[kabar]

They were Muslim but secular. The Mullahs' power base was the poor and uneducated. I remember you could buy Playboy in Tehran along with alcohol. The women were not dressed in chadors. At the time I was there, there were more women in the Iranian parliament than there were in the US Congress.

Our embassy in Tehran was the largest in the world (over 1,000) counting the many "advisors" stationed along the Caspian monitoring the Soviet nuclear program. There were over than 80,000 private Americans in Tehran including defense contractors like Bell Helicopter. Israel had a significant trade mission in Tehran and there was a vibrant Jewish community. I attended a Jewish wedding at the time. There were 50,000 Iranian students in the US, the largest contingent of any country in the world.

It all came to a screeching halt with the removal of the Shah and the entrance of Khomeini. The transformation was immediate and permanent.

[rodguy911]

Iran should be a lesson to us. Never ever elect a democrat to the highest office in the world.

[StAnDeliver]

What a great post. I worked in the 80s with a former Shah undersecretary of Defense...that guy knew it forward-backward-sideways and was ever so grateful the US spirited him and his extended family out...