Bonus Ep! Kharg Island, Carter, Khomeini, and 'Eagle Claw'
About this episode
Subscribe now to listen to the entire 22-minute episode (or preview 7 minutes).
President Donald Trump is not the first president to consider seizing Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf. Forty-six years ago, Jimmy Carter and his national security team mulled deploying troops to take the oil-critical island to compel Iran's revolutionary government to free more than 50 Americans held hostage at the U.S. embassy in Tehran. Today, the idea behind any such attack would be to force open the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran closed to most tanker traffic after the U.S. and Israel started bombing on Feb. 28.
In this episode, historian Jeremi Suri reflects on Carter's bind and the potentially disastrous consequences if Trump deploys boots on the ground.
Jeremi Suri teaches at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He cohosts 'This is Democracy' podcast and co-writes the Democracy of Hope newsletter.
Subscribe: www.historyasithappens.com
Get every episode summarized
Each time History As It Happens publishes, we email you a written briefing from the transcript — the topics, who appeared, and any specific claims, with the ad reads skipped.
Email me new episodesFree for 3 shows. No card needed.
Hosts & guests
No transcript yet
This episode has not been transcribed. Request it and it moves to the front of the queue.
More episodes
