One of the first actions that the United States would take in Iran was to force Mohammed Mossadegh from power and into exile. Mossadegh had gained political power during World War II, becoming prime minister of Iran in 1951. Mossadegh, under the leadership of the nationalist party, soon began competing for control of Iran. The United States, perceiving Mossadegh as a threat to American interests in the region and using the excuse that Mossadegh would let the Soviet Union's communist regime re-established control in Iran that they had shared before the war. In the spring of 1953, Operation AJAX began when CIA agents hired Iranian mobs to create trouble and uprisings within the country. Through growing pressure, much of it by the CIA, Mossadegh was forced to flee the country in mid-August, but he was soon arrested and sentenced to three years in jail.
The United States, realizing how important Iran was strategically and economically, began to forge an even stronger relationship with Iran and the shah. Military and economic aid was extended to Iran by Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy. The shah further secured his power as leader of Iran by making oil agreements with various European nations and the United States. When President Johnson took office in 1964, the shah promised to protect American interests in the region, encouraging more support by the United States. Also in 1964, the Iranian legislature passed a controversial law which gave American military personnel stationed in Iran immunity from prosecution under the law which only foreign diplomats shared.
The passing of the immunity act in 1964 was resented by many Iranian citizens, resentment which they focused against the United States. They saw the US gaining more and more control over their government and their own affairs. One of the most outspoken opponents of the agreement was the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who called the shah a traitor for bargaining with the United States. This then, led to Khomeini's exile from Iran, another major blow for many Iranians dissatisfied with growing American involvement.
Resentment continued to grow against both the shah's oppressive regime but also against the United States. In the early 1970s, violence began as several American servicemen and civilians were killed in Iran. When Nixon became president, he only increased military aid to Iran. When Carter became president in 1977, he pressured the shah to create a more liberal government in order to appease his citizens and to stay on the good side of the United States.
When Khomeini soon took power in 1979 after the exile of the shah and his family, the United States did not approve. American interests in the eyes of the United States, were clearly threatened in the region as they quickly lost access to Iran's oil supply, oil that was readily available under the shah. The United States also saw the cancellation of nearly $7 billion in uncompleted arms contracts by the new Iranian government. Instead of supporting the United States, as the shah had done, Khomeini denounced both the United States and the Soviet Union, something which did not make sense to American strategists still immersed in Cold War ideology. In any case, Carter formally recognized the new Islamic government of Iran. Although Carter was less involved in Iranian affairs then many of his predecessors, his admittance of the exiled shah into the United States would spell the end to US involvement and control over Iranian affairs.
