Persepolis--Extended Analysis

In the 1950’s Britain had control over Iran’s oil industry because it owned the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. Although one would expect enormous oil reserves to be quite lucrative for the host company, the oil industry was not pulling Iran out of general poverty. Britain refused to pay the asked percentage of its profits to Iran so the industry was nationalized to increase government revenue. Because of the nationalization of the Iranian oil industry Britain and the United States organized an embargo on Iranian oil which ruined Iran’s fragile economy.

The American government (specifically the CIA) then aided in a coup against the Iranian government which place a new leader, known as the Shah, in power. The restructuring of the Iranian government put the large oil companies back into the hands of Britain, but this time forty percent of the company belonged to the U.S. Khomeini

With a now Western-friendly government in tact, Iran became the premier importer of U.S. military supplies. The economy grew quickly with the support of the Western nations. Economic profit however, was unequal; many remained in poverty and the new regime imprisoned and tortured several thousand political activists.

After public rallies and activism against him, the Shah stepped down and left the country in the hands of the revolution’s leader, Khomeini. Khomeini brought an Islamic theme and anti-Western sentiment into the Iranian government. The revolution and change of power brought on a social upheaval that left Iran weak.

Iraq, which considered Iran a threat to its cause, invaded Iran hoping that its adversary’s revolutionary instability would lead to a quick finish with Iraq as the victors. However, the war turned out to be much longer than expected.

Both countries had been building up large arsenals before the war and Iran had the advantage of sheer manpower. The United States had trouble picking sides: Iran had an unstable regime which could pose a threat later on; on the other hand, Hussein was considered to be slightly less dangerous and had the support of the Soviet Union. The greatest fear for many western nations was that one of the warring nations would eventually win over the other and become a regional superpower. If this were to happen, the oil reserves of the regions would be left in uncertain hands. The documents of powerful politicians during the period show a deep interest in the future of the oil fields in the region. Thus, the United States, among other nations, had little else they could do but claim neutrality from the entire situation.

However, as the conflict dragged on, America began to see the Islamic government as more of a threat than Hussein’s tyrannical rule. Thus, the U.S. began a covert “tilt” towards Iraq. This meant that the U.S. aided Iraq with extra funds sent over and secret military information was shared. The exchanges were made even more covert when Iran reported Iraq’s use of chemical weapons to the U.N. Security Council. When the U.N. confirmed the use of chemical weapons by Iraq, (using intelligence supplied by the United States) the U.S. bolstered security on Iranian oil refineries and ports.

During the eight year war, Iran took several American hostages who were finally saved by trading arms for the American citizens. Over the course of the eight-year war it is possible that more than a million people were killed in the region. Although the U.N. recommended a cease-fire, which meant no nations were supposed to aid on either side, at least ten nations helped the two combatants over the course of the war including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, the United States, France, Germany, and the Soviet Union.


WORKS CITED

Shalom, Steven. "The United States and The Iran-Iraq War." 1997. 1 May 2007 .

"The 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War: A CWIHP Critical Oral History Conference ." Cold War International History Project. 2004. Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. 1 May 2007 .

"The Iran-Iraq War." Jewish Virtual Library. 2007. American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. 1 May 2007 .

Battle, Joyce. "Shaking Hands With Saddam Hussein: The U.S. Tilts Towards Iraq, 1980-1984." The National Security Archive. 25 Feb 2003. 1 May 2007 .

Sepehri, Saman. "Twenty-Five Years After The Iranian Revolution." Socialist Workers Online. 27 Feb 2004. Socialist Workers. 1 May 2007 .

This research took me more than three hours to put together. Most of all it was hard finding credible sources, I must have paged through at least twenty sources but it was hard to find something that wasn’t published with the sole purpose of making America look bad, although that’s not hard to do with this situation. I decided to do this research because I felt like Satrapi gave a crash course in the history and seemed very mad at America but I wasn’t completely aware of why. I think this clears it up.