Iran is an incredibly complex country that cannot be covered in just one unit. This resource guide is centered around helping teachers and students understand the complex relationship between Iran and the United States. The following tools provide context about the history of the relationship, what went wrong, and why tensions still exist today.
Major moments in the U.S.-Iran relationship include the CIA’s 1953 ousting of Iran’s Prime Minister Mossadegh, the 1979 Hostage Crisis, the creation of the 2015 JCPOA (commonly known as the Iran Nuclear Deal) and Trump’s subsequent (2018) withdrawal from the deal, which all lead up to current sanctions against Iran, the January assassination of a major military leader, and ongoing tensions in the Strait of Hormuz.
We strongly encourage pairing this unit with other lessons on Iran in order to provide students with a broader perspective of Iran’s history and political, religious and military significance.
Click here for a list of vocabulary terms about the Middle East, which can be helpful to have on hand when teaching this topic.
Recommended Topics to Discuss
- American involvement in Iran’s government, including the CIA’s 1953 coup
- The 1979 Islamic Revolution and hostage crisis
- The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) a.k.a the Iran Deal
- Trump-era sanctions against Iran and 2019 summer tanker attacks
- Simmering low-level conflict between the two sides in late 2019 boils over with the death of Qasem Soleimani in a U.S. drone strike
Background Information
- TeachMideast: Iran 21st century timeline
- TeachMideast: Iran country profile
- Council on Foreign Relations Conflict Tracker: Confrontation between U.S. and Iran (includes history, additional articles, and primary sources)
- The Atlantic Council: Running list of articles on U.S.-Iran relations
- The New York Times: Iran-U.S. Relations: A Chronology
- The New York Times: Key Events in the 1953 Coup
- Foreign Policy: 64 Years Later, CIA Finally Releases Details of Iranian Coup
- HISTORY: Iran Hostage Crisis
- Vox: The Iran deal, explained in 9 graphics
- Council on Foreign Relations: What is the Status of the Iran Nuclear Agreement?
- The New York Times: The Iran Crisis, Explained
- The Washington Post: Explaining the tanker attacks in the Persian Gulf
- BBC: How did US-Iranian ties get here? A quick guide
- MEPC: Region Reacts to News of the Killing of Iran’s Top General
- Congressional Research Service: Iran’s Foreign and Defense Policies
- PBS: A Timeline of U.S.-Iran Relations
Lesson Plans and Teaching Guides
- Duke University: Student guide to Iran (key terms, timeline, comprehension questions) and Teaching guide to Iran — to be used with Duke University’s video in the YouTube Videos section of this resource guide
- The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations: Teaching guide on the history between Iran and the U.S.
- National Council for the Social Studies: Lesson plan with background information on U.S.-Iran policy
- PBS: Lesson plan on U.S. foreign policy in Iran
- Project READI: Curriculum module on the 1953 coup
- UMBC Center for History Education: Lesson plan about the Iran Hostage Crisis (includes background)
- PBS: Teaching about the Iranian Hostage Crisis of 1979
- Brown University: Teaching guide and resources on the Iran Nuclear Deal
- The New York Times: Teaching Activities for: ‘Trump Pulls U.S. From ‘One-Sided’ Iran Nuclear Deal’
Films & Documentaries
- Argo — “chronicles the life-or-death covert operation to rescue six Americans, which unfolded behind the scenes of the Iran hostage crisis” (2h10m; available on YouTube, Amazon Prime, and iTunes for $3.99)
- PBS: Our Man in Tehran “a revealing series on life inside Iran…Thomas Erdbrink shares a rare journey into a private Iran often at odds with its conservative clerics and leaders” (two parts, 1h 54m each)
- PBS: Showdown with Iran — “FRONTLINE examines how U.S. efforts to install democracy in Iraq have served to strengthen Iran’s position as an emerging global power” (55m), plus a teaching guide for viewing the video
- PBS: Bitter Rivals: Iran and Saudi Arabia — “FRONTLINE investigates how a dangerous political rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia has plunged the Middle East into sectarian war” (also addresses U.S.-Iran relations) (two parts, 1h 56m and 54m)
YouTube Videos
- Duke University: Understanding the U.S. and Iran (8m)
- ABC News: A Brief History of U.S.-Iran Relations (12m)
- Crash Course: Iran’s Revolutions (13m)
- Vox: How the Iran nuclear deal works, explained in 3 minutes (3m)
- The Wall Street Journal: Iran’s Nuclear Deal Explained (3m)
- Vox: Trump quits Iran nuclear deal, undoing years of diplomacy (5m)
- CNBC: How Decades Of US Sanctions Crushed Iran’s Economy (9m)
- MEPC: U.S. – Iranian Confrontation: Domestic, Regional and Global Implications (120m)
Podcasts
- Middle East Focus, especially these episodes…
- US-Iran: War of words and the risk of escalation
- Iran’s Islamic Revolution after 40 years
- U.S. sanctions on Iran’s oil exports
- US-Iran Tensions After Killing of Qassem Soleimani
- BBC: a three part series on Iran as a revolutionary state
- NPR’s Throughline, especially this episode…
- Four Days in August (about the CIA’s overthrow of Iran’s government)
- Global Dispatches, especially these episodes…
- What Comes Next in the Escalating Crisis With Iran?
- Iran Crisis — What Comes Next?
Books
- All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror by Stephen Kinzer — discusses the CIA’s 1953 coup in Iran and the broader implications of that event
- Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi — the author’s memoir of “graphic memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution (ideal for teenage students)
- The Twilight War by David Crist — an examination of the U.S. and Iran’s three decades of undeclared war
- The Ayatollah Begs to Differ by Hooman Majd — the author, the grandson of an Ayatollah, offers an inside perspective of Iran
- Argo: How the CIA and Hollywood Pulled Off the Most Audacious Rescue in History by Antonio Mendez — the author was the mastermind behind the CIA’s plan to send deep-cover agents masquerading as film producers into Iran to retrieve the hostages, and shares insight into the operation profiled in the movie Argo
- It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas – This middle-grade story chronicles the daily experiences of Zomorod Yousefzadeh, the child of Iranian immigrants to the U.S. She grapples with being a teen and the new kid at school – during the late 1970s – and fitting in becomes more difficult as Iran makes U.S. headlines with protests, revolution, and finally the taking of American hostages. Engaging and timely.
Need more info? Click here for a list of National Resource Centers on the Middle East — especially consider checking out Princeton’s Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies. Click here for additional centers on Persian and Iranian Studies across the world.