United States' Support for Iran's Independence and Integrity, 1945-1959

Abstract

Iran served as a catalyst which changed the American perception of the nature of Soviet policies in the postwar period and provided the first stimulus for a radical reorientation of U.S. foreign policy and strategy. American policy toward Iran was formulated in stages corresponding to the crisis involving Iran, its close neighbors, and the Soviet Union. The process began with the Azerbaijan crisis of 1945-46; it followed the Greek-Turkish crisis of 1947, and the Iranian oil crisis of 1951-53. United States policy was expressed in (a) unilateral—direct or indirect—support for Iran's independence, as exemplified by specific and general policy statements and actions of the Truman era; (b) multilateral defense arrangements of the Eisenhower period (Baghdad Pact, 1955) ; and (c) bilateral security agreements with the Northern Tier states, including Iran, in 1959. As a result, the American policy of containment of international communism, with specific reference to Iran, could be regarded as having achieved its objective.