For over eight decades, the relationship between the United States and Iran has been characterized by longstanding hostility, occasional crises, and periodic military confrontations. These tensions have all played a role in shaping Middle Eastern geopolitics. Despite the conflict’s lasting global importance, many school history curricula do not explore its complexities in depth, leaving students with only a fragmented understanding of conflicts that still influence international relations today.
Before Conflict Struck
In 1901, Iran became one of the first places in the Middle East to grant a foreign company the rights to produce oil, given specifically to William d’Arcy, who was an Australian businessman. After World War I ended, Western oil companies increased exploration in the Middle East, leading to similar deals being made with nearby countries such as Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
Even though oil was a big deal in Iran, highlighted by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company Deal in 1933 that lasted until 1951, many of the major political tensions in the 1950s began during and shortly after World War II.
In 1953, the CIA and British Intelligence orchestrated a coup that overthrew Mohammad Mosaddegh, Iran’s democratically elected prime minister. The first coup attempt failed, and the Shah fled the country in response to angry protestors. The second attempt, however, succeeded, and the Shah was restored to power. After the Shah returned, Mosaddegh was arrested, tried for treason, and sentenced to three years in prison. After his sentence, he spent the remainder of his life under house arrest.
The Conflict’s Beginning
Direct conflict between the U.S. and Iran did not emerge until the end of the Iranian Revolution of 1977-1979. The revolution was led by religious leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Khomeini was exiled from Iran in Nov. 1964 after criticizing the government of the Shah. He spoke out against the Shah’s authoritarian rule and his close relationship with the U.S., which led the government to arrest him and force him into exile in Turkey. Shortly afterward, he moved again and spent most of the 14-15 years living in Iraq and later in France.
Many Iranians were unhappy with the Shah’s authoritative rule. Political freedom was very limited, and opposition groups were repeatedly suppressed. As a result of this dissatisfaction, large protests began across the country. As the protests grew, the government attempted to suppress them, but the protests continued. Eventually, the government grew weak under the pressure of the protests, the Shah fled Iran and went into exile on Jan. 16, 1979, leaving unrest in the country to continue and grow.
Soon after, Khomeini returned to Iran on Feb. 1, 1979. The government welcomed him back, and the monarchy soon collapsed—Iran then became an Islamic Republic.
On Oct. 22, 1979, after the Iranian Revolution, the United States allowed the Shah to enter New York City for medical treatment. This caused tensions to rise between the U.S. and Iran. Many Iranians were angered by the decision, believing that the U.S. was trying to protect the Shah and possibly restore him to power.
With these beliefs, around 3,000 Iranians—most of whom were armed—seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran. They took 52 Americans hostage, beginning the Iran hostage crisis. Over the following days, representatives of U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Tehran-based diplomats from other countries attempted to free the hostages, but these early efforts failed.
On Jan. 20, 1981, after 444 days, the American hostages were finally released just minutes after Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as president. Their release was finalized through negotiations brokered by Algerian diplomats, which also led to the return of nearly $8 billion in frozen Iranian assets.
Nuclear Deal with Iran
Relations between the U.S. and Iran reached their lowest point when concerns grew about Iran’s potential ability to develop nuclear weapons—tensions increased drastically because of this. The U.S. viewed Iran’s nuclear ambitions as a major threat to international security. Iran, however, has insisted that its nuclear program is intended only for peaceful purposes—the U.S. and its allies think the complete opposite.
Not only does Iran’s nuclear capabilities bother America, but organizations like the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), monitor Iran’s nuclear activities. The situation briefly improved with the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was signed by the U.S., China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United Kingdom. A key part of the deal required Iran to limit its uranium enrichment levels and extend its “breakout time”—the time needed to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for one nuclear bomb—to at least 12 months.
However, the U.S. withdrew from the agreement on May 8, 2018. President Donald Trump announced the withdrawal, arguing that the agreement was a “horrible, one-sided deal.”
While the Biden administration largely focused on trying to revive the JCPOA plan in order to stop Iran’s stated goal of acquiring nuclear weapons, the second Trump administration took a more aggressive approach. They took the viewpoint that the JCPOA, at best, only slowed Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and that harsher sanctions and, potentially, military action, would be the only realistic course of ensuring Iran would not be able to eventually threaten its neighbors with a nuclear weapon.
The Trump administration launched “Operation Midnight Hammer” on June 22, 2025. Whether they were able to completely destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities is still under debate. The United States and Israel launched coordinated, large-scale military strikes against Iran on Feb. 28, 2026. The attacks focused on nuclear facilities, military infrastructure, and leadership, with reports indicating the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
According to the Trump administration, their recent bombing of Iran came out of the belief that the Iranians could be only weeks from being able to make multiple nuclear weapons.
According to the Independent in a March 6, 2026 article, “President Donald Trump said Iran’s ballistic missile capability would soon be able to reach beyond hitting US bases in the Middle East and Europe to strike “our beautiful America”. This, he said, would make it “extraordinarily difficult” for future airstrikes to halt the country’s nuclear weapons programme, which he claimed to have “obliterated” last June.”
