The Iran-Contra Affair

Throughout its history, America has found herself involved in many sphere of influence circumstances. The United States in the past two hundred years has been the driving force of Democracies throughout the world. America has been submerged in operations from Latin America to the Middle East. Being this Global Force has created many complicated and messy situations, one of them being the Iran-Contra Affair. In no other reality would the countries Nicaragua and Iran ever come into the same sentence, but these two countries played a critical role in American History. It also brings about the simple question of why? Why are these countries so important? Why was the Reagan Administration involved in this and what was it that made them become

Both superpowers were eager to claim territory and spread their ideologies and the Middle East was no different. Both countries wanted to spread their influence throughout the Middle East and also be a part of the vast wealth many of the Countries in the Middle East own.

After 1953 Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, referred to as “the Shah” took power and ruled Iran as a secular ruler. Throughout his reign in power, The Shah became increasingly focused in westernizing Iran and started to have close relations with the United States. After the increase of modernization in Iran and the reductions of traditional religious values, the Iranian people began to grow displeased with the Shah and riots broke out in 1978. Many of the riots were in protest to the Shahs growing western political ties and an anti-west, more religiously tied group began to form. After increased pressure, the Shah left Iran in January of 1979 and Ayatollah Khomeini declared Iran as an Islamic state. Ayatollah Khomeini was a former prominent religious leader that was in opposition to the Shahs rule and was once exiles to Paris. Ayatollah Khomeini’s platform was one of traditional religious Islam and complete resistance to Democracy and Westernization. Under this anti-Western rule, Iran was no longer one of the United States key allies in the Middle East. Not only did the U.S want to maintain Iran because of its huge oil supply but they did not want the Soviet Union to have any influence over