If Jimmy "peanut brain" Carter had not been elected, would we have problems with Iran today?

Question

The Shah of Iran was pro-western, he let women go to school. But "peanut brain" didn't like him, so Iran has been an islamic country ever since.

Answer 1

Just one more thing the democrats screwed up on. Carter wasn't the only one the congressman and senators messed up too. Great observation.

Answer 2

Wow, you see the Shah differently than most. Here are some excerpts from his Wiki entry:
On his autocracy:
However, by 1975, he abolished the multi-party system of government so that he could rule through a one-party state under the Rastakhiz (Resurrection) Party in autocratic fashion. All Iranians were pressured to join in. The shah’s own words on its justification was; “We must straighten out Iranians’ ranks. To do so, we divide them into two categories: those who believe in Monarchy, the constitution and the Six Bahman Revolution and those who don’t… A person who does not enter the new political party and does not believe in the three cardinal principles will have only two choices. He is either an individual who belongs to an illegal organization, or is related to the outlawed Tudeh Party, or in other words a traitor. Such an individual belongs to an Iranian prison, or if he desires he can leave the country tomorrow, without even paying exit fees; he can go anywhere he likes, because he is not Iranian, he has no nation, and his activities are illegal and punishable according to the law” [16]. In addition, the Shah had decreed that all Iranian citizens and the few remaining political parties must become part of Rastakhiz.
On his polciies and actions:
He was notorious for his murderous acts (e.g the execution of the poet Khosrow Golsorkhi, the intellectual Bijan Jazani and the Foreign Minister Dr. Fatemi as well as the assassination of the journalist Mohammad Masood, among many others), his extravagant expenses (such as the Persepolice carnival or Aryamehr Tennis Tournament in the face of dire poverty in the country), and his socio-economic blunders (for example forced removal of low-income families from the prosperous parts of various cities to the remote distict such as Kooye Nohom-e Aban in Tehran which was far away from the economic centre of city where these workers could have found jobs as gardeners, janitors and cleaners. This created a drug-based crime-nourished economy).
On his corruption:
The Shah accumulated an immense wealth gathered through his corruption. Nonetheless, the Shah in power lived very well, to put it mildly according to TIME. He shuttled among five palaces in Iran. Journalist Fallaci, interviewing the Shah in 1973 in one of them, noted that "almost everything in the place was gold: the ashtray that you didn't dare dirty, the box inlaid with emeralds, the knickknacks covered with rubies and sapphires."
His attitude toward women:
The Shah had no great regard for women. In 1973 he exploded at Italian Journalist Oriana Fallaci: "Does it seem right to you that a King, that an Emperor of Persia, should waste time talking about such things? Talking about wives, women? Women are important in a man's life only if they're beautiful and keep their femininity. You're equal in the eyes of the law but not, excuse my saying so, in ability."
The US support of the Shjah, training his secret police and supporting his corruption is waht led to the revolution that ousted him in exactly the same way King George's taxation of colonials led to the American revolution.

Answer 3

You are getting your history a bit mangled here. Carter was on good terms with the Shah of Iran. The Iranians didn't like him or U.S. support for him. That is why there was a take over of the U.S. Embassy in an effort to get the U.S. to send the Shah back toi Iran. Carter had nothing to do with the instituting of Islamic rule in Iran.
Iran maight not be as powerful as it is today had Ronald Reagan not sent them weapons in exchange for other hostages in the 1980's.
Yes, the Shah was pro-western and the west was pro-shah. It was the Iranian people that didn't like his autocratic and pretty much despotic rule.

Answer 4

As others have pointed out, Carter is not a 'peanut brain' nor is he responsible for the Iranians overthrowing their government. Those events were set in motion at least 20 years before Carter even took office. This article gives a good history of the politics:
-- The Roots of Radical Islam
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/27b/067.html

Answer 5

Oy vey. The Shah was a paranoid scum bag who had been imprisoning and torturing his opponents for 20 years BECAUSE the CIA helped him gain power. That's not a conspiracy theory, it's historic fact. The US propped up his regime for two decades before Carter (who worked with nuclear reactors in the navy. Hardly a "peanut brain") became president. The history is more complicated than the righties on the radio will have you believe.

Answer 6

Because Dwight "peanut brain" Eisenhower overthrew a democratically elected government in Iran and set up the Shah as a puppet dictator of the US. The Shah spent 25 years oppressing Iran and brutally killed and tortured many of its people. Of course he was pro-western, we bought his oil and equipped his military. That's what happens when you support authoritarian murderous regimes, sooner or later the people will rise up and overthrow them, and then try to take revenge against the countries that sponsored their oppressors.

Answer 7

I'm a right wing conservative, and I have to ask you to be fair in your application.

You can't blame something like that on just one man, in my opinion. There's a wide array of factors that led up to the Islamic Revolution in Iran, and Carter may have shared some responsibility.

But there's no point in digging it up just to place blame some 20 years later. We are where we are. Where do we go from here?

Answer 8

He did mismanage things horribly, but our trouble with Iran goes back a bit longer than that. BP (well, that's their name now) had been agitating for some years, but had to wait to Ike's administration to get the CIA to stage a coup. If we'd left the democracy in place, it's likely we'd be on quite good terms with them. On a personal, not governmental, level, we always seem to get on well with most Iranians. So if you want to be annoyed, you can fill up at some station that isn't BP.

Answer 9

Absolutely....Ike was the one who allowed Dulles to overthrow the elected leader of Iran in 1953, and install the Shah, who was a brutal dictator until overthrown by his own people....learn a little history it can't hurt.

Answer 10

What did Carter have to with the overthrow of the Shah...... The Shah was overthrown by his own people, the US government had propped him up for years.


I think Carter was probably the worst president in history, but WOW...at least get your facts straight

Answer 11

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