ABSTRACT
The fall of the shah of Iran in 1978-1979 offers a chance to compare the handling of two crises by the same administration--that of President Jimmy Carter. Iran was both more distant from the United States than Nicaragua and of substantially greater geopolitical significance. When Jimmy Carter succeeded Gerald Ford in the White House in 1977, he was faced with competing commitments. By the summer of 1978, foreign observers of Iran were noting the signs of breakdown in Iran's internal stability, but none was yet prepared to predict flatly that the shah would fall. Observing the lethargic posture of the shah, the ineffectually of his political maneuvers, and the increasing dominance of Khomeini over the opposition, Ambassador William H Sullivan abandoned his previously optimistic view of the regime's future. On January 1, 1979, Bakhtiar announced an ambitious reform program aiming at a "socially democratic society."
