THE END OF THE GOLDEN AGE ★^1051the end of 1977, Carter traveled there to
help celebrate the shah’s rule, causing
the internal opposition to become
more and more anti- American. Early
in 1979, a popular revolution inspired
by the exiled Muslim cleric Ayatollah
Khomeini overthrew the shah and
declared Iran an Islamic republic.
The Iranian revolution marked an
ideological shift in opposition move-
ments in the Middle East from social-
ism and Arab nationalism to religious
fundamentalism. This would have
important long- term consequences
for the United States. More immedi-
ately, when Carter in November 1979
allowed the deposed shah to seek medical treatment in the United States, Kho-
meini’s followers invaded the American embassy in Tehran and seized sixty- six
hostages. Fourteen people (women, African- American men, and a white man
in ill health) were soon released, leaving fifty- two captives. They did not regain
their freedom until January 1981, on the day Carter’s term as president ended.
Events in Iran made Carter seem helpless and inept and led to a rapid fall in his
popularity.
Another crisis that began in 1979 undermined American relations with
Moscow. At the end of that year, the Soviet Union sent thousands of troops
into Afghanistan to support a friendly government threatened by an Islamic
rebellion. In the long run, Afghanistan became the Soviet Vietnam, an unwin-
nable conflict whose mounting casualties seriously weakened the government
at home. Initially, however, it seemed another example of declining American
power.
Declaring the invasion the greatest crisis since World War II (a considerable
exaggeration), the president announced the Carter Doctrine, declaring that the
United States would use military force, if necessary, to protect its interests in
the Persian Gulf. He placed an embargo on grain exports to the Soviet Union
and organized a Western boycott of the 1980 Olympics, which took place in
Moscow. He withdrew the SALT II treaty from consideration by the Senate and
dramatically increased American military spending. In a reversion to the Cold
War principle that any opponent of the Soviet Union deserved American sup-
port, the United States funneled aid to fundamentalist Muslims in Afghanistan
who fought a decade- long guerrilla war against the Soviets. The alliance had
unforeseen consequences. A faction of Islamic fundamentalists known as the
American hostages being paraded by their Ira-
nian captors on the first day of the occupation of
the American embassy in Tehran in 1979. Televi-
sion gave extensive coverage to the plight of the
hostages, leading many Americans to view the
Carter administration as weak and inept.In what ways did the opportunities of most Americans diminish in the 1970s?