Us-Iran Relations During 1963-89

US-Iranian relations during 1963-89 were a crucial part of regional developments as a result of Iran’s geopolitical importance in the Middle East as a resource-rich regional power. After the re-establishment of the autocratic Pahlavi monarchy in 1953, the Shah relied on US and domestic support for the maintenance of his regime. Subsequently, in the 1960s and 70s, U.S. support faltered, and the economy and the reforms of the White Revolution failed due to corruption and inept government policy. As a consequence came the ascendancy of Ayatollah Khomeini and the subsequent Iranian hostage crisis, which strained US-Iranian relations and led to the severance of US-Iran relations and US support of Iraq in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. This led to sanctions

influence within Iran primarily through funding the White Revolution. Reforms were deemed critical under the Kennedy administration, encouraging “urgent social and economic change” (Kennedy), with American strategic thinking prioritising socio-economic reforms as a means to undercut the influence of communism in Iran. Thus, the 1963 White Revolution became a U.S.-aided reform project to influence stability and social support through a socio-economic transformation of Iran. The Shah’s ‘revolution’ promised worker’s profit sharing, land reform, the enfranchisement of women, nationalisation of natural resources and the expansion of public education via a literacy corps. However, a turning point was reached in 1963 after the Shah took personal charge over the reform program originally introduced by U.S.-supported PM Ali Amini. The program received 99.93% approval expected in a ‘national referendum’. However, the Shah’s reform package was ideologically opposed to the traditions of the predominantly Shi’a population (89%), fueling opposition from the early 1960s as reforms began to fail and the clergy began assaults on ideas of women’s suffrage. Rural peasants that had migrated to larger cities were unhappy with living in shanty towns as the Shah’s land reform proved to be a hollow promise. This gave rise to the newly formed Islamist opposition, which mixed a conservative stance against land reform and women’s suffrage with a rejection of U.S. influence in Iran. The Islamic opposition rejected the Shah’s referendum and his reforms, with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini emerging as the dominant radical voice of the movement, denouncing the Shah’s reforms as increasing Iran's subservience to the Israelis and Americans. When riots broke out in June 1963 over Kohmeini's arrest, the Shah’s repression and exile of Khomeini only increased his radicalism, where he began to use his platform to advocate