ABSTRACT
Contrary to the expectations of experts, the Islamic Revolution of Iran persisted, its government stabilized and its hold on Iranian society consolidated in spite of the many and powerful challenges it had faced since it came to power in 1979. The Islamic Republic survived a devastating and immensely costly eight-year war with Iraq, a crippling economic and arms embargo imposed by the West, a campaign of assassinations of its leadership by internal enemies as well as political opposition from varied opponents. The political, social and economic turmoil in the Islamic Republic, caused by internal opposition of the Mojahedeen, the liberals and the left as well as the ethnic minorities, was only surpassed by the active efforts of the external enemies to destabilize and destroy the Islamic regime. Iran was isolated without allies in Western Europe or the Middle East except for Syria. Perhaps only the Cold War saved the Islamic Republic from a potential direct Western/American assault or war. Instead, the United States, Western Europe, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, and the Soviet Union aided Iraq’s war effort against Iran. The final military impasse between Iraq and Iran before the ceasefire in August 1988 was possible partly because the United States supplied Iraq with crucial military intelligence.
