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Lawfare Daily: Beyond the Headlines: A History of U.S.-Iran Relations

April 2, 2026·1 hr 3 min·5 clips

John Gazvinian reveals that for most of history, the U.S. and Iran had mutual admiration, not hatred.

Lawfare's Ariane Tabatabai interviews John Gazvinian, author of America and Iran: A History, 1720 to the Present, for a deep historical examination of U.S.-Iran relations beyond the current conflict. Gazvinian, an Iranian-American historian, explains that he approached the subject out of personal curiosity about why these two countries have such a hostile relationship. The conversation begins with a surprising finding from Gazvinian's research: colonial American newspapers in the 1720s were filled with news about Persia, sometimes devoting a quarter to a third of their pages to Persian affairs. One 1724 newspaper led with an apology for having no news from Persia that week. This interest was driven by the collapse of the Safavid Empire and colonial Americans' view of Persia as an ally against the Ottoman Empire, which they saw as the primary threat to Christendom. Gazvinian traces an idealized American view of Iran that persisted from the 18th century through the 1970s, where Iran was seen as a more exotic, less threatening, and less Muslim alternative to the Arab and Ottoman world. This perception was reinforced by biblical associations with ancient Persia. From the Iranian side, the United States was viewed as a European country without the imperialism. Presbyterian missionaries who arrived in the 1830s built schools and clinics but converted only about 200 people in a century. Unlike British and Russian missionaries backed by embassies, Americans appeared harmless and non-political. Iranian nationalists and reformists saw the U.S. as having all the desirable qualities of European modernity without the colonial exploitation. The episode covers Morgan Schuster, an American financial advisor sent to Iran in 1911 by the Taft administration, who became a hero to Iranian nationalists for standing up to Russian interference. When expelled by the Russians, crowds lined the streets waving American flags. Schuster returned to celebrity status in the U.S., selling out Carnegie Hall and sparking American public interest in Iran. The discussion moves to the post-World War II period, when Muhammad Reza Shah pursued a strategic relationship with the United States as a counterweight to British and Soviet influence, following the lesson of his father's overthrow by those same powers in 1941. The 1953 coup against Prime Minister Mossadegh, who had nationalized Iran's oil industry, is examined in detail. The British under Churchill lobbied the incoming Eisenhower administration, with the Dulles brothers approving Operation Ajax after Truman's administration had refused to participate. Gazvinian emphasizes that even three weeks before the CIA coup, Mossadegh wrote to Eisenhower believing America would understand Iran's position, illustrating how deeply the positive view of America was held by Iranian nationalists right up to the moment of betrayal.

As heard by us

A long view that makes 1979 look like the middle, not the beginning.

This episode takes a long view of U.S.-Iran relations, treating them as a relationship that predates 1979 rather than one that begins there. It leans on the appeal of a hands-off, non-imperialist United States to open up that broader arc, which gives the discussion a clear point…

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Why you'd press play

If 1979 is your starting point, this gives you the missing file folder and a better map.

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