats' response to Republican Henry Kissinger . Carter engaged his incumbent opponent for the presidency, Gerald Ford , in foreign policy debates by contrasting

6298-400: The President on major foreign policy undertakings and problems, with recommendations for courses of action. President Carter enjoyed these reports and frequently annotated them with his own views. Brzezinski and the NSC used these presidential notes (159 of them) as the basis for NSC actions. From the beginning, Brzezinski made sure that the new NSC institutional relationships would assure him

6432-989: The Qom protests, demonstrations broke out in various different cities. The largest was in Tabriz , which descended into a full-scale riot. "Western" and government symbols such as cinemas, bars, state-owned banks , and police stations were set ablaze. Units of the Imperial Iranian Army were deployed to the city to restore order. The death toll, according to the government was 6, while Khomeini claimed hundreds were "martyred." Forty days later, on 29 March, demonstrations were organized in at least 55 cities, including Tehran . In an increasingly predictable pattern, deadly riots broke out in major cities, and again 40 days later, on 10 May. It led to an incident in which army commandos opened fire on Shariatmadari 's house, killing one of his students. Shariatmadari immediately made

6566-585: The SCC's time during the Carter years was spent on SALT issues. The Council held few formal meetings, convening only 10 times, compared with 125 meetings during the eight years of the Nixon and Ford administrations. Instead, Carter used frequent, informal meetings as a decision-making device—typically his Friday breakfasts—usually attended by the Vice President, the secretaries of State and Defense, Brzezinski, and

6700-408: The Shah also grew, as they were now stripped of organizations that had represented them in the past, such as political parties, professional associations, trade unions, and independent newspapers. The land reform, instead of allying the peasants with the government, produced large numbers of independent farmers and landless laborers who became loose political cannons, with no loyalty to the Shah. Many of

6834-428: The Shah clashed with the pro-Soviet Prime Minister Ahmad Qavam , the communist Tudeh Party grew in size and influence and the Iranian Army had to deal with Soviet-sponsored separatist movements in Iranian Azerbaijan and Iranian Kurdistan . From 1901 on, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (renamed the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in 1935), a British oil company, enjoyed a monopoly on sale and production of Iranian oil. It

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6968-421: The Shah hoped to eliminate the influence of landlords and to create a new base of support among the peasants and the working class. Thus, the White Revolution in Iran was an attempt to introduce reform from above and preserve traditional power patterns. Through land reform, the essence of the White Revolution, the Shah hoped to ally himself with the peasantry in the countryside, and hoped to sever their ties with

7102-509: The Shah of Iran for 26 years, keeping the country from swaying towards the influence of the Eastern Bloc and Soviet Union . Beginning in 1963, Pahlavi implemented widespread reforms aimed at modernizing Iran through an effort that came to be known as the White Revolution . Due to his opposition to this modernization, Khomeini was exiled from Iran in 1964. However, as ideological tensions persisted between Pahlavi and Khomeini, anti-government demonstrations began in October 1977, developing into

7236-399: The Shah playing the role of Husayn's foe, the hated tyrant Yazid I . Other factors include the underestimation of Khomeini's Islamist movement by both the Shah's reign—who considered them a minor threat compared to the Marxists and Islamic socialists —and by the secularist opponents of the government—who thought the Khomeinists could be sidelined. At the end of the 19th century,

7370-444: The Shah responded to the "polite reminder" of the importance of political rights by the new American president, Jimmy Carter , by granting amnesty to some prisoners and allowing the Red Cross to visit prisons. Through 1977 liberal opposition formed organizations and issued open letters denouncing the government. Against this background a first crucial manifestation of public expression of social discontent and political protest against

7504-504: The Shah. The sovereign, who was mainly seen as a figurehead at the time, eventually managed to break free from the shackles of the Iranian elites and impose himself as an autocratic reformist ruler. Pahlavi maintained a close relationship with the U.S. government, as both regimes shared opposition to the expansion of the Soviet Union , Iran's powerful northern neighbor. Leftist and Islamist groups attacked his government (often from outside Iran as they were suppressed within) for violating

7638-417: The Shi'a clergy ( ulama ) had a significant influence on Iranian society . The clergy first showed itself to be a powerful political force in opposition to the monarchy with the 1891 Tobacco protest . On 20 March 1890, the long-standing Iranian monarch Nasir al-Din Shah granted a concession to British Major G. F. Talbot for a full monopoly over the production, sale, and export of tobacco for 50 years. At

7772-427: The Shia faith all spread and gained listeners, readers and supporters. Most importantly, Khomeini preached that revolt, and especially martyrdom , against injustice and tyranny was part of Shia Islam, and that Muslims should reject the influence of both liberal capitalism and communism, ideas that inspired the revolutionary slogan "Neither East, nor West – Islamic Republic!" Away from public view, Khomeini developed

7906-447: The Soviet Union and the relationship between the October Revolution , Vladimir Lenin 's state, and the actions of Joseph Stalin . He received his Ph.D. in 1953; the same year, he traveled to Munich and met Jan Nowak-Jezioranski , head of the Polish desk of Radio Free Europe . He later collaborated with Carl J. Friedrich to develop the concept of totalitarianism as a way to characterize more accurately and powerfully, and to criticize

8040-457: The Soviet Union to invade Afghanistan , execute Amin, and install Parcham leader Babrak Karmal as president. President Carter was surprised by the invasion, as the consensus of the U.S. intelligence community during 1978 and 1979—reiterated as late as September 29, 1979—was that "Moscow would not intervene in force even if it appeared likely that the Khalq government was about to collapse." Indeed, Carter's diary entries from November 1979 until

8174-455: The Soviet invasion in late December contain only two short references to Afghanistan, and are instead preoccupied with the ongoing hostage crisis in Iran . In the West, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was considered a threat to global security and the oil supplies of the Persian Gulf . Moreover, the failure to accurately predict Soviet intentions caused American officials to reappraise the Soviet threat to both Iran and Pakistan, although it

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8308-416: The Soviet threat, and failed to act diplomatically. Kennedy repeated these allegations during his 1980 Democratic presidential primary bid , in which he was defeated. Carter's successor, Ronald Reagan , extended the policy in October 1981 with what is sometimes called the "Reagan Corollary to the Carter Doctrine," which proclaimed that the United States would intervene to protect Saudi Arabia, whose security

8442-455: The Soviets in 1956. Brzezinski was on the faculty of Harvard University from 1953 to 1960, and of Columbia University from 1960 to 1972 where he headed the Research Institute on Communist Affairs. He was Senior Research Professor of International Relations at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C. For historical background on major events during this period, see: As

8576-439: The Soviets in Angola and the Middle East, and so he argued for increased military strength and an emphasis on human rights. Vance, the State Department, and the media criticized Brzezinski publicly as seeking to revive the Cold War. Brzezinski advised Carter in 1978 to engage the People's Republic of China and traveled to Beijing to lay the groundwork for the normalization of relations between the two countries. This also resulted in

8710-431: The State Department if the President preferred to revise or take issue with outgoing State Department instructions. He also appointed his own press spokesman, and his frequent press briefings and appearances on television interview shows made him a prominent public figure, although perhaps not nearly as much as Kissinger had been under Nixon. The Soviet military invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979 significantly damaged

8844-439: The Technetronic Era , Brzezinski argued that a coordinated policy among developed nations was necessary in order to counter global instability erupting from increasing economic inequality . Out of this thesis, Brzezinski co-founded the Trilateral Commission with David Rockefeller , serving as director from 1973 to 1976. The Trilateral Commission is a group of prominent political and business leaders and academics primarily from

8978-494: The Trilateral vision with Ford's détente. After his victory in 1976, Carter made Brzezinski National Security Advisor . Earlier that year, major labor riots broke out in Poland, laying the foundations for Solidarity . Brzezinski began by emphasizing the "Basket III" human rights in the Helsinki Final Act , which inspired Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia shortly thereafter. Brzezinski assisted with writing parts of Carter's inaugural address, and this served his purpose of sending

9112-402: The United States was a potential enemy. Iran had immense oil wealth, a long border with the Soviet Union , and a nationalist prime minister. The prospect of a fall into communism and a "second China" (after Mao Zedong won the Chinese Civil War ) terrified the Dulles brothers. Operation Ajax was born, in which the only democratic government Iran ever had was deposed. On 15 August 1953

9246-494: The United States, Western Europe and Japan. Its purpose was to strengthen relations among the three most industrially advanced regions of the capitalist world. In 1974, Brzezinski selected Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter as a member. Carter announced his candidacy for the 1976 presidential campaign to a skeptical media and proclaimed himself an "eager student" of Brzezinski. Brzezinski became Carter's principal foreign policy advisor by late 1975. He became an outspoken critic of

9380-419: The White House, Brzezinski emphasized the centrality of human rights as a means of placing the Soviet Union on the ideological defensive. With Jimmy Carter in Camp David , he assisted in the attainment of the Egypt–Israel peace treaty . Communists under the leadership of Nur Muhammad Taraki seized power in Afghanistan on April 27, 1978. The new regime—divided between Taraki's extremist Khalq faction and

9514-413: The already tenuous relationship between Vance and Brzezinski. Vance felt that Brzezinski's linkage of SALT to other Soviet activities and the MX, together with the growing domestic criticisms in the United States of the SALT II Accord, convinced Brezhnev to decide on military intervention in Afghanistan. Brzezinski, however, later recounted that he advanced proposals to maintain Afghanistan's independence but

9648-641: The beginning of the Cold War . He also taught future Secretary of State Madeleine Albright , who like Brzezinski's wife Emilie was of Czech descent, and whom he also mentored during her early years in Washington. He also became a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York and joined the Bilderberg Group . During the 1960 U.S. presidential elections , Brzezinski was an advisor to

9782-561: The budding Iranian revival began to undermine the idea of Westernization as progress that was the basis of the Shah's secular reign, and to form the ideology of the 1979 revolution: Jalal Al-e-Ahmad 's idea of Gharbzadegi —that Western culture was a plague or an intoxication to be eliminated; Ali Shariati 's vision of Islam as the one true liberator of the Third World from oppressive colonialism , neo-colonialism , and capitalism ; and Morteza Motahhari 's popularized retellings of

9916-400: The chief domestic adviser. No agendas were prepared and no formal records were kept of these meetings, sometimes resulting in differing interpretations of the decisions actually agreed upon. Brzezinski was careful, in managing his own weekly luncheons with secretaries Vance and Brown in preparation for NSC discussions, to maintain a complete set of notes. Brzezinski also sent weekly reports to

10050-574: The cities working in the construction industry. Culturally and religiously conservative, many went on to form the core of the revolution's demonstrators and "martyrs". All Iranians were required to join and pay dues to a new political party, the Rastakhiz Party —all other parties were banned. That party's attempt to fight inflation with populist "anti- profiteering " campaigns—fining and jailing merchants for high prices – angered and politicized merchants while fueling black markets . In 1977

10184-570: The clergy during the rule of Reza Shah. However, the future Ayatollah Khomeini was a student of Sheikh Abdul Karim Ha'eri. In 1941, an invasion of allied British and Soviet troops deposed Reza Shah, who was considered friendly to Nazi Germany , and installed his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as Shah. Iran remained under Soviet occupation until the Red Army withdrew in June 1946. The post-war years were characterized by political instability, as

10318-655: The constitutionalists and the Shahs of Persia, many of whom were backed by foreign powers against the parliament. Insecurity and chaos that were created after the Constitutional Revolution led to the rise of General Reza Khan , the commander of the elite Persian Cossack Brigade who seized power in a coup d'état in February 1921. He established a constitutional monarchy , deposing the last Qajar Shah , Ahmad Shah , in 1925 and being designated monarch by

10452-527: The courage to post open letters and petitions in the hope that the repression by the government might subside. The revolution that substituted the monarchy of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi with Islam and Khomeini is credited in part to the spread of the Shi'a version of the Islamic revival . It resisted westernization and saw Ayatollah Khomeini as following in the footsteps of the Shi'a Imam Husayn ibn Ali , with

10586-612: The defense of the United States." On February 14, 1945, while he was returning from the Yalta Conference , Roosevelt met with Saudi Arabian King Ibn Saud on the Great Bitter Lake in the Suez Canal , the first time a US president had visited the Persian Gulf region. During Operation Desert Shield in 1990, US Defense Secretary Dick Cheney cited the landmark meeting between Roosevelt and Ibn Saud as one of

10720-541: The destruction of Israel as a core objective, post-revolutionary Iran aimed to undermine the influence of Sunni leaders in the region by supporting Shi'ite political ascendancy and exporting Khomeinist doctrines abroad. In the aftermath of the revolution , Iran began to back Shia militancy across the region, to combat Sunni influence and establish Iranian dominance in the Arab world , ultimately aiming to achieve an Iranian-led Shia political order. Reasons advanced for

10854-399: The disintegrating relationship between Vance and Brzezinski. As the upheaval developed, the two advanced fundamentally different positions. Brzezinski wanted to control the revolution and increasingly suggested military action to prevent Ayatollah Khomeini from coming to power, while Vance wanted to come to terms with the new Islamic Republic of Iran. As a consequence, Carter failed to develop

10988-629: The emergence of Solidarity) warning him in advance. The U.S. stance was a significant change from previous reactions to Soviet repression in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. Brzezinski developed the Carter Doctrine , which committed the U.S. to use military force in defense of the Persian Gulf . In 1981 President Carter presented Brzezinski with the Presidential Medal of Freedom . President Carter chose Brzezinski for

11122-568: The first time since he left as a child, and his visit reaffirmed his judgement that splits within the Eastern bloc were profound. He developed ideas that he called "peaceful engagement". Brzezinski became a naturalized American citizen in 1958. Very soon after Harvard awarded an associate professorship in 1959 to Henry Kissinger instead of to him, Brzezinski moved to New York City to teach at Columbia University. Here he wrote Soviet Bloc: Unity and Conflict , which focused on Eastern Europe since

11256-603: The freedom of expression. Also in 1977, the popular and influential modernist Islamist theorist Ali Shariati died under mysterious circumstances. This both angered his followers, who considered him a martyr at the hands of SAVAK , and removed a potential revolutionary rival to Khomeini. Finally, in October Khomeini's son Mostafa died of an alleged heart attack, and his death was also blamed on SAVAK. A subsequent memorial service for Mostafa in Tehran put Khomeini back in

11390-515: The government, was attacked for its extravagance. "As the foreigners reveled on drink forbidden by Islam, Iranians were not only excluded from the festivities, some were starving." Five years later, the Shah angered pious Iranian Muslims by changing the first year of the Iranian solar calendar from the Islamic hijri to the ascension to the throne by Cyrus the Great . "Iran jumped overnight from

11524-671: The guerrillas did help play an important part in the final February 1979 overthrow delivering "the regime its coup de grace ." The most powerful guerrilla group—the People's Mujahedin —was leftist Islamist and opposed the influence of the clergy as reactionary. Some important clergy did not follow Khomeini's lead. Popular ayatollah Mahmoud Taleghani supported the left, while perhaps the most senior and influential ayatollah in Iran— Mohammad Kazem Shariatmadari —first remained aloof from politics and then came out in support of

11658-469: The ideology of velayat-e faqih ( guardianship of the jurist ) as government, that Muslims—in fact everyone—required "guardianship," in the form of rule or supervision by the leading Islamic jurist or jurists. Such rule was ultimately "more necessary even than prayer and fasting" in Islam, as it would protect Islam from deviation from traditional sharia law and in so doing eliminate poverty, injustice, and

11792-490: The invasion of Afghanistan indicated that Soviet policy had become more direct and belligerent. This was seen to advance a long-term Soviet geopolitical goal, the acquisition of strategic presence on the Indian Ocean, closer to the realm of possibility. This caused previous critics of containment policy to become some of its major supporters. Over the course of January 1980 in response to the Afghan intervention, Carter withdrew

11926-520: The justifications for sending troops to protect Saudi Arabia's border. In World War II, Britain and the Soviet Union had jointly invaded and partitioned Iran in 1941 which was to end with the conclusion of the war. However, Soviet-aligned rebellions, the Azerbaijan People's Government and Republic of Mahabad , created a crisis in the Allied occupation zone, the Iran crisis of 1946 , which

12060-400: The land reform; the enfranchisement of women ; nationalization of forests and pastures; formation of a literacy corps ; and the institution of profit-sharing schemes for workers in industry. The Shah pushed the White Revolution as a step toward westernization , and it was a way for him to legitimize the Pahlavi dynasty . Part of the reason for launching the White Revolution was that

12194-500: The last Iranian monarch, leaving his duties to Iran's Regency Council and Shapour Bakhtiar , the opposition-based prime minister . On 1 February 1979, Khomeini returned , following an invitation by the government; several million greeted him as he landed in Tehran . By 11 February, the monarchy was brought down and Khomeini assumed leadership while guerrillas and rebel troops overwhelmed Pahlavi loyalists in armed combat. Following

12328-454: The line between state earnings and family earnings blurred. By 1976, the Shah had accumulated upward of $ 1 billion from oil revenue; his family – including 63 princes and princesses had accumulated between $ 5 and $ 20 billion; and the family foundation controlled approximately $ 3 billion. By mid-1977 economic austerity measures to fight inflation disproportionately affected the thousands of poor and unskilled male migrants settling in

12462-467: The masses resented the increasingly corrupt government; their loyalty to the clergy, who were viewed as more concerned with the fate of the populace, remained consistent or increased. As Ervand Abrahamian pointed out: "The White Revolution had been designed to preempt a Red Revolution . Instead, it paved the way for an Islamic Revolution." In theory, oil money funneled to the elite was supposed to be used to create jobs and factories, eventually distributing

12596-708: The money, but instead the wealth tended to remain concentrated in the hands of the very few at the top. Post-revolutionary leader — Twelver Shia cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini — first rose to political prominence in 1963 when he led opposition to the Shah and his White Revolution . Khomeini was arrested in 1963 after declaring the Shah a "wretched, miserable man" who "embarked on the [path toward] destruction of Islam in Iran." Three days of major riots throughout Iran followed, with 15,000 dead from police fire as reported by opposition sources. However, anti-revolutionary sources conjectured that just 32 were killed. Khomeini

12730-468: The more moderate Parcham —signed a treaty of friendship with the Soviet Union in December of that year. Taraki's efforts to improve secular education and redistribute land were accompanied by mass executions (including of many conservative religious leaders) and political oppression unprecedented in Afghan history, igniting a revolt by mujahideen rebels. Following a general uprising in April 1979, Taraki

12864-596: The more secular National Front . They were based in the urban middle class, and wanted the Shah to adhere to the Iranian Constitution of 1906 rather than to replace him with a theocracy, but lacked the cohesion and organization of Khomeini's forces. Communist groups—primarily the Tudeh Party of Iran and the Fedaian guerrillas —had been weakened considerably by government repression. Despite this

12998-409: The national daily Ettela'at newspaper. Written under a pseudonym by a government agent, it denounced Khomeini as a "British agent" and a "mad Indian poet" conspiring to sell out Iran to neo-colonialists and communists . The developments initiated by seminaries in the city of Qom closing on 7 January 1978 were followed by the bazaar and seminary closing, and students rallied towards the homes of

13132-540: The next few years, publishing "Peaceful Engagement in Eastern Europe" in Foreign Affairs , and he continued to support non-antagonistic policies after the Cuban Missile Crisis on the grounds that such policies might disabuse Eastern European nations of their fear of an aggressive Germany, and pacify Western Europeans fearful of a superpower compromise along the lines of the Yalta Conference . In

13266-581: The number of standing NSC committees from eight to two. All issues referred to the NSC were reviewed by one of the two new committees, either the Policy Review Committee (PRC) or the Special Coordinating Committee (SCC). The PRC focused on specific issues, and its chairmanship rotated. The SCC was always chaired by Brzezinski, a circumstance he had to negotiate with Carter to achieve. Carter believed that by making

13400-478: The objection of the U.S. Ambassador to Poland), recognizing the Roman Catholic Church as the legitimate opposition to communist rule in Poland. By 1978, Brzezinski and Vance were more and more at odds over the direction of Carter's foreign policy. Vance sought to continue the style of détente engineered by Nixon-Kissinger, with a focus on arms control . Brzezinski believed that détente emboldened

13534-528: The opposition accusing the Shah of murdering him. The chain of events began with the death of Mostafa Khomeini , chief aide and eldest son of Ruhollah Khomeini . He mysteriously died at midnight on 23 October 1977 in Najaf, Iraq . SAVAK and the Iraqi government declared heart attack as the cause of death, though many attributed his death to SAVAK. Khomeini remained silent after the incident, while in Iran with

13668-712: The overthrow of the US-friendly Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the start of the Iranian Revolution ; the United States' encouragement of dissidents in Eastern Europe and championing of human rights in order to undermine the influence of the Soviet Union; supporting the Afghan mujahideen against the Soviet-backed Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and, ultimately, Soviet troops during the Soviet–Afghan War ; and

13802-514: The popular movement and cancelled the concession. The Tobacco Protest was the first significant Iranian resistance against the Shah and foreign interests, revealing the power of the people and the ulama influence among them. The growing dissatisfaction continued until the Constitutional Revolution of 1905–1911. The revolution led to the establishment of a parliament, the National Consultative Assembly (also known as

13936-438: The position of National Security Adviser (NSA) because he wanted an assertive intellectual at his side to provide him with day-to-day advice and guidance on foreign policy decisions. Brzezinski would preside over a reorganized National Security Council (NSC) structure, fashioned to ensure that the NSA would be only one of many players in the foreign policy process. Initially, Carter reduced the NSC staff by one-half, and decreased

14070-574: The regime took place in October 1977, when the German-Iranian Cultural Association in Tehran hosted a series of literature reading sessions, organized by the newly revived Iranian Writers Association and the German Goethe-Institute . In these "Ten Nights" (Dah Shab) 57 of Iran's most prominent poets and writers read their works to thousands of listeners. They demanded the end of censorship and claimed

14204-542: The religious leaders on the next day. On 9 January 1978, seminary students and other people demonstrated in the city, which was cracked down by the Shah 's security forces who shot live ammunition to disperse the crowd when the peaceful demonstration turned violent. Between 5–300 of the demonstrators were reportedly killed in the protest. 9 January 1978 (19 Dey) is regarded as a bloody day in Qom. According to Shia customs, memorial services ( chehelom ) are held 40 days after

14338-535: The restatement of US interests in the region in the form of the Carter Doctrine. The Yemenite War of 1979 , with Soviet support to South Yemen , may also have been a "smaller shock" contributing to the crisis of that year, and Carter's foreign policy shift. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski advised President Carter that the United States's "greatest vulnerability" lay on an arc "stretching from Chittagong through Islamabad to Aden ." Henry Kissinger gave Carter similar advice. In July 1979, responding to

14472-400: The revolution and its populist , nationalist , and later Shia Islamic character include: The Shah's regime was seen as an oppressive, brutal, corrupt, and lavish regime by some of the society's classes at that time. It also suffered from some basic functional failures that brought economic bottlenecks , shortages , and inflation. The Shah was perceived by many as beholden to—if not

14606-555: The role of a presidential emissary. In 1978, for example, Brzezinski traveled to Beijing to lay the groundwork for normalizing U.S.–PRC relations . Like Kissinger before him, Brzezinski maintained his own personal relationship with Soviet Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Dobrynin . Brzezinski had NSC staffers monitor State Department cable traffic through the Situation Room and call back to

14740-621: The same time. Brzezinski then ordered Radio Free Europe transmitters to increase the power and area of their broadcasts, a provocative reversal of Nixon-Kissinger policies. West German chancellor Helmut Schmidt objected to Brzezinski's agenda, even calling for the removal of Radio Free Europe from German soil. The State Department was alarmed by Brzezinski's support for dissidents in East Germany and objected to his suggestion that Carter's first overseas visit be to Poland. He visited Warsaw and met with Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski (against

14874-478: The severing of ties with the United States' longtime anti-Communist ally the Republic of China (Taiwan). 1979 saw two major strategically important events: the overthrow of U.S. ally the Shah of Iran , and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan . The Iranian Revolution precipitated the Iran hostage crisis , which would last for the rest of Carter's presidency. Brzezinski anticipated the Soviet invasion, and, with

15008-702: The sexes , and veiling of women's faces with the niqab . Police forcibly removed and tore the chadors off women who resisted his ban on the public hijab . In 1935, dozens were killed and hundreds injured in the Goharshad Mosque rebellion . On the other hand, during the early rise of Reza Shah, Abdul-Karim Ha'eri Yazdi founded the Qom Seminary and created important changes in seminaries . However, he would avoid entering into political issues, as did other religious leaders who followed him. Hence, no widespread anti-government attempts were organized by

15142-591: The signing of the Torrijos–Carter Treaties relinquishing U.S. control of the Panama Canal after 1999. Brzezinski's personal views have been described as "progressive", "international", political liberal, and strongly anti-communist . He was an advocate for anti-Soviet containment , for human rights organizations , and for "cultivating a strong West". He has been praised for his ability to see "the big picture". Critics described him as hawkish or

15276-457: The slightest concession to the British." The British considered an armed invasion, but U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill decided on a coup after being refused American military support by U.S. President Harry S. Truman , who sympathized with nationalist movements like Mosaddegh's and had nothing but contempt for old-style imperialists like those who ran the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. Mosaddegh, however, learned of Churchill's plans and ordered

15410-578: The spotlight. By 1977, the Shah's policy of political liberalization was underway. Secular opponents of the Shah began to meet in secret to denounce the government. Led by the leftist intellectual Saeed Soltanpour , the Iranian Writers Association met at the Goethe Institute in Tehran to read anti-government poetry. Ali Shariati 's death in the United Kingdom shortly after led to another public demonstration, with

15544-415: The spread of the news came a wave of protest and mourning ceremonies in several cities. The mourning of Mostafa was given a political cast by Khomeini's political credentials, their enduring opposition to the monarchy and their exile. This dimension of the ceremonies went beyond the religious credentials of the family. On 7 January 1978, an article titled " Iran and Red and Black Colonization " appeared in

15678-669: The support of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and the People's Republic of China, he created a strategy to undermine the Soviet presence. Using this atmosphere of insecurity, Brzezinski led the United States toward a new arms buildup and the development of the Rapid Deployment Forces —policies that are both more generally associated with Reagan's presidency now. In 1979, the Soviets intervened in the Second Yemenite War . The Soviet backing of South Yemen constituted

15812-422: The time, the Persian tobacco industry employed over 200,000 people, so the concession represented a major blow to Persian farmers and bazaaris whose livelihoods were largely dependent on the lucrative tobacco business. The boycotts and protests against it were widespread and extensive as result of Mirza Hasan Shirazi 's fatwa (judicial decree). Within 2 years, Nasir al-Din Shah found himself powerless to stop

15946-480: The unrequited efforts of both the Carter and Reagan administrations to improve relations with Iran, and resulted in massive aid to Pakistan's Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq . Zia's ties with the U.S. had been strained during Carter's presidency due to Pakistan's nuclear program and the execution of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in April 1979, but Carter told Brzezinski and Secretary of State Cyrus Vance as early as January 1979 that it

16080-453: The various nationalities within the Soviet Union. Brzezinski's plan for pursuing further studies in the United Kingdom in preparation for a diplomatic career in Canada fell through, principally because he was ruled ineligible for a scholarship he had won that was only open to British subjects. Brzezinski then attended Harvard University to work on a doctorate with Merle Fainsod , focusing on

16214-496: The wording on the Truman Doctrine , and insisted the sentence be included in the speech "to make it very clear that the Soviets should stay away from the Persian Gulf." In The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power , author Daniel Yergin notes that the Carter Doctrine "bore striking similarities" to a 1903 British declaration in which British Foreign Secretary Lord Lansdowne warned Russia and Germany that

16348-511: The world's leading oil producer at the time, supplied most of the oil for the Allied armies. Many American strategists were concerned that the war would dangerously reduce the US's oil supply and so they sought to establish good relations with Saudi Arabia , a kingdom with large oil reserves . On February 16, 1943, US President Franklin Roosevelt said, "the defense of Saudi Arabia is vital to

16482-463: Was a Polish-American diplomat and political scientist . He served as a counselor to Lyndon B. Johnson from 1966 to 1968 and was Jimmy Carter 's National Security Advisor from 1977 to 1981. As a scholar, Brzezinski belonged to the realist school of international relations , standing in the geopolitical tradition of Halford Mackinder and Nicholas J. Spykman , while elements of liberal idealism have also been identified in his outlook. Brzezinski

16616-470: Was awakened at 3 am by a phone call with a startling message: The Soviets had just launched 250 nuclear weapons at the United States. Minutes later, Brzezinski received another call: The early-warning system actually showed 2,000 missiles heading toward the United States. As Brzezinski prepared to phone President Jimmy Carter to plan a full-scale response, he received a third call: It was a false alarm. An early warning training tape generating indications of

16750-775: Was believed to be threatened during the Iran–Iraq War . Thus, while the Carter Doctrine warned away outside forces from the region, the Reagan Corollary pledged to secure internal stability. According to diplomat Howard Teicher , "with the enunciation of the Reagan Corollary, the policy groundwork was laid for Operation Desert Storm ." Zbigniew Brzezinski Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzeziński ( / ˈ z b ɪ ɡ n j ɛ f b r ə ˈ z ɪ n s k i / (US English) ZBIG -nyef brə- ZIN -skee , Polish: [ˈzbiɡɲɛf kaˈʑimjɛʐ‿bʐɛˈʑij̃skʲi] ; March 28, 1928 – May 26, 2017), known as Zbig ,

16884-458: Was deposed by Khalq rival Hafizullah Amin in September. Amin was considered a "brutal psychopath" by foreign observers; even the Soviets were alarmed by the brutality of the Afghan communists, and suspected Amin of being an agent of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), although that was not the case. By December, Amin's government had lost control of much of the country, prompting

17018-462: Was frustrated by the Department of State's opposition. An NSC working group on Afghanistan wrote several reports on the deteriorating situation in 1979, but Carter ignored them until the Soviet intervention destroyed his illusions. Only then did he decide to abandon SALT II ratification and pursue the anti-Soviet policies that Brzezinski proposed. The Iranian revolution was the last straw for

17152-608: Was later praised by Israel for his work helping Jews escape from the Nazis. In 1938, Tadeusz Brzeziński was posted to Montreal as a consul general. The Brzezinski family lived near the Polish Consulate-General, on Stanley Street . In 1939, the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was agreed to by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union; subsequently the two powers invaded Poland . The 1945 Yalta Conference among

17286-640: Was likely influenced by the understanding, later recounted by CIA official Robert Gates , "that a substantial U.S. covert aid program" might have "raise[d] the stakes" thereby causing "the Soviets to intervene more directly and vigorously than otherwise intended". The first shipment of U.S.weapons intended for the mujahideen reached Pakistan on January 10, 1980, shortly following the Soviet invasion. Iranian Revolution [REDACTED] Mohammad Beheshti [REDACTED] Ali Khamenei The Iranian revolution ( Persian : انقلاب ایران , Enqelâb-e Irân [ʔeɴɢeˌlɒːbe ʔiːɾɒːn] ), also known as

17420-510: Was one of the first struggles of the Cold War. U.S. pressure on the Soviets to withdraw from Iran was one of the first postwar conflicts between the two superpowers. The Persian Gulf region was still regarded as an area of vital importance to the US during the Cold War . Three Cold War American presidential doctrines (the Truman , Eisenhower , and Nixon Doctrines ) played roles in forming

17554-423: Was released after eight months of house arrest and continued his agitation, condemning Iran's close cooperation with Israel and its capitulations , or extension of diplomatic immunity , to American government personnel in Iran. In November 1964, Khomeini was re-arrested and sent into exile where he remained for 15 years (mostly in Najaf, Iraq ), until the revolution. In this interim period of "disaffected calm,"

17688-404: Was the most profitable British business in the world. Most Iranians lived in poverty while the wealth generated from Iranian oil played a decisive role in maintaining Britain as a preeminent global power. In 1951, Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh pledged to throw the company out of Iran, reclaim the petroleum reserves and free Iran from foreign powers. In 1952, Mosaddegh nationalized

17822-546: Was the primary organizer of The Trilateral Commission . Major foreign policy events during his time in office included the normalization of relations with the People's Republic of China (and the severing of ties with the Republic of China on Taiwan ); the signing of the second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT II) with the Soviet Union ; the brokering of the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel;

17956-541: Was vital to "repair our relationships with Pakistan" in light of the unrest in Iran . One initiative Carter authorized to achieve this goal was a collaboration between the CIA and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI); through the ISI, the CIA began providing some $ 695,000 worth of non-lethal assistance to the mujahideen on July 3, 1979—several months prior to the Soviet invasion. The modest scope of this early collaboration

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