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1979: How the U.S. and Iran Went From Allies to Enemies

6/12/202650 min

At the heart of the current U.S. war against Iran is an inconvenient truth: that the United States is, in many ways, responsible for creating the very regime it now seeks to topple.

Today, Scott Anderson, a New York Times Magazine contributor, tells the story of America’s outsize role in the Islamic Revolution, and why all these years later we’re still no closer to understanding Iran.

Guest: Scott Anderson, a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine.

Background reading: It has been a trying time for the Islamic republic of Iran.

Photo: George Tames/The New York Times

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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Clips

Transcript preview

First 90 seconds
  1. Tracy Mumford0:00

    [instrumental music] Hey, I'm Tracy Mumford. There is a lot happening right now. The Headlines podcast from The New York Times will catch you up on the latest in 10 minutes or less. We'll take you inside breaking news and big investigations from the Times newsroom, plus bring you the stories that make you go, "Huh. Whoa. I didn't know that." Listen to our show, The Headlines, every weekday morning wherever you get your podcasts.

  2. Michael Barbaro· Host0:25

    [instrumental music] From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. At the heart of the current US war against Iran is an inconvenient truth, that the United States is, in many ways, responsible for bringing about the very regime that it now seeks to topple. Today, my colleague, Times Magazine contributor Scott Anderson, tells us the story of America's outsized role in the Iranian revolution, and why all these years later, we're still no closer to understanding Iran. It's Friday, June 12th.

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