How America Armed Iran — Before the 1979 Revolution Turned It Into Enemy of America

Before Iran was America's enemy, it was America's biggest weapons customer. The US sold the Shah billions in advanced fighter jets, destroyers, missiles, and surveillance aircraft — including the F-14 Tomcat, the most powerful interceptor ever built, a jet so exclusive that only the US Navy was allowed to fly it. American technicians flooded into Iranian cities by the thousands. CIA officers trained Iran's secret police. And Nixon personally signed a blank check allowing the Shah to buy any weapon he wanted, no questions asked.

Then, in 1979, a revolution swept the Shah from power — and every last piece of that American military hardware fell into the hands of a government that considered the United States to be the Great Satan.

This is the story of how America armed Iran, how those weapons were turned against American interests, and how the consequences of that decision are still shaping the Middle East today. From the 1953 CIA coup that started it all, to the hostage crisis that ended the alliance, to the nuclear program that America itself helped create — this is a chapter of history that explains more about the current US-Iran standoff than anything you'll hear on the news.

Sources and references used in this video include declassified State Department documents, Brookings Institution research, the National Security Archive at George Washington University, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) arms transfer data, and reporting from NPR, the National Interest, and the Office of the Historian.

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