The Shah was hated immensely in Iran and was going to fall eventually. However, Carter's naive stupidity took a bad situation and made it much, much worse by throwing everything into fast forward and giving Khomeini the opening he needed.
The entire Carter Administration was full of bumbling fools who had no business directing American domestic and foreign policy. We have been paying the price for their stupidity for the last 28 years.
Would it be more correct to say that the much earlier overthrow of Mosadeq (sp?) by the CIA set this train in motion?
My cousin is married to an Iranian she met in grad school and they were living in Tehran when the Shah was overthrown. They came back to the US ASAP.