From the Tehran Hostage Crisis to Today’s Unrest: How Iran and America Became Bitter Enemies
On November 4, 1979, the phone rang inside the United States State Department. The call was from the American Embassy in Tehran. On the line was officer Elizabeth Swift, her voice rushed and breathless. She reported that Iranians had launched an attack. Protesters were climbing the embassy walls, flooding the compound. The embassy could fall at any moment.
As Swift stayed on the call, chaos escalated. The attackers set the first floor of the embassy on fire. Staff members ran toward the exits, forcing the main gate open in desperation. Just before the line went dead, Swift’s final words were chilling: “We are going down.” The embassy was on the verge of destruction.
Within minutes, American diplomats and staff were taken hostage. Their eyes were blindfolded. They were forbidden to speak or see anything. When the news reached Washington, the entire U.S. government swung into action. President Jimmy Carter monitored every update. Soon, television screens showed a scene that shook even the most powerful man in the world: American citizens, diplomats, and embassy staff were being paraded through Tehran streets, while crowds behind them shouted slogans demanding their deaths. The entire world watched as Iran brought the global superpower, the United States, to its knees.
Oil, Power, and the British-American Gaze
The roots of this confrontation ran deep. By the early 1950s, nearly half a century after oil was discovered in Iran, the real battle was over petroleum. Oil that made the United States and Britain salivate. At the time, these two powers dominated global politics, and it did not take long for their companies to gain control over Iran’s vast oil reserves.
In 1951, Iran held elections that brought Mohammad Mossadegh to power as prime minister. Although educated in Europe, Mossadegh was a nationalist at heart. For years, Iran had suffered losses because its oil industry was effectively controlled by foreign powers. One of Mossadegh’s first decisions as prime minister was to nationalize Iran’s oil industry, placing it under Iranian government control.
This move struck Washington and London like a dagger. When diplomacy failed to reverse the decision, the two countries turned to conspiracy. The CIA and Britain’s MI6 joined forces to remove Mossadegh from power.