There was a time—a half-century before Donald Trump ordered 14 bunker-busting bombs and 30 Tomahawk missiles dropped on Iran’s nuclear facilities (“It was my honor!”)—when an American president spent New Year’s in Tehran. Jimmy Carter landed in the Iranian capital at sunset on December 31, 1977, for a 17-hour stopover en route to India. He held a private meeting with Iran’s ruling monarch, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, known as the Shah, then joined him for a banquet at Niavaran Palace.
As dinner was served, Carter raised a glass to Pahlavi: “Iran … is an island of stability in one of the more troubled areas of the world,” thanks to the Shah’s leadership and “the admiration and love which your people give to you.” As detailed in Scott Anderson’s absorbing new book, Carter’s aides hadn’t approved his fawning tribute. One of them, a 42-year-old National Security Council official named Gary Sick, recalled thinking, “I wonder if that’s going to come back to haunt us.”
