Key Figures
Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi (The Shah of Iran): Muhammad was the leader of Iran from 1941 to1979. During that time, he launched a reform program in Iran, with U.S. support, called the "White Revolution." Although promoting literacy and land redistribution among citizens, the grassroots population was increasingly isolated from Iran's growing wealth as a result of the oil industry. Many, particularly the traditional Muslim community, came to see Muhammad as only a puppet of the west, namely the United States. With the support of his oppressive secret police force, the Shah became more repressive on the people of Iran. This led to massive rioting and a revolution in Iran in 1978, forcing the Shah to leave Iran in October 1979. Through his admittance into the United States to seek medical treatment for cancer, the Shah helped to create the conflict which would lead to the hostage crisis. Although under pressure by Iranian revolutionaries, the Shah never returned to Iran and instead, died in Egypt in July 1980.
United States Political Involvement in Iran in the Decades Before the Crisis
Key Figures
Jimmy Carter: President of the United States (1977-1981); Carter's allowance for the exiled Shah of Iran to enter the United States instigated the taking of the hostages in the American embassy in Tehran. His handling of the crisis, including refusing to send the Shah back to Iran for trial and sending a secret rescue operation in order to bring back the hostages further infuriated the captors and prolonged the crisis. Although trying desperately to get the hostages returned, Carter was unsuccessul and was soon voted out of office in the presidential elections of 1980.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini: Iranian Shiite religious leader. Educated in Islam, he was designated ayatollah, a supreme religious leader, by the Iranian community. Khomeini was forced into exile in 1964 after criticizing the Shah of Iran. After establishing a powerful religious following in Iraq, Khomeini was again, forced to leave in 1978 by Saddam Hussein, spending a brief period in France. After the revolution began that deposed the Shah of Iran, Khomeini returned triumphantly to Iran in 1979, declared an Islamic republic there. Khomeini then began to exercise ultimate authority within the nation. Soon after gaining authority in Iran, Khomeini and others demanded the return of the Shah of Iran to face trial for criminal offenses he committed while Shah. When the United States refused to send the Shah back after admitting him into the U.S., Khomeini encouraged student demonstrators to storm the American embassy and take hostages in order to barter the return of the Shah. His hatred for western traditions and their influence on Iran caused Khomeini to reassert Islamic law and beliefs within the nation and his government soon became as corrupt as the Shah's. When he died in 1989, Khomeini had managed to plunge Iran into economic recession as well as putting Iran back decades in technological and social developments that had been accomplished under the Shah.
Ronald Reagan: President of the United States (1981-1989); Elected president after the failure of Carter to get the American hostages freed. Reagan, soon after being elected president, was able to work out a secret agreement with the hostages' Iranian captors which called for the hostages to be released soon after Reagan was sworn in as president so that the hostages would be released on Reagan's watch and thus, get the credit for freeing the hostages. Hours after being inaugurated president, the hostages were freed in exchange for the release of $8 billion in Iranian assets that had been frozen by the United States soon after the conflict began. Reagan was given all the glory, although it had been much of the work of Carter which had actually gotten the hostages to be freed.
