The Iran hostage crisis, which lasted from November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981, cast the new Islamic government of Iran and its charismatic bearded and turbaned leader, Ruhollah Khomeini, as the modern embodiments of Islamic evil. The overthrow of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi in 1979 gave way to the rise of a new Islamic theocracy in Iran, unseating one of the strongest U.S. allies in the region with a regime it would anoint as one of its greatest adversaries.

XREF: Connects to broader Cold War era US-Middle East relations and how regime change reshapes alliance structures.

Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Unde…, loc. 248