EKIP– Expert Club for Economics and Politics A Different Opinion
Did you forget the Oscars? How a propaganda film tells the story of how a CIA studio rescued American diplomats in Iran. What is the story behind the events in "Argo" and is it a coincidence that it won the Academy Award?
Excited crowds, headscarves, waving fists, sweaty palms, clutching posters with anti-American slogans - this is not Ben Affleck's Hollywood production "Argo", and this time the US embassy in Tehran is not under attack - there hasn't been one like that for three decades.
On February 11, the streets of major Iranian cities were filled with demonstrators, triumphantly raising portraits of Ayatollah Khomeini and his successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Tehran was marking the 34th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution, which overthrew the monarchy in 1979 and established the conservative Islamist regime of Ayatollah Khomeini. In the capital’s central Azadi (Freedom) Square, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivered a fiery address to the crowd: “Iran will not retreat a single step in defending its fundamental rights,” alluding to Western sanctions aimed at forcing Tehran to abandon its nuclear program.
Where did the rift with the United States begin, transforming the Persian state from a key ally of the West in the Middle East into a threat to international security? The answer lies back in history, more than half a century ago.
The Iranian Hostage Crisis 1979 -1981
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, came to power in 1941. His father, Reza Shah Pahlavi, was forced by the Anglo-Soviet troops occupying Iran to abdicate because of his close ties to Nazi Germany. In this way, the United States and Great Britain secured a pro-Western leader on the throne of the Persian state. In 1951, a political crisis occurred. The nationalist movement of Mohammad Mossadegh, which had a majority in Parliament, decided to nationalize oil production and processing. Mossadegh, who received the support of the Iranian army, was elected Prime Minister of Iran, and the Shah was forced to leave the country and temporarily settle in Italy.
In 1953, the CIA and MI6 organized a successful coup to restore the Iranian Shah to the throne. US President Dwight Eisenhower believed that Iran was of paramount importance to the US as a partner in anti-Soviet policy, a solid supplier of oil to the US state and a major buyer of US military equipment. Anti-American sentiment in Iran escalated during this period - Iranians blamed the US for the high level of poverty and social insecurity against the backdrop of corruption and waste in power. In 1978, the leader of the Iranian opposition appeared on the scene - the elderly Ayatollah Khomeini, who lived in exile in Paris and from there called and directed his supporters in Iran. They organized strikes and riots on the streets of Tehran. Pressed by popular discontent, the Shah fled Iran with his family and a large part of the state treasury. Influenced by the logic of Cold War bloc opposition, the Jimmy Carter administration feared that Khomeini would become a conduit for Soviet policy in the Middle East. It overlooked the ideology of his fundamentalist movement, which denounced both the American and Soviet socio-political models with equal hatred.
Meanwhile, under pressure from David Rockefeller and Henry Kissinger, the Shah, terminally ill with lymph node cancer, was accepted for treatment in the United States. The patience of the thousands of protesters in front of the American embassy in Tehran was running out, and on November 4, 1979, they stormed the diplomatic mission, detaining nearly 100 employees. Ayatollah Khomeini threatened that the diplomats would not be released until the United States extradited Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to Iran, where he would be hanged.
Jimmy Carter's failure to negotiate the release of the American hostages was probably the main reason he did not win a second term in the White House. In his book "The Pursuit of Globalism," historian Stephen Ambrose claims that the winner of the 1980 election, Ronald Reagan, made a secret deal with Khomeini to hold the diplomats until he took office, then pay a ransom for them and take credit for their rescue. The hostage crisis ended precisely on January 20, 1981, the day the new American president took office. Iran agreed to receive a ransom of $8 billion, of which $5 billion was deducted to cover Iranian debts to American and European banks.
The 1979-1981 American hostage crisis was a turning point in American-Iranian relations. Although the two countries do not have diplomatic relations, the Pakistani embassy in Washington has an Iranian diplomatic attaché to the United States, and the Swiss embassy in Tehran has an American attaché. The Iranian Revolution was one of the epochal events of the 20th century, initiating a revival of Islamic values in a number of countries in the Middle East and a rejection of Western-style modernization. Islamic fundamentalism, the policies of Shah Mohammad Reza, which led to polarization and social inequality, and the repressive methods used by the secret police SAVAK to neutralize internal threats to power, played a key role in this process.
"Argo" - "If I'm going to make a fake movie, at least let it be a fake hit"
(Warning, the following lines contain spoilers!)
Antonio Mendez is a CIA agent tasked with the task of extracting six American diplomats from Iran who were holed up in the Canadian embassy in Tehran. His briefing to the CIA[1] makes it clear that he is opposed to the idea of using Delta Force commandos to carry out the mission. After the failure of Operation Eagle Claw a year later, Mendez's decision seems entirely justified.[2]
Inspired by the fate of the six State Department employees, Ben Affleck became the director of the acclaimed political thriller Argo. However, the film caused discontent from the Foreign Office in Britain, due to the historical discrepancy between the Hollywood version and the events during the Iranian Revolution. Sir John Graham, the British ambassador to Iran at the time, was indignant: “It is not true that we sent them away. We were helping them all the time [...] When I heard about it, I was deeply offended. My anger has subsided now, but I am still bitter that the filmmakers interpreted it so badly,” commented the 86-year-old Graham. Mark Lizek, one of the six rescued Americans, told the story firsthand in Slate.fr two months ago.[3] In the first week after the attack, the fugitives changed hideouts in total five times, including the Swedish embassy, the residence at the British embassy, private homes of acquaintances, and eventually received asylum in the Canadian diplomatic mission.
David Hoagland, culture editor at Slate[4], believes that all the dangers and adventures that Ben Affleck's character and the six Americans go through in the film are greatly exaggerated. In reality, Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor and another embassy official, John Sherdon, were much more involved in the rescue operation than the film suggests. The two went to the airport for a preliminary inspection, brought and sent people to Tehran to study how the security system worked before Tony Mendez arrived, bought the tickets for the six Americans, and even taught them a Canadian accent.
The script being prepared for the fake film is based on Roger Zelazny's book "Lord of Light." After Mendes saw the script for the film, he gave it a new name, "Argo," because it was his favorite play on words: "Knock-knock" "Who's there?" "Argo." "Argo who?" "Argo fuck yourself." It is interesting to note that until its closure, the film studio "Studio Six," created specifically for the purposes of the CIA mission, received 26 film scripts, one of which was from Steven Spielberg.
It was no surprise to anyone that “Argo” won the Oscar for best picture at this year’s Academy Awards. Not even to the Iranian media, which did not fail to comment on the unprecedented case in which the first lady of the United States announced the winner. “Argo” quite coincidentally turns out to be an anti-Iranian propaganda film, presenting Iranians as fanatical, crazy and drunken-thinking, against the backdrop of the heroic deeds of a CIA agent. Although officially banned from being shown in cinemas in the Persian state, “Argo” is of great interest to young Iranians and is being smuggled on the streets of Tehran for about 30 thousand rials ($2.45). The Iranian film industry will not be long in responding. Film producer Ataollah Salmanian plans to shoot a big-budget film that will present, in his opinion, the true story of the events surrounding the hostage crisis. The film is titled "General Staff" and will tell the story of 20 American hostages returned to the United States by Iranian revolutionaries.
