We Reap what we sow: Iran and the United States of America
Monday Ministerial Musings
By Rev. Mark William Ennis
2024 Blog #25
June 23, 2025
We Reap what we sow
Iran and the United States of America
I’m not sure that I had ever heard of the nation of Iran until I was in college. Maybe I should have learned about that nation in grammar school, but somehow, I missed it. I met an Iranian student, and three Iraqi students who attended college with me at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. I did not know the Iraqi students very well, but I did get to know the Iranian student, Amir, rather well. He gave me my first lesson about Iran.
Amir taught me that, unlike most of the Middle East, Iran is not an Arabic country. It is Persian. Persians are not Arabs and have a different language. As most of the Middle East speaks Arabic, Iranians speak Farsi.
Amir also told me that it was difficult to live in Iran because the Shah of Iran was a brutal dictator and his secret police, SAVAK, treated people as badly as the German Gestapo during World War II.
Amir inspired me to learn more about Iran. Since those college days I learned that the Shah of Iran was in power because the United States and English engineered a coup in Iran and put the Shah in power. These two western nations also helped Iran set up the SAVAK. We placed a government, and a secret police organization, that these powers would never tolerate in their own nations. These actions were taken during the cold war when the west feared that Iran was moving to close to Russia.
The British and Americans also set up an oil industry that made a great deal of money for American and British companies, but very little for Iranians. Indeed, no Iranian was allowed to examine the financial records of these companies. They simply were told to “trust” that they were getting their fair share of oil prices.
Iran’s nuclear program was actually begun with the help of the United States. The administration of President Eisenhower helped Iran to begin a nuclear program under the program “Atoms for Peace.” Our nation is responsible for the Iranian nuclear program.
During my senior year in college, the Iranian revolution against the Shah was gaining momentum. When Jimmy Carter, who was president, allowed the ailing Shah to come to the United States for medical treatment, the Iranian people felt cheated by not being allowed to see him put on trial for human rights abuses. The reaction of the revolutionaries was swift. Our embassy was overrun and our embassy personal were taken hostage for 444 days.
When news of the hostage-taking was broadcast, the four middle eastern students on my college campus, stayed home for several days. They were afraid of being the recipient of American anger because of the revolutionaries taking the hostages. Anger was high, but fortunately there were no violent incidents.
Now the United States has bombed Iran. Iran still refuses to acknowledge the legitimacy of the state of Israel. Iran funds a number of proxies who regularly attack Israel and have done so for a few decades.
I can’t help but wonder if things would be different in the middle east if the United States had not meddled in Iranian politics. What if we had not engineered a coup that put the Shah in power? What if we had not set up SAVAK in Iran? What if we had not taken control of the Iranian oil industry? At one time, Iran was an ally but now we are at war. Could more prudent American foreign policy have made for a more peaceful region that led to Israelis living in peace?
Whether we like it or not, we often reap what we sow. Perhaps the hostilities that are in that region are the blossoms of the seeds that we sowed years ago. I’m not sure that I disagree with Iran’s anger toward the United States. We sure have meddled in that nation’s history. Would we be so tolerant of a nation interfering in our policies? I doubt it.
I wish that our nation had been more prudent and just with the nation of Iran. Thousands of innocent people have suffered because of the results of our interference. I am an optimist by nature, and I wonder if there might still be time to reverse the warfare in this region. If we treated Iran fairly and Israel began to treat Palestinians fairly, I wonder if someday peace might indeed break out. I pray for the day.
The best time to have developed good relationships was sixty years ago. The second-best time is right now.
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