The Cold War was a struggle for the future of mankind. The spread of communism was a very real threat and would have been catastrophic, much worse than the fall of Rome; a new Dark Ages with mankind under a boot for a thousand years was a real prospect.

The Iranian government was cozying up to the Soviets and bringing in communist forces into their government. There is good reason to believe that the Soviets were pulling off the kind of suriptitious legitimate-looking takeover that they had so successfully executed in Eastern Europe before everyone realized what was happening. Just like our support of Pinochet in Chile, it was a choice between two evils. We did what we though had to be done. In the years preceding the installation of the Shah, the iron curtain had fallen around Eastern Europe, China had fallen to Mao, the Soviets had tested their nukes and built an arsenal, Korea had been split, etc. This was an all out struggle.