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September 1980

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Iraq invaded Iran

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Saddam believed that the Iranian revolution had weakened Iran militarily

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1979 Iranian Revolution

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the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty

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the ruling house of Iran from 1925 until 1979

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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

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the Shah of Iran

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ruled from 1941-1979

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wanted to seize territory

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a short, victorious war would put Iraq in dominance in the region

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not Shia majority Iran

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but Sunni governed Iraq

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not Persian religious zealots

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but secular oriented Arab Baathists

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Ba'athism

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means "renaissance"/"resurrection"

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an Arab nationalist ideology that promotes the development and creation of a unified Arab state through the leadership of a vanguard party over a progressive revolutionary government

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no one ever took Saddam Hussein for being a military genius

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he miscalculated

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got into more than his army could handle

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Iran-Iraq war lasted eight years

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January 20, 1981

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Ronald Reagan's inauguration

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Iran released Americans who had been held captive for 444 days

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enabled them to focus on the Iraqi threat

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both countries needed to acquire weapons

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Iraq had suppliers in the Soviet Union and France

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Iran need to repair its relations with the West

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releasing the hostages was one way of doing that

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Iraq-Iran war

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U.S. official stance was to avoid taking sides

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U.S. voted in favor of UN Security Council Resolution 479

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passed days after the Iraqi invasion

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Iran succeed by 1982 in turning the tables

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Iraq now on the defensive

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U.S. did not want Iran to become the dominant power in the Gulf

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Secretary of State George Schultz

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an Iran victory would intimidate and inundate US allies in the region

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U.S. abandoned neutral posture to rescue Saddam Hussein

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Iraq had severed its relations with the U.S. in 1967 in the wake of the Six-Day War

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Reagan sent Donald Rumsfeld

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a once and future Secretary of Defense

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goal was to get Iraq to lean toward the United States

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Reagan made the United States a party to the Iran-Iraq War on the side of Saddam Hussein

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resumed relations

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removed Iraq from the list of state sponsors of terrorism

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started providing Hussein with intelligence about Iranian troop movements

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U.S. helped Iraq get weapons from France and other Western nations

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Operation Staunch

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aimed to prevent Iran from acquiring new weapons

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U.S. approved Iraqi purchases of made-in-USA computers, transport planes, helicopters and navigation aids

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allowed Iraq to buy on credit

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Saddam Hussein was using chemical weapons on Iran and his own people

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The Carter Doctrine

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January 23, 1980

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the United States would use military force if necessary to defend its national interests in the Persian Gulf

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a response to the Soviet Union's intervention of Afghanistan in 1979

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modeled on the wording on the Truman Doctrine

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1947, pledged to contain Soviet threats to Greece and Turkey

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1823, Monroe Doctrine, further efforts by European nations to colonize land or interfere with states in North or South America would be viewed as acts of aggression, requiring U.S. intervention

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yet the United States was aiding a power that was also seeking preeminence in the Persian Gulf

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Iran remembered the 1953 coup in Iran backed by the United States