Free Republic

New depths to Jimmy Carter’s fecklessness have emerged through the declassification of State Department cables relating to the fall of the Shah of Iran. As reported by the BBC, the Ayatollah Khomeini, in January 1979, secretly sought Carter’s assistance in overcoming opposition from Iran’s military, still loyal to the shah. Khomeini promised that if he could return to Iran from exile in France, which the United States could facilitate, he would prevent a civil war, and his regime would not be hostile to Washington. The soon-to-be Supreme Leader of Iran certainly knew a sucker when he saw one. What Carter...

New information has come to light, showing how former US President Jimmy Carter blindly accepted false promises and helped Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini carry out the Iranian Revolution. From 1941 to 1979, Iran was ruled by Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, better known as the Shah (meaning "king"). Pahlavi's modernization and anti-Communist policies won the backing of many Western countries, which saw oil-rich Iran as a valuable ally in a tumultuous region. At the same time, though, his secularism and suppression of political opponents left him strongly disliked domestically. Pahlavi's regime was ultimately overthrown in the 1979 revolution, led by Ayatollah Sayyid...

On 27 January, 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini — founder of Iran’s Islamic Republic, the man who called the United States “the Great Satan” — sent a secret message to Washington. From his home in exile outside Paris, the defiant leader of the Iranian revolution effectively offered the Carter administration a deal: Iranian military leaders listen to you, he said, but the Iranian people follow my orders. If President Jimmy Carter could use his influence on the military to clear the way for his takeover, Khomeini suggested, he would calm the nation. Stability could be restored; America’s interests and citizens in...