Presented by: Brady Lawson and Riley Callahan

 Growth in the oil industry throughout the Middle East caused a conflict between the old-fashioned Islamic idealisms and the modernized Western avariciousness  Iran’s leader, at the time, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi was a main supporter for the implementation of Western governments and their oil companies

 Iranian nationalists opposed the foreign alliances  They united within the leadership of Prime Minister Muhammad Mossaddeq  They seized and nationalized British oil company, after which they forced the shah to flee  The United States feared that Mossaddeq would enlist the Soviets for support so they had him arrested and returned the shah to power

 Combined with US power the shah westernized his country  Millions of Iranians, however, continued to live in poverty  The Shah attempted to limit the political influence of religion by limiting the roles of the Islamic legal and academia  The conservative Muslim leaders (aka ayatollahs) opposed this oppressive rule  They believed Western influence to be corrupting both morally and socially  They wanted Iran to be a republic ruled by the Islamic law makers

Iranian Poverty Ayatollahs Former Iranian Secret Police Member

 The leader of the ayatollahs was Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini  He lived in exile  He recorded messages which spurred strikes and starting in 1978 riots broke out all over Iran  This outbreak led to the shah fleeing in January 1979  After this Khomeini returned from his exile and established an Islamic state

 Islam was the central theme by which Khomeini instituted domestic policies  The United States took Khomeini in for medical treatment in 1979 so, with his blessing, a group of revolutionaries seized the US embassy in Tehran capturing over 60 hostages for 444 days until their release on January 20, 1981

A letter from President Carter demanding the release of the Hostages of Tehran immediately.

 Khomeini encouraged Muslim fundamentalists in other countries to overthrow their secular governments.  This only heightened tensions between Iran and Iraq because the Iraqis belonged to to the rival Sunni Muslim sect.  In 1980 war broke out between the two countries lasting for over eight years.  The United States secretly sold weapons to Iran in attempt to get their hostages released.  Over one-million Iraqis and Iranians died in the struggle.

 Following World War II Afghanistan maintained its independence from the United States and the Soviet Union until the 1950s.  The soviet union started to influence the government.  In the 1970s a Muslim revolt threatened to overthrow Afghanistan’s communist regime.  This triggered the soviet invasion in December 1979.

 The Soviets expected to stop the rebellion quickly and withdraw from Afghanistan within a year.  The Soviets ended up in Afghanistan for ten years because the Mujahideen, supplied by America with weapons, new the terrain better and used being able to blend in to their advantage.  This war closely mirrored that of the Vietnam war fought by the United States.

The United States supplied the rebels with weapons because they considered the Soviet Union a threat to the rich Middle eastern oil supplies. President Jimmy Carter warned the Soviets that any attempt to gain control of the Persian Gulf would be repelled by any means necessary. No such attempt was made by the Soviet Union. The United states also boycotted the 1980 summer Olympics in Moscow.

 In the 1980s a new soviet regime acknowledged the war’s devastating cost and decided to withdraw their troops from Afghanistan.  After a ten year occupation the Soviets finally withdraw from Afghanistan in February  By the end of the war internal unrest and economic problems were tearing the Soviet Union apart

 Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi  Iran’s leader after WWII who embraced Western influences  Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini  Head of Muslim conservative leaders whom opposed the Western move and organized several forms of protestation  Crisis in Tehran  With the ayatollah’s approval a group of men captured over 60 hostages and held them for 444 days  Saddam Hussein  Governed Iraq as a secular state in opposition of Iran  Mujahideen  Rebels in Afghanistan  Mikhail Gorbachev  Leader of a new Soviet regime which ended hostilities in Afghanistan

1. Who was Iran’s leader who embraced Westernized governments and companies? 2. What is the name of the conservative Muslim leaders, and their main headman? 3. How did the Muslim leaders wish Iran to be governed as? 4. Which Prime Minister forced the shah to leave in the early 1950’s? 5. What happened at the Tehran hostage crisis? 6. Who did the U.S secretly sell weapons to during the Iran and Iraq war and why? 7. What two advantage did the Mujahideen have over the Soviets? 8.What was the United States worried about the Soviet Union taking control of? 9. How long did the Soviet Union occupy Afghanistan.? 10.What war, fought by the United Sates, mirrors the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan? Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi Ayatollah’s and their leader was Ruholla Khomeini As a republic ruled by Islamic law Prime Minister Muhammad Mossaddeq Revolutionaries captured 60+ hostages for 444 days Iran because they hoped to get back the hostages being held by Iran They could blend in and they knew the terrain Oil supplies in the Persian Gulf 10 years The Vietnam war

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