By Barry Rubin
Presidential candidate Ron Paul has said repeatedly that Iranians hate America because of its role in the 1953 coup overthrowing Prime Minister Muhammad Mossadegh. Similarly, Paul frequently claims that the September 11th attacks were a response to a supposed decade-long U.S. bombing of Iraq. In fact, about the only bombing of Iraq done by the United States in the last 20 years was for two weeks at the start of the 2003 war and one time in retaliation against an assassination plot against former President George H.W. Bush.
But people know far less about the 1953 case, though it has long been a source of complaint by left-wing critics of U.S. foreign policy. I was the first scholar to see the U.S. government records for the crisis when writing my book, “Paved with Good Intentions: The American Experience and Iran,” in 1979. Here is a brief summary of the key points.
Presidential candidate Ron Paul has said repeatedly that Iranians hate America because of its role in the 1953 coup overthrowing Prime Minister Muhammad Mossadegh. Similarly, Paul frequently claims that the September 11th attacks were a response to a supposed decade-long U.S. bombing of Iraq. In fact, about the only bombing of Iraq done by the United States in the last 20 years was for two weeks at the start of the 2003 war and one time in retaliation against an assassination plot against former President George H.W. Bush.
But people know far less about the 1953 case, though it has long been a source of complaint by left-wing critics of U.S. foreign policy. I was the first scholar to see the U.S. government records for the crisis when writing my book, “Paved with Good Intentions: The American Experience and Iran,” in 1979. Here is a brief summary of the key points.
No comments:
Post a Comment