On December 31, 1977, President Jimmy Carter toasted the Shah at a state dinner at Niavaran Palace in Iran. I remember it like it was yesterday. Fresh from completing my undergrad at UCLA, I was watching the state dinner on the evening news when to my surprise, I caught a glimpse of my uncle, who was a senior Foreign Ministry official. My brother Hossein nudged me with his elbow to inquire if I’d seen him and we exchanged a surprised glance. But that was hardly the only surprise of the day. In his toast, Carter described Iran as “an island...