History

Iran has not been in good terms with the United States of America for quite some time and the conflict was not really directly started by the United States. Oil was the biggest issues as it was one of the most sought after source of energy by the western countries. This led to a 60- year exclusive rights deal to a Briton, William Knox D Arcy in 1901. The Anglo-Persian Oil Company was established in 1908 when oil was first mined. In 1914, the British government bought 51 of the shares. This led to British literally colonizing the Southern West of the country which affected the politics of the entire Iran. The oil company mistreated its Iranian workers, which was construed as an act of contempt and racism on their own land. )
The company refused a fifty-fifty sharing deal and the realization of how little Iran was getting from the oil mining, angered Mohammed Mossadegh. Saudi-Arabia had a deal with Armaco- an oil company- and were on a fifty-fifty sharing deal. But the Anglo-Persian Oil
Company exported all the oil to Britain. Mohammed Mossadegh observed that nationalizing oil would be the best solution for this problem. To start of this, he brought his idea to the Oil Commission which was mandated by the  Majles . He was able to gather support from the citizens and fellow politicians and later the National Front Bill for oil nationalization was approved.
Mohammed believed in an Iran that was economically independent. He believed that his country would be independent, free and democratic. He stood to fight against British political interference and economic exploitation. He believed that for a country to be politically independent it must first attain economical independence. He defended independent judicial systems, was for a corrupt-free government and stood for gender equality.  The nationalization of oil increased tension between Britain and Iran with Britain imposing sanctions and even threats of military attack. However they saw it best to oust Mohammed from power.
Britain was not in position to dethrone Mohammed and so, they sought the help of the US. Britain sought the government of President Truman who refused, citing it as a colonial and brutal action. But the change of power to President Dwight Eisenhower saw the change of US policies to Iran. The CIA was to undertake the mission of overthrowing the government of Iran. They restored Shah Pahlavi to power. The Shah signed the Consortium Agreement which saw
British and US share 80 of the oil profits. The coup was out of self-interest for the two governments- USA and Britain.
The rule of Shah Pahlavi was characterized by autocracy. He made himself head of the government whilst he was just a monarch. He would thwart or oppose strong Prime Ministers. He also abolished multi-party system of government. He revived the army which was to remain under the royal control and would be the power base of the monarch. SAVAK was an Iranian security and Intelligence organization. It was used to suppress the opponents of the Shah and was used to monitor political opponents. It would also suppress any sort of revolution and had the mandate to censor the media in ensuring sensitive information against the government did not reach the public. It was Shah s tool to protect his rule from the revolutionists, an indication of dictatorship.
Despite the Shah being autocratic he was able to achieve much in areas of economic development. He was able to distribute wealth of small and medium estates to over four million small farmers. He was also able to extend education to women as a form of modernization. There was improvement of the education system and addition of schools. Workers were involved in ownership of factories by owning of shares and other benefits. The Shah was determined to attain his economic goals of making Iran an economic power but his political side was dictatorial.

The Shah angered the Shi a s clergyman of Iran when he replaced the Islamic calendar with the monarchy s calendar. The Islamists were also angered by the mode of secularization and modernization that was taking place with women getting more of the opportunities. They were also angered by his relationship with Israel. Following the dethroning of the Shah, the students of various universities of Iran organized to take hostage of the American embassy. The embassy was the most suitable place for them to cite their objections against the American government.
The students  demands included the return of Shah Pahlavi so that he would be tried and executed in Iran. The US denied having admitted the Shah but said that he was only there for medical purposes only. The Shah was under cancer treatment at the New York Hospital.
The students also demanded the government of the United State of America to stop interfering with internal affairs of Iran and apologize.The students further demanded the release of the Iranian assets which had been frozen in the United States of America. This led to a hostage being held for 444 days.
The President of US Jimmy Carter reacted by imposing economic sanctions to the Iranian government. The oil imports from Iran were immediately stopped. The US government froze Iranian assets worth billions of dollars. The government of US further campaigned for international diplomacy against Iran. (Jimmy Carter)
The policies by President Carter were not really successful as anticipated. There were various attempts for negotiations which became futile. To sum up the failed plans, a planned military rescue mission also failed and left eight United States Servicemen dead when their
helicopter crashed. He in fact, had to stop imposing further sanctions as they worsened the situation.President Carter was not able to solve the Iran Hostage Crisis and it is widely believed it led to his defeat by Ronald Reagan in the 1980 elections.
The two countries have had a bitter diplomatic conflict and the CIA is said to have roused much controversy after its major role to dethrone Mohammed in 1953. Iranians have always sought to have there independence which was first killed when the coup took place.