Speaker - Mark Gasiorowski

This lecture will begin with the historic Britain-Iran connection: ‘If you lift up Khomeini’s beard, you will find “MADE IN BRITAIN” stamped on his chin.’ After Iran’s 1978-1979 revolution, US and British officials sought a cooperative, mutually-beneficial relationship with the country’s new leaders. Contrary to what many believed, the CIA did not undertake covert political operations against the new regime and, in fact, rejected many opportunities to do so. The CIA in fact began an extraordinary intelligence-sharing initiative with the British that culminated in a warning that Iraq was preparing to invade Iran. These efforts ended when radical Islamists seized the US embassy in November 1979. Mark Gasiorowski is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at Tulane University. He taught previously at Louisiana State University and has been a Visiting Fellow at St. Antony’s College, Oxford, and a Visiting Professor at Tehran University. He is the author of US Foreign Policy and the Client State and the editor, with Malcolm Byrne, of the acclaimed Mohammad Mosaddeq and the 1953 Coup in Iran.