636. Revolution in Iran: Fall of the Shah (Part 1)
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What led to the Iranian Revolution in 1979?
Iran, because of the great leadership of the Shah, is an island of stability in one of the more troubled areas of the world. This is a great tribute to you, Your Majesty, and to your leadership and to the respect and the admiration and love which your people give to you. We in the United States have no other nation on earth who is closer to us in planning for our mutual military security. And there is no leader with whom I have a deeper sense of personal gratitude and personal friendship. On behalf of the people of the United States, I would like to offer a toast at this time to the great leaders of Iran, the Shah and the Shabanu, and to the people of Iran, and to the world peace that we hope together we can help to bring.
Now, people listening to that may think that that is an Englishman who can't do a good impression of someone from Georgia, but it isn't. It was actually, Dominic, President Jimmy Carter, and he was toasting the last Shah of Iran, as Americans call it, or as we in Britain call it correctly, Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and his wife, Empress Farah, the Shah Banu, at a banquet in Iran's capital, Tehran, on New Year's Eve 1977. And Dominic, it is a moment ripe with irony, is it not?
It is indeed.
What was the relationship between President Carter and the Shah of Iran?
It's one of the great ironic moments, not just of the 1970s, but the late 20th century. So this moment when Jimmy Carter is toasting the Shah and the Shah Banu, the friendship between Iran and the United States, And the stability and the security that Iran offers in the Middle East, this comes just days before the outbreak of a violent revolution that sweeps the Shah from power and it kicks off the rule of the Ayatollahs, who still govern Iran today.
Well, Dominic, you say that. We are recording this in early January. I mean, by the time this goes out, who knows what may have happened.
That's true, because Iran is once again engulfed in street protests, demonstrations, violent repression, and so on. The storm clouds of counter-revolution are gathering. They are indeed. But to go back to the revolution itself, Jimmy Carter, the man who's standing there giving that toast, he is one of the first and most prominent political victims of this revolution. Because his presidency, pretty extraordinary and strange presidency, even by American standards, is consumed... by the fires of the Iranian revolution.
So it's an extraordinary story. One of the things that brings Ronald Reagan to power, and one of the advantages of Reagan is he's much easier to do an impersonation of.
He is. So just to give people a little sense of the way the rest of history works, I think that was about the 24th take, was it? And if you have any question marks about Tom's rendition of Jimmy Carter there, let me just emphasise, it was a lot better than the previous 23 takes.
Which he sounded very like Shane Warne for a lot of the time.
He did. So what we're going to be telling in this series is the story of the fall of the Shah and the rise of the Ayatollahs, the capture of the US embassy in Tehran, this extraordinary moment when 66 Americans were held hostage for 444 days, and Jimmy Carter's disastrous attempt, Operation Eagle Claw, to rescue them, which ended in disaster and tragedy.
How did the Shah's modernization efforts impact Iranian society?
And Dominic, again, just to say, we are recording this in the immediate aftermath of the US raid on Caracas, which was, in military terms, an incredible success. And I guess what happens in Iran with Carter is the polar opposite.
Absolute disaster. It is. So it's an incredibly dramatic story, but one that has really, really serious repercussions. So first of all, this story, what happens in Iran in the late 1970s, completely overturns the diplomatic chessboard of the Middle East. It turns Iran from one of America's closest regional allies into an implacable opponent, an opponent that today is making drones used by the Russians in Ukraine, for example. And secondly, and I know this is something that you find fascinating, Tom, this is the story of the Islamic Revolution. Arguably, I would say the only global revolution comparable with the French and the Russian revolutions in terms of its dramatic cultural and political consequences.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What led to the Iranian Revolution in 1979?
0:10–1:56
2
What was the relationship between President Carter and the Shah of Iran?
1:56–3:58
3
How did the Shah's modernization efforts impact Iranian society?
3:58–6:01
4
Who was Ayatollah Khomeini and what was his role in the revolution?
6:01–7:34
5
What were the socio-economic conditions in Iran during the 1970s?
7:34–9:25
6
How did the U.S. perceive the political situation in Iran?
9:25–11:01
7
What events escalated the protests against the Shah in 1978?
11:01–12:43
8
What were the consequences of the revolution for Iran and the U.S.?
12:43–1:14:54
Speakers
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