Iranian Revolution justified?

The below video shows a wonderful insight into the Iran of the early to mid 1970's before the (what it calls) the unintelligible revolution in 1979 that saw the founding of the Islamic Republic of Iran.



But was the revolution (unlike the video suggests) justified for the people of Iran, the country was becoming rapidly industrialized and the division between city and country was becoming debt as the Shah became more friendly with America.

He was also buying up in hi tech arms from the United States (the F-14 Tomcat one of if not the best fighter jet in the 1970's), whom were using Iran for oil and strategic purposes, this clip from The Grumman Challenge a documentary about the sale of 80 F-14 Tomcats shows exactly what the Americans were doing.



But the rapid industrialization did very little for the average Iranian, first of all the country wasn't a democracy and the Shah was a dictator since America helped him eliminate any Prime Minister elected by the people in a coup carried out by the CIA and MI6 in 1953!

And this rapid industrialization by the United States (paid with the rapid flow of Iran's oil of course) of Iran did little only divide city and country, only a small amount of people were enjoying the wealth was one of the many causes that slowly led to the revolution.

The celebration of the 2,500th anniversary of the founding of the Persian Empire at Persepolis in 1971 was organized by the Shah's regime, was attacked for its extravagance.

"As the foreigners reveled on drink forbidden by Islam, Iranians were not only excluded from the festivities, some were starving."

Tens of thousands of foreign workers were doing the work Iranians weren't allowed as private companies reaped the profits.



As the revolution begun several factors saw it expand until Ayatollah Khomeini returned, the Muharram protests saw up to 6 to 9 million anti Shah demonstrators march across Iran, this was probably largest protest event in history and a higher number of people than any other revolution in history.

That just tell you how this was the majority of the people getting what they wanted, after seizing American hostages in the US embassy and holding them for over 444 days the US weren't able to even rescue them, the failed Operation 'Eagle Claw' showed they couldn't even find a US friendly haven anywhere in Iran in which to launch their operation from, the RH-53D Sea Stallion choppers had to launch directly from the USS Nimitz and crashed before they could even reach Tehran!

The hostages weren't harmed showing that their takers weren't murderous savages and Iran was ruled by an Islamic government in which the people (the majority )wanted it to be.

However before leaving for the United States for cancer treatment and before the revolution exploded the Shah had ordered and paid for 160 US F-16 Fighting Falcons and other weapons , none of these had arrived and the deal which had cost millions had cost the Iranian people for nothing!

what the IIAF were prepared for

Since 1972 the Shah of Iran had taken interest in buying some new American built hi-tech interceptor aircraft, Iran had taken interest in the General Dynamics F-111 since 1968 but the US turned down this request instead sending some 32 F-4 Phantom II's to Iran in the early 1970's.



In light of air to air combat experience from Vietnam the Grumman Cooperation designed the F-14 Tomcat, a fast and powerful interceptor that could face down nimble Russian MiGs, it also had the large powerful AWG-9 radar that could scan the battlefield for miles and could carry six AIM-54 missiles, these large long range missiles could be fired and reach a speed of Mach 4 before hitting their target from up to 100 miles away.

This incorporated with the AWG-9 radar meant that the F-14 could track 24 different targets and fire 6 missiles at them, all of this under a single airframe, truly the worlds first super fighter.



But after the delivery of the first 20 or so in 1976 the Shah orders another batch bringing the total number of orders up to 80, these made up the bulk of the IIAF air defense that would cover all of Iran, most of the F-14's to be situated at the massive Khatami Air Base built in the desert outside of the city of Esfahan in the centre of Iran.

But why the development of such huge aerial defence logistics in so short a time?

Well Soviet MiGs had performed several overflights of Iran during the 1970's and the Iranians were finding it difficult to cope with their F-4 Phantoms, and intercepting the fast MiG-25 Foxbats (still one of the fastest jets in the world), it became dangerous when an F-4 intercepted and managed to hit the MiG-25 which managed to fly over the northern border into the USSR before crashing.

The Soviets responded by shooting down one of the IIAF EF-4's, not long later the first F-14's begun to arrive.

The IIAF was improving their air defense to be one of the best in the world, the AIM-54 armed F-14 Tomcat proved a real threat to the Soviets compared to the Sparrow armed F-4, over the desert the F-14's trained by shooting down drones from long distances with their new AIM-54 missiles testing the deadly system.



The Shah seemed to think seriously that the Soviets were going to invade, if coordinated properly the IIAF would be a match for even the Soviet Air Force and would be able to keep Irans air space well guarded, the Shah had also ordered the delivery of some 150 F-16 Fighting Falcons about a year before the revolution but that never happened and they were given to Israel instead in 1980.

But that would have been one formidable force if held together properly, the F-16's just add it to a standard that would ensure the Russians had no air superiority and would therefore be unable to launch a ground invasion of northern Iran.

However following the 1979 Iranian revolution the IIAF fell apart when the Americans left along with several pro Shah pilots, those who remained where jailed or tortured and most of the planes couldn't get proper maintenance, the grand IIAF had fallen and was replaced by the IRIAF which still has some former IIAF aircraft in it today. But by 1988 they had been exhausted for resources by fighting the war with Saddam and most of their AIM-54 missiles had lost their shelf life and only 25 Tomcats remained flyable.

But the IRIAF are pushing some more back into repairs and building their own planned replacement for the AIM-54.

It's still a formidable force but its hay day has long gone and its well aged now!