I alluded to that somewhere when I mentioned him not backing the Shah.
If the Shah had stayed in power the hostages would not have been taken and there would not have been ribbons on trees across the country.
That was his big foreign policy mistake and if you’ve ever ready anything about it you know that there was a fierce debate during the Iranian Revolution of whether or not to push for a military crackdown or to push the Shah aside and try to work with the revolutionaries. Brezinski wanted the crackdown. Vance wanted the Shah to step aside. Vance won.
If Brezinski had prevailed the hostages wouldn’t have been taken and we would be inhabiting a far different world today.
.....we would be inhabiting a far different world today.
The loss of Iran is one of the West’s greatest geopolitical losses of the 20th Century.
Call me a pessimist, but I think Jimmy still would have found a way to #%$@ it up.
Carter's administration was one foreign policy disaster after another...and I didn't read about it, I LIVED it. You really are being too kind. The list goes on...Central America, the Shah, the Panama Canal...it's a virtual highlight film of lowlights. That doesn't even begin to touch on the tragedy of domestic policy.
This inside baseball about debate among advisors is wonderful, but we don't elect advisers. We elect Presidents.
Stuff like this wasn't on Carter's radar screen. He believed himself to be the First Administrator. Did you know that he, among other things, demanded to approve the schedule for the tennis courts?
He was not suited by intellect, by training, temperment or judgment to be President. And in that, Barry is his heir.