US-Iran Relation Revisited: Look to 1909!

I ate the last of the popcorn laced with butter and got up from my sit and walked towards the exit door. I had just finished watching the movie “Argo”. The movie is about a CIA agent who comes up with a plan to free some of the staff of the American Embassy who had escaped when the Iranian students had taken over the American Embassy in Iran in November 1979. It was a good Hollywood movie and I enjoyed watching it, partly because I like popcorn laced with butter!

Argo is another example of how US-Iran relation is often explained and presented. From the American side it’s the 1979 hostage crisis and from the Iranian side it’s the 1953 CIA-assisted coup d’etat against Prime Minister Dr. Mossadegh. Some view these events as defining moments in the relationship between these two nations. Though those events are significant, it is not that significant to cripple and break relationship between 370 million people. The fact that the governments are not able to normalize relationships with each other speak volumes of the minority view that controls the conversation on both sides of this wall of separation. On the US side, it’s the image of the Iran of 1979 that is burning US flags and taking hostages, on the Iranian side, it’s the image of 1953 America manipulating and interfering in the affairs of the Iranian nation.

On September 11^th, 2001, the only people in the Middle East that expressed support for New York and the United States were the people of Iran. The only thing that was burning that day in Tehran were candles lit up for the victims of that dark day in American history. On 26^th December 2003, when the earthquake in Bam killed thousands of Iranians, the United States government, send assistance, to help with search and rescue operations. These simple examples show that things don’t need to be the way they are.       

Hollywood can also help! By making a movie about something that both people, Iranians and Americans cherish the most, search for freedom! For this story we need to go back to 1907, when a young 22 year old American by the name of Howard Conklin Baskerville, came to Iran to be a teacher at the American Memorial School in Tabriz. Howard was from Nebraska and a graduate of Princeton. He decided to come as a missionary to Iran and be a teacher. Tabriz in those days was a hotbed of political activity. Iran was in the middle of one of its first push for democracy, known as the Constitutional Revolution. It was a time when Iranians were fighting to turn the Iranian absolute monarchy into a constitutional monarch and introduce representative government to their nation.

Howard the American soon joined the movement in Tabriz and 1909 when the city was surrounded by the Shah’s army, he led a group of revolutionaries against the much superior government forces. The effort was rewarded when the revolutionaries were able to break the siege of the city. Their success came at the cost of Howard’s life. At the age of 24 this American kid from Nebraska was killed. Howard laid down his life for the cause of democracy in Iran. Howard Baskerville is buried in Iran and his name is still alive, and still inspires many Iranians who dream of a government of the people, by the people, for the people.

One day the relationship between the two governments will normalized and everyone will enjoy fully and freely the cultural and material wealth and resources that both countries have to offer to each other. Until that day, it will be the relationship between Howard and his Tabrizi brethren that will keep us believing that normalization is possible and around the corner. In the meantime I look to Hollywood’s version of the truth, with a box of popcorn laced with butter!!!