Ayatollah Khomeini and the Iranian Revolution of 1979

Iranian Revolution

Most Americans born in the 1960s or very early 1970s know the name, Ayatollah Khomeini, among the men most hated by Americas in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Khomeini was the Iranian religious and political leader that returned from exile to help the overthrow of the Shah of Iran (Mohammad Reza Pahlavi) in 1979. Americans despised Khomeini because he supported the taking of hostages in the American Embassy in Tehran. This paper uses the scholarly narrative from James DeFronzo as the principal basis for an essay on the Iranian Revolution.

The Iranian Revolution and Islamic Fundamentalism -- Background

DeFronzo reports that Iran's economy was booming in the mid-1970s due to the enormous wealth that the nation's oil resources provided. Unfortunately for the majority of Iranian people, the wealth was disproportionately skimmed off and given to a minority of the citizens and the poor and politically isolated did not benefit from these riches. The Shah of Iran (who will be referred to in this paper as "the Shah") channeled a great percentage of the oil-related revenue into what DeFronzo calls "grandiose military and economic development projects," which helped to intensify the public's dislike (even hatred) of the monarch (DeFronzo, 291).

But before the events that led to the Shah having power, and his ultimate demise, the background into the Iranian Revolution has provide a good understanding of Islam, DeFronzo explains. Islam came into being based on the previous preaching and writing of the Prophet Muhammad, who was born in 571 CE in Mecca. At the age of 40, he told citizens that he had received "messages from God through the Archangel Gabriel"; those messages became what is known as the Koran, and a religion was launched based on those messages and Muhammad's teachings. After he died, according to DeFronzo, Islamic leaders elected a successor, known as a "caliph," and subsequent generations have had caliphs as spiritual and political leaders in various Muslim states. Two Islamic sects emerged from various beliefs as to who was the authority vis-a-vis the teachings of the Koran; the two sects were the Shia and Sunnis, both believers in the basic tenets of the Koran, but before the 16th century most Iranians were Sunni believers.

Iran was politically dominated by the British and the Russians in the 20th century; during World War I England's navy needed the fuel resources of Iran, and so the British-owned Anglo Persian Oil Company provided those resources at "secretly lowered prices," DeFronzo continued (294). After Russian officers (who had provided military assistance to Iran) left Iran following the Bolshevik Revolution that had succeeded in their homeland, a the new government (the Soviet Union) was formed. Soon the Soviets signed a treaty with Iran that supposedly prevented both countries from allowing their respective territories to be launching pads for aggression against the other, but that greatly concerned the British, DeFronzo continues, because England feared Bolshevism might find its way to Iran and to India.

Hence, the British began to develop a strategy that would put a leader in place who could put a strong military in place and who would be friendly to British interests. This is the point in history when the Shah was put into power in Iran.

III. The Shah's Rein and the Return of Khomeini

DeFronzo's chapter takes the reader through the 1963-1977 era -- the Shah period of power -- during which the dictator ordered his secret police (SAVAK) -- which included "thousands of full-time agents" and "tens of thousands of part-time informants" -- to crush and/or kill protestors and those simply speaking out against the Shah's autocratic regime. Meantime President Jimmy Carter of the U.S. agreed to sell weapons to Iran providing the Shah would back away from his human rights repression. So, in February 1977, 357 Iranian political prisoners were released and while "mass discontent" was spreading through the country, there was the sense that something revolutionary was emerging in the mass society, DeFronzo writes (312).

In 1978, Khomeini began making anti-Shah declarations from exile in Iraq, and those pronouncements had a powerful influence on the people of Iran, who demonstrated in mass protests. Some protestors were shot and killed by the Shah's men, and this stirred even more rage in the population. Khomeini encouraged even more demonstrations in response to the crackdown on protestors, and on September 7, 1978, over seven and a half million people marched in Tehran chanting, "Death to the shah" and "Khomeini is our leader" (DeFronzo, 314).

The next day 15,000 people demonstrated in Jaleh Square in Tehran, but they were not aware that the night before protests had been banned, and after troops surrounded the square and began firing, an estimated 3,000 people were brutally slaughtered. This massacre brought even more passion from the people and from Khomeini, who flew to France in October 1978 and with the international media broadcasting his every word, and it gave Khomeini the power to directly influence the people in Iran that wanted the Shah out. Late in October, DeFronzo explains (315), Khomeini urged oil workers to strike, and they did; soldiers once loyal to the Shah began to desert the dictator. Under huge amounts of political pressure, and suffering from cancer, the Shah left Iran on January 16, 1979, and on February 1 Khomeini arrived at the airport in Tehran where an estimated "three million people lined the streets" to welcome the religious leader, DeFronzo continued. Shortly, the Iranian military pledged loyalty to Khomeini

The debate over what form of government would replace the Shah's fascist state did not last very long, as Khomeini selected a group of clergy to form the "Islamic Revolutionary Council" -- overseeing policy until a referendum could be held. In the end, the fundamentalists held sway over the wording of the Islamic constitution, and Khomeini was securely in power (DeFronzo, 321).

That sense of enthusiasm from the revolution that tossed the Shah out of the country continued on November 4, 1979, as over four hundred "young militants stormed the [U.S.] embassy and managed to confiscate quickly many of the sought-after documents" that would verify that the CIA participated in the manipulation of power in Iran. The 53 hostages were held in the embassy for 444 days, and while DeFronzo doesn't mention this, the crisis helped challenger Ronald Reagan defeat President Jimmy Carter, who was portrayed as a weak leader because the hated Ayatollah Khomeini got the best of America.

IV. Conclusion

While DeFronzo's Chapter 7 continues past the time during which Khomeini was securely in power, and points to issues that followed the revolution, the bulk of the author's narrative up to this point is very specific and well illustrated vis-a-vis how the Iranian Revolution came to fruition. The history of Persia / Iran beginning early in the 20th century was one of exploitation by Britain and other countries -- including the U.S. -- that led to the ouster of the despotic Shah, and to the re-launching of an Islamic State. The United States should be ashamed that America basically put a demagogue into power when Eisenhower authorized the CIA to install the Shah, against the will of the sovereign Iranian government at that time. Meantime, it is part of history, there is no going back, but a better understanding of why things are the way they are today in Iran offers important perspective.