Mosaddeq began attacks on British oil companies operating in his country, calling for expropriation and nationalization of the oil fields. The military, backed by street protests organized and financed by the CIA, overthrew Mossadeq. You just studied 2 terms!

The primary reason for the invasion was to secure Iran’s oil fields and the Trans-Iranian Railway in order to deliver supplies to the USSR.

Iran voted by national referendum to become an Islamic republic on 1 April 1979 and to formulate and approve a new theocratic-republican constitution whereby Khomeini became supreme leader of the country in December 1979. The revolution was unusual for the surprise it created throughout the world.

Why did the United States support the overthrow of an elected Guatemalan president? Communist sympathy and anti-American sentiment increased. What effect did U.S. covert actions have on American influence in Latin America and the Middle East?

On April 24, 1980, an ill-fated military operation to rescue the 52 American hostages held in Tehran ends with eight U.S. servicemen dead and no hostages rescued.

In the Western world, Persia (or one of its cognates) was historically the common name for Iran. On the Nowruz of 1935, Reza Shah asked foreign delegates to use the Persian term Iran (meaning the land of Aryans in Persian), the endonym of the country, in formal correspondence.

Its causes continue to be the subject of historical debate and are believed to have stemmed partly from a conservative backlash opposing the westernization, modernization and secularization efforts of the Western-backed Shah, as well as from a more popular reaction to social injustice and other shortcomings of the …