Youve been listening to william daugherty. His book is called in the shadow of the ayatollah. He was a hostage in iran during the embassy takeover, and now its your turn to take your questions to him directly. The phone numbers will be up on the screen. Lets begin with a call from martin in chicago for william daugherty. Martin, youre on the air. Go ahead. Caller hi, dr. Dawg cannerty. You said that the iranians blame us for everything, so what are we responsible for . Guest well, were not entirely blameless. We stayed out of Iranian Affairs for the most part until the nixon administration. The shah and his predecessor during the 20th century kept pressing the United States for particularly military equipment as dictators, autocrats tend to do. But we, we left things basically alone. Iran was kind of a side show to, in what the british and the russians called the great game, dealing with afghanistan and that part of the world. Iran did sit across the trade routes to india which was very important for the british empire. After, after world war ii, however, when the United States, russia and Great Britain had agreed to leave iran having partially occupied the western part of it for lendlease purposes, we could bring ships up through the persian gulf, put them on a railroad in iran and send them up into russia without having to to go through the arctic area, the United States and britain left according to our agreement, but in 1946, but the russians didnt. Seeking to ultimately install a puppet regime first in northwest iran and then, ultimately, in the capital. And the iranians actually came to the United States and contacted a couple private law firms with connections in washington and said help us get the russians out of our country. Well, the harry truman regime did that, and that opened the door then. The shah started asking more and more for american assistance, and then, of course, we got involved in the coup in 1953 because the british asked us, and that then gave us a certain amount of responsibility. Effectively used because his troops were did not have the educational skills. That then meant sending literally thousands and thousands of american technicians to iran, as well as thousands of American Military forces to iran. So, all of this was at the expense of the iranian people. Here the shah was buying this vastly expensive military equipment and the shah was paying for all of these technicians and paying for American Military forces to be over there. The people greatly resented that, plus many of the technicians were not interested in learning about islam, learning about iranian culture. And they wanted Little American cities set up outside the air bases. They didnt want to interact with the iranian culture and they never hesitated to insult the local culture, the women wore bikinis, the men were disrespectful of their customs. They were disrespectful of the women and all of this generated a huge amount of resentment. A lot of this could have been, i think, reduced, no eliminated, but at least greatly reduced with a little more sensitivity on the part of the americans that were sent over there and a little more division on the part of the americans that went. It was really this enormous buildup of resentment that khomeini set on, than to bring in the coup of 1953 and to ultimately convince the iranian people that the root of all their evil was america. Julia, your comments. Doctor, i lived in tehran in 1977. I was with pan am there, we were revamping the airport there and everything you say is true about the cast system and everything like that, shahs picture was in every store and blah, blah, blah, just khomeinis picture was eventually. The problem with what you say, i dont go along with the agreement that we should be friends with iran because we were tick off the other five partners, which basically its all about oil and what president obama did sneakily giving them back the money, i just dont go along with that. I know what you said and you used analogies of ten years of this and ten years of that. Thats fine and dandy, but the bottom line, these people have no nothing, but illwill towards america and they fund all types of organizations, including islamic terrorists, and yet again, we give them all of this money and you think that thats you think that thats okay because you say, maybe ten years from now we might be friends with them. I dont see that happening. Host lets get a response from dr. Daughterry. There that doesnt mean were friends with iran and establishing diplomatic relations at the lower level. Iranians have a problem with the state. And americans dont want to go to iran. And theres limiting of the Nuclear Program in iran and lifting many some, know the all, but some american sanctions. Its by no means a Friendship Treaty at all. I dont think that Many Americans want a friendship with iran at this point and i certainly dont blame them, however, there are many, many iranians that, as i say, they dont remember the revolution of 1979 and they are very envious of the west and they want what we have, not just the material goods, but the freedoms that we have. They are a much better educated population now and able to travel through europe. Theyve had american and western european tv, they know what a civilized country is supposed to be. Theyre tired of being impoverished, tired of being pariahs of the world and as ive said its a very complex country and there are there is a large section of iran that does want to be friends with the United States, many more so in percentage than americans want to be friends with iran because of what iran has done to the United States. So i think you might be reading a little too much into my acceptance of just this one particular agreement. Theres a long way, a long way to go and a lot of things to make up and get over before we could ever have anything remotely like a friendship with iran. Host and lets hear from jimmy in athens, georgia. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my call. I like it when you said we cannot know whats going to happen in the next ten years. Can you think of any possible circumstances which would lead shia hezbollah or perhaps the revolutionary guard to help the usa in its fight against the sh sunnibacked Islamic State in the next ten, 20 years. The short answer is no. The United States in the past has been allied with some rather likely folks in various conflicts, open and covert. But i would be absolutely dumbfounded if we ever did anything with the revolutionary guards. Host william ments they were not our friends, they are go ahead and finish, i apologize. I was going to say, the rev guards are not our friends. They have been responsible for killing 900 americans and wounding many, many more and it would i just cannot believe that an american president would ever authorize any type of a coalition with the revolutionary guards, a cooperative operation with them on any front for any reason, not now. Host william daugherty, can you tell us where you were on november 4th, 1979 and what that day was like. Yes, i was up in the office in the embassy minding my own business. I heard noise outside and i took it to be another street demonstration like we always had. The Navy Commander came into my office and said, oh, theyre in the embassy compound. I got up and looked out and by golly, they were, they were streaming into the compound like ants after an Ice Cream Cone that dropped on a sidewalk on a hot day and things went downhill from there. Host the book is called in the shadow of the ayatollah, a cia hostage in iran. The nor is william