Jimmy Carter’s Secret Negotiations with Ayatollah Khomeini

According to recently declassified documents, representatives of the American president conducted behind-the-scenes talks with Iran’s soon-to-be supreme leader at the beginning of 1979—by which time the revolution against the shah’s rule had begun but Khomeini still remained in French exile. The U.S., wanting to forestall civil war in Persia, persuaded the Iranian military not to intervene against Khomeini’s return, believing—in a striking adumbration of recent events—that he would install a regime dominated by “moderates.” Kambiz Fattahi writes: