I guess I am more sensitive to that because they killed the fathers of some classmates during the revolution. The Mullahs killed some too.
To an 18 year old kid who “believed” that governments we were in bed with would not kill their military leaders…it left a mark. Other classmates killed in the Iran/Iraq war made “more sense.”
I heard some pretty scary stories of people being disappeared and tortured that were pretty close to first hand.
That whole part of the world is messed up.
Even before Carter the US was partially to blame with insensitivity as to where they were. The US footprint in Iran was HUGE! I read (and I admit I don’t believe it!) it numbered up to 30K (military & oil worker civilians). That part of the world is NOT Europe! We treated it like it was! And yes, the Shah encouraged that US attitude. Resentment against the US was huge in Iran and fueled the revolution.