Sheldon Richman on the U.S.’s Blown Chance To Reconcile With Iran

In
the late 1980s the U.S. government had an opportunity to change its
relationship with Iran from hostile to nonadversarial. It had been
hostile since 1979, when the Islamic revolution overthrew the
brutal U.S.-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and Iranians held 52
Americans hostage for more than a year. Then suddenly, in April
1992, the administration changed course. Why? Sheldon Richman
highlights one compelling reason: the CIA and Pentagon feared their
budgets and staffs would be slashed with the end of the Cold War,
and needed a new antagonist. 

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