The United States vs. Iran

Fareed Zakaria GPS

CNN

News

4.3 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 31 August 2025

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Fareed Zakaria hosts a detailed special tracing the historical conflict between the United States and Iran, starting with a dramatization of a B-2 bomber strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. The narrative revisits the pivotal 1979 Iranian hostage crisis, emphasizing its roots in a 1953 CIA-led coup against Iran’s Prime Minister Mossadeq. The documentary explores the complex history between the two nations, focusing on Iran's Islamic Revolution, the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini, and the subsequent brutal consolidation of power into a theocratic regime. It details the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, the rise of Iran's proxy forces, and the U.S.'s shifting policies towards Iran. The final segment speculates on the potential for future U.S.-Iran relations, highlighting the difficulties in achieving either regime change or friendship and suggesting the possibility of an uneasy coexistence while acknowledging the deep national pride and ancient civilization of Iran. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	They took off at midnight from Missouri.
0:08.0	A group of B-2 bombers flew for hours.
0:12.0	Some diverted to the Pacific as decoys.
0:16.0	18 hours later, seven of them arrived at their targets,
0:20.0	Iran's nuclear facilities.
0:22.6	The prize was Fordham, a one secret uranium enrichment factory, buried deep in a mountain.
0:29.6	The B-2s dropped 12 bunker-busting bombs, each weighing 30,000 pounds.
0:36.6	These attacks marked a dramatic escalation. bombs, each weighing 30,000 pounds.
0:38.3	These attacks marked a dramatic escalation of a 46-year-old struggle between the United States
0:46.3	and Iran.
0:48.3	What will it lead to?
0:49.3	Will Iran come to the table, or will it take its nuclear program underground determined to fight another day?
0:59.0	To answer those questions, we need to go back and explore the bitter, decades-long clash between the United States of America and Iran.
1:12.6	Welcome to a special hour on Iran and America.
1:15.6	I'm Farid Zakaria.
1:17.6	Iran and the United States share deep psychic and emotional scars,
1:22.6	going back years, but none is remembered more by Americans
1:26.6	than the hostage crisis of 1979.
1:30.3	We watched what appeared to be an irrational, furious attack and wondered why or how anyone would act
1:37.3	this way.
1:38.3	But to Iran, taking the hostages was completely rational, given the history that led up to that moment.
1:47.0	In November 1979, Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, turning it into a prison
	...

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