To many Americans, Iran’s history began with the 1979 hostage crisis. For Iranians, the pivotal date is 1953. That was the year a CIA-inspired coup killed their fledgling democracy and installed the shah as a puppet ruler. This pivotal difference in worldviews, argues David Barsamian, is what has led Iran and the United States to the brink of war. American foreign policy, built on misconceptions about a rogue nation run by blood-crazed mullahs and pulling the strings of groups like Hezbollah and Hamas, is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. Iran is portrayed as a fractured nation where radicals use every rattle of the American saber as an excuse to marginalize and even criminalize moderates and reformers.

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