Relationship with Iran pt.2

Jackson Pearson

May 18, 2015

USH

I Pledge

Relationship with Iran

           Many People have no idea of the history between the United States and Iran. Most people think that the United States and Iran have never had good relations, and that Iran has been the one in the country’s relations causing all the issues. This is mostly true, however, the United States has played a role in molding the country’s relationship into what it is today. Many past issues and more current issues have developed the relationship into how it is, starting with the overthrow of Mossadeqin in 1953, to present day with the United States being pressed with the issue of allowing or not allowing the Iranian government to have a nuclear program.

            In 1953, the United States’ CIA joined with the British Intelligence Agency to devise a plan to remove Iran’s Prime Minister, Mohammad Mossadeq. They orchestrated Operation Ajax and after it had been executed, the Prime Minister was no longer in control of Iran. The reasoning for the removal of Mohammed Mossadeq was because he had intentions of nationalizing Iran’s oil industry. This would of course be very costly for the United States and Great Britain. Whether it was right for the United States to intervene in another country’s government is debatable, if we had not came into their nation’s affairs there is a possibility that the relationship would be much better than it is today. However, if the United States had not taken the Leader out of power then the costs of the oil would have sky rocketed and caused the U.S. economy to enter a downward spiral.

            The years following Operation Ajax went as the United States had planned, they would back a new leader to lead the country and essentially do as the U.S. wished. But in 1979 this period of rest came to an end. The Iranian population had finally forced the Shah to leave the country. The people of Iran had been on strike for months opposing the Shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlevi. Majority of strikers were religiously oppose to him being in power and many of the people wanted him to be in exile. When he left the country it was very bad for the United States, this is because they not only lost their “puppet” but they also did not know who would be the leader to come into power.

            Not even a month after the Shah was forced from the country, Ayatollah Khomeini returned from exile to create the Islamic Republic of Iran. There was not only a new man in power but in the same year 52 United States servicemen were taken as hostages. However, they were not taken as hostages for no reason, President Carter had allowed the old Shah to enter the U.S. to receive medical treatment. The Iranians did not see it as okay that Carter had allowed him to enter. Once the people of Iran heard of the United States doing this they immediately stormed the U.S. embassy taking all but the 13 women as hostages. The U.S. military took action, executing Operation Eagle Claw, but due to a sandstorm the plan ended in a disastrous 8 servicemen dying.

            After 444 days the hostages were released after Ronald Reagan was elected as president. After the Hostage Crisis the U.S. went nearly a decade without another horrible issue. The quiet time between Iran and the United States came to an end when the U.S. naval vessel, The USS Vincennes, shot down an Iranian passenger plane. Not only was it horrible that all the innocent people were killed, but it was also horrible because Iran did not believe at all that the act was an accident. The Iranian government and Iranian people both believed that the naval ship had purposely shot down the passenger plane, even though the ship claims they warned the plane and thought it was a fighter plane. The idea that the U.S. shot down a passenger plane on purpose spread like wild fire. Sparking more opposition to the United States by the people in Iran. By this point in history, the relationship between the two countries was at a new level of tension.

            After the passenger plane incident there was not much that had happened up until years closer to the present. In the past decade the Iranian government has been accused of the development of a nuclear program. The UN and the U.S. have been unsure of the intentions of the development of a nuclear program, whether it is strictly for nuclear power and research, or for the development of nuclear weapons.

                I believe that many of the issues that have risen in the past sixty years have been preventable. Many things could have been stopped, many tension creating events could have been avoided, and many lives could have been saved if the Iranian and United States governments had worked differently when dilemmas arise.

                In more than half a century of events the relationship between Iran and the U.S. has been changed and put under an unbelievable amount of stress and tension. What has been done by both countries cannot be undone and whether the decisions made were morally right or wrong are always up for discussion. From the removal of a leader to the shooting down of a passenger plane, the U.S. has destroyed the chances of the relationship the two countries could have had.

******************SOUCES AND PICTURES ON PREVIOUS POST*******************

Relationship with Iran

Jackson Pearson

May 15, 2015

USH- Research paper
I pledge

United States Relations with Iran

            Many People have no idea of the history between the United States and Iran. Most people think that the United States and Iran have never had good relations, and that Iran has been the one in the country’s relations causing all the issues. This is mostly true, however, the United States has played a role in molding the country’s relationship into what it is today. Many past issues and more current issues have developed the relationship into how it is, starting with the overthrow of Mossadeqin in 1953, to present day with the United States being pressed with the issue of allowing or not allowing the Iranian government to have a nuclear program.

            In 1953, the United States’ CIA joined with the British Intelligence Agency to devise a plan to remove Iran’s Prime Minister, Mohammad Mossadeq. They orchestrated Operation Ajax and after it had been executed, the Prime Minister was no longer in control of Iran. The reasoning for the removal of Mohammed Mossadeq was because he had intentions of nationalizing Iran’s oil industry. This would of course be very costly for the United States and Great Britain. Whether it was right for the United States to intervene in another country’s government is debatable, if we had not came into their nation’s affairs there is a possibility that the relationship would be much better than it is today. However, if the United States had not taken the Leader out of power then the costs of the oil would have sky rocketed and caused the U.S. economy to enter a downward spiral.

The Strikers

            The years following Operation Ajax went as the United States had planned, they would back a new leader to lead the country and essentially do as the U.S. wished. But in 1979 this period of rest came to an end. The Iranian population had finally forced the Shah to leave the country. The people of Iran had been on strike for months opposing the Shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlevi. Majority of strikers were religiously oppose to him being in power and many of the people wanted him to be in exile. When he left the country it was very bad for the United States, this is because they not only lost their “puppet” but they also did not know who would be the leader to come into power.

Ayatollah Khomeini

            Not even a month after the Shah was forced from the country, Ayatollah Khomeini returned from exile to create the Islamic Republic of Iran. There was not only a new man in power but in the same year 52 United States servicemen were taken as hostages. However, they were not taken as hostages for no reason, President Carter had allowed the old Shah to enter the U.S. to receive medical treatment. The Iranians did not see it as okay that Carter had allowed him to enter. Once the people of Iran heard of the United States doing this they immediately stormed the U.S. embassy taking all but the 13 women as hostages. The U.S. military took action, executing Operation Eagle Claw, but due to a sandstorm the plan ended in a disastrous 8 servicemen dying.

            After 444 days the hostages were released after Ronald Reagan was elected as president. After the Hostage Crisis the U.S. went nearly a decade without another horrible issue. The quiet time between Iran and the United States came to an end when the U.S. naval vessel, The USS Vincennes, shot down an Iranian passenger plane. Not only was it horrible that all the innocent people were killed, but it was also horrible because Iran did not believe at all that the act was an accident. The Iranian government and Iranian people both believed that the naval ship had purposely shot down the passenger plane, even though the ship claims they warned the plane and thought it was a fighter plane. The idea that the U.S. shot down a passenger plane on purpose spread like wild fire. Sparking more opposition to the United States by the people in Iran. By this point in history, the relationship between the two countries was at a new level of tension.

            After the passenger plane incident there was not much that had happened up until years closer to the present. In the past decade the Iranian government has been accused of the development of a nuclear program. The UN and the U.S. have been unsure of the intentions of the development of a nuclear program, whether it is strictly for nuclear power and research, or for the development of nuclear weapons.

                I believe that many of the issues that have risen in the past sixty years have been preventable. Many things could have been stopped, many tension creating events could have been avoided, and many lives could have been saved if the Iranian and United States governments had worked differently when dilemmas arise.

            In more than half a century of events the relationship between Iran and the U.S. has been changed and put under an unbelievable amount of stress and tension. What has been done by both countries cannot be undone and whether the decisions made were morally right or wrong are always up for discussion. From the removal of a leader to the shooting down of a passenger plane, the U.S. has destroyed the chances of the relationship the two countries could have had.

This is a picture of the plane that was shot down.

Iran's Nuclear Facility

The Hostages from the Hostage Crisis

Sources:

1       http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-24316661

This source was incredible. I used this source the most out of all of the sources. The facts are highly reliable because of the facts being on the BBC website. This source was also very good at conveying the ideas.

2       http://www.history.com/topics/iran-hostage-crisis

This source had lots of information on the hostage crisis. I used this source for all the facts on the hostage crisis. It showed all the ideas very well and it was easy to read.

3       http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/3/newsid_4678000/4678707.stm

This source was used for the research on the passenger plane being shot down. It was short but it was easy to read and understand the information.

4       http://novaonline.nvcc.edu/eli/evans/his135/events/iran79.htm

This source was used for the Iranian revolution. It was a great source for this topic and that’s what I used it for.

5     http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/01/us-overthrew-irans-democracy-1953-1979-armed-iraq-to-invade-1980-1988-now-lies-for-more-war.html

This source was used to find facts on the overthrow of the shah in 1953. It was a blog post but I used it to find information and then check it.

6       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93United_States_relations

This source was used to get a broad understanding of the topic.

James J. Braddock: An American Life

Jackson Pearson

May 5, 2015

USH- Cinderella Man

James J. Braddock: An American Life

            The movie Cinderella Man captures the life of an American boxer, James J. Braddock, as he goes through the great depression. In the early part of the movie you see Braddock living a luxurious life with everything a man needs and more. Unfortunately for Braddock he loses his dream life when all the money he had invested into the stock market goes from dollars to pennies in a matter of one day. The movie tells the phenomenal, true story of how James J. Braddock managed to make it through the depression and how difficult it was for him, the movie is a very accurate depiction of how the depression changed people’s lives.

            As Braddock shifts from the great life to the hardly managing life, you see his mood and figure change as he has lost hope and has been malnourished. This shift was not exclusive to Braddock, in the 1930s many families had lost jobs and like Braddock could only find work one or two days out of the week. In one scene you see Braddock give his daughter his breakfast because she was not full after her small meal, this is a great scene because it really highlights how scarce food was. Instead of getting up and grabbing more food for his daughter the only food he had to give was the meal he had. In another scene it shows Braddock’s son being taken back to the meat store by Braddock to return meat that he had stolen out of the fear of being shipped away. This is another great scene, not only does it show to lack of food but it also shows how Braddock’s son had lost hope in Braddock to provide food for the family. The film conveys the hopelessness and lack of food of the great depression very well.

            During the Great Depression it was extremely difficult to even find work for two or three days out of a week. Because of the lack of jobs many men found themselves shipping their kids off to live with family while they beg outside gates to have a day’s worth of work. In the film Braddock is seen begging to get a job outside the shipyard, he is one of twenty or thirty men and only eight or nine were chosen. The scene portrays the difficulty to find work very well, for the people during the Depression that didn’t get picked for a job they had to return home with nothing to bring their families. Many men resorted to government agencies to help provide for their families; sometimes it wasn’t enough though. The loss pride and of hope to provide for their families led many men to believe they would be better off just providing for themselves. This resulted in broken families and ultimately a scary reality for women that their husband could walk out at any moment. Not only was Braddock’s wife shown in the movie scared of him leaving, many women had this scary thought. The film conveys the lack of jobs in the 1930s very well.

            Even though Braddock was faced with all the terrors of the Great Depression (no food, job or electricity), he managed to get through. He was a great boxer before the depression and he managed to score a big fight that paid very well whether he had won or lost. The last part of the movie shows Braddock fighting a champion boxer who he was not favored to win by 10-1. The fight scene was depicted very well with few minor flaws (no flaws retaining to Braddock). The scene shows Braddock last till the last round and win by decision; this was a turning point in his life. He would no longer have to worry about the awful things the depression brought. What a viewer of the movie may think after seeing Braddock in the movie is that every American had an upswing and was lifted out of the depression; this was not at all the case. Braddock was a rare case that involved a lucky man lifting himself and his family out of the harsh terrors of the depression. The majority of Americans were in the Depression the whole time.

            The movie Cinderella Man shows how the 1930s were for the average American. The movie shows nearly every concept of The Great Depression. From the loss of food to the loss of a whole lifestyle, Braddock’s life in the movie conveys all the ideas involved around the Great Depression that are needed to be shown. The movie emphasizes many of the important things of the depression and does not fail to show the finer, small details of the depression.

Above is James J. Braddock

Sources:

http://daflo05.umwblogs.org/cinderella-man-as-a-secondary-source/

http://www.boxingscene.com/-biggest-thing-cinderella-man-got-wrong--1317

https://sites.google.com/site/apusmoviereview/brooke-spenser-emily--cinderella-man