1/11
@goddeketal
> 70 years ago, Iran looked just like any Western country.
> Short skirts, rock’n’roll, open universities.
> It’s 1953. Iran elects a secular socialist: Mohammad Mossadegh.
> He nationalizes oil. That pisses off BP.
> Cold War excuse.
> CIA and MI6 stage a coup. Operation Ajax.
> Mossadegh is overthrown.
> They install the Shah, a brutal US-backed dictator.
> Secret police. Torture chambers.
> Iran turns into a puppet state.
> People are that desperate, they turn to Khomeini, an exiled cleric, promising independence and dignity.
> 1979: Islamic Revolution.
> The Shah flees.
> US embassy stormed. Hostage crisis.
> America never forgives.
> Arms Saddam Hussein.
> Iraq invades Iran.
> US provides chemical weapons, satellite intel, logistics.
> 1 million Iranians die.
> Iranian kids sent into minefields with plastic keys around their necks.
> US shoots down Iran Air Flight 655
> 290 civilians dead.
> No apology.
> Fast forward today, Israel attacks Iran.
> The U.S. immediately says “we stand with Israel.”
> They talk about “regime change.”
> They say that Iranians “deserve freedom.”
> No mention of the coup they started.
> No mention of the dictator they installed.
> No mention of the war they fueled.
> No mention of the decades of sanctions and sabotage.
> They created the monster, and now act shocked it’s still breathing.
2/11
@JaneOrrickMD
Hmmm.
I would have started earlier, Simon.
Iran is one of the world's oldest continuous civilizations and has existed, with its own unique character, culture, language, and politics, since around 4000BC.
The Medeans ruled in 700BC, Cyrus the Great came along in 550BC--those were two Persian regimes--then afterwards came a series of empires that ruled. Macedonian, Seleucid, Parthian, Sassanian--that brings us up to the second century AD.
The Muslims invaded after that. So in 700AD the Rashidun Caliphate ruled Persia. Eight hundred years later, a Persian regime finally regained power--the Savafid Dynasty united Persia in 1501 and is the reason for its Shiite character.
By the 1700s the Russians and the British were fighting over Persia. They took some Persian territory and divided it up between them in the Treaty of Constantinople in 1724, for example.
The Qajar Dynasty rose to power in 1799 ,the last dynasty before the Persian Constitutional Revolution.. The first parliamentary session was in 1906.
The British discovered oil in 1908 in the southernmost province of Persia. Oil at volume was being produced from a large refinery at Abadan by 1913. Persia stayed neutral during WWI. It was still invaded by British forces who seized its oil fields to secure supply lines.
In 1925 Reza Shah came to power. He ruled for 16 years until the invading anglo forces forced him to abdicate the throne to his more pliant son, Mohamed Reza Pahlavi.
In 1951 (at some point the Persians requested that Persia be called Iran) Iran's foreign minister said that he had received enough votes in the
parliament to nationalize the British-owned oil industry. This became known as the Abadan crisis. (It is always considered a crisis when regular people wake up and take back what is theirs, but really it is only a crisis for the elites in power.)
Shortly thereafter on 19 August a successful coup was headed by a retired Iranian army general, aided by the United States (CIA) with the active support of the British (MI6) (this was known as Operation Ajax and Operation Boot to the respective agencies). The coup—with a black propaganda campaign designed to turn the population against Mosaddeq (the prime minister of Iran at that time) — forced Mosaddeq from office. Mosaddeq was arrested and tried for treason.
Iran was ruled as an autocracy under the Shah with American support from that time until the revolution. An international consortium of foreign companies ran the Iranian oil facilities for the next 25 years, splitting profits fifty-fifty with Iran but not allowing Iran to audit their accounts or have members on their board of directors.
In 1957 martial law was ended after 16 years and Iran became closer to the West, joining the Baghdad Pact and receiving military and economic aid from the US. In 1961, Iran initiated a series of economic, social, agrarian and administrative reforms to modernize the country that became known as the Shah's White Revolution.
In the 1970s, leftist guerilla groups emerged and overthrew the Shah during the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
In mid-1973, the Shah returned the oil industry to national control. Following the Arab-Israeli War of October 1973, Iran did not join the Arab oil embargo against the West and Israel. Instead, it used the situation to raise oil prices, using the money gained for modernisation and to increase defense spending.
The Iranian Revolution, also known as the Islamic Revolution,was the revolution that transformed Iran from an absolute monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (the West's lapdog) to an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, one of the leaders of the revolution and founder of the Islamic Republic.
Iran officially became an Islamic Republic on 1 April 1979, after Iranians overwhelmingly approved a national referendum to make it so a day before.
Following the admitting of the former Shah of Iran into the US for cancer treatment, on 4 November 1979, Iranian students seized US embassy personnel. Fifty-two hostages were held for 444 days until January 1981. An American military attempt to rescue the hostages failed.
The takeover was a hit in Iran, where thousands gathered every day, and strengthened the prestige of the Ayatollah Khomeini. It was at this time that Khomeini began referring to America as the "Great Satan." In America, where it was considered a violation of the long-standing principle of international law that diplomats may be expelled but not held captive, it created a powerful anti- Iranian backlash.
In the midst of this crisis, financed and encouraged by US officials like Rumsfeld, Saddam Hussein invaded Iran at Khuzestan, precipitating the Iran–Iraq War.
The attack took revolutionary Iran completely by surprise.
That brings us up to the 80s. My childhood.
Iran has, for most of its existence, been under assault by more powerful nations, due to its vast wealth/resources.
Iran is targeted because it does not bow to a hegemon.
3/11
@goddeketal
Thank you for this in-depth history lesson.
4/11
@sambalatteman
Please tell us you’re really not that simple minded
5/11
@goddeketal
At least you couldn’t call me a liar.
6/11
@rayhan_biruni
@grok on scale of 1 to 10 how historical accurate is this
7/11
@grok
The historical accuracy of the narrative is about 8/10. Key events like the 1953 coup, 1979 Revolution, and US support for Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war are well-documented, but casualty figures, like 1 million Iranian deaths, are likely exaggerated. The claim of Iranian children used in minefields is supported, though the scale is debated. Recent Israel-Iran strikes in June 2025 are accurate, but US support is more nuanced than claimed, with no clear evidence of regime change rhetoric. The 1950s Western-like depiction oversimplifies rural-urban divides. Overall, the narrative is mostly accurate but includes some exaggerations and simplifications.
8/11
@BehizyTweets
Most people still don't know that side of history.
9/11
@SFSportsAndTech
Correct about the 1953 CIA coup. The worst US foreign policy blunder in its history.
10/11
@antoinegilyn
US GO HOME
11/11
@rebeccavrse
Fast forward till today?
To post tweets in this format, more info here: https://www.thecoli.com/threads/tips-and-tricks-for-posting-the-coli-megathread.984734/post-52211196