Welcome to the 1980sThe new decade marks a dramatic shift in the American electorate, which has grown tired of foreign war, and longs for earlier days of unchallenged world supremacy. Reagan is their man, a former corporate spokesperson and actor. Trump may have gleefully embraced the MAGA mantle in 2016, but it's Reagan who first tries it on, in 1980. He uses it as a subtle backdrop to his aw-shucks appearances, which seem to radiate confidence, and repel criticism. In the Mideast, two Muslim nations have also just acquired new leaders. In Iraq, Saddam Hussein speaks of restoring the honor of Iraq's glorious past. In Iran, a deeply conservative cleric seeks to turn back the clock centuries. Suddenly, America has lost an ally in Iran, which had for decades been a sympathetic partner. The new leader of Iran now calls America the 'Great Satan.' Returning to its religious roots, Iran has turned into a cauldron of anger. |
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US Embassy Stormed The Iranian Revolution poses an immediate and vexing problem for President Jimmy Carter, who is just beginning his campaign for re-election. Revolutionary Iranian zealots, led by students, storm the gates of the US embassy in the Iranian capital of Tehran. They march 53 captives out in blindfolds, to be held hostage for the entire year-long presidential campaign. There's nothing Carter can do about it. Iranians are filled with righteous anger against the US, which installed the Shah after secretly staging a coup to remove a moderate, democratically-elected, democracy-loving leader. This is at the request of Britain, and right after the new leader announces his intention to nationalize (but pay for) Iranian oil refineries, then being operated by British engineers. | |||||||||
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Man of the Hour The hostage crisis plays perfectly into the hands of Ronald Reagan, who merely waits out the election year, smiling broadly, while Carter twists and turns in the wind. In desperation, Carter sends in a special forces team to extract the hostages by stealth, but helicopters are damaged during last-minute preparations for the attack, which has to be scratched. Once again, Carter appears clueless and inept. Meanwhile, Reagan cozies up to right-wing religious leaders, who are eager to be buddies with the conservative Republican. Reagan wins in a landslide, while Iran releases the hostages right after the election, as a final snub to Carter. Soon, the hippies are out, replaced by proper business-oriented Republicans, like the Wall Street interns at lower right. | |||||||||
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Calm at Home President Reagan presides over a period of relative calm in America, while two great wars play out in the Mideast. The Soviets have just invaded remote and mountainous Afghanistan, at the invitation of local moderate leaders hoping to quell a Muslim uprising. At the same time, Iraq's Saddam Hussein launches an attack on the newly-installed revolutionary regime in neighboring Iran. The two countries have been contesting the oil-rich border area between them for years, but Hussein justifies the new attack as a means of preventing the revolutionary chaos in Iran from spreading into Iraq. Once again, Reagan is content to just sit back and watch, while secretly propping up brutal anti-communist regimes in Latin America. | |||||||||
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Oil Shock Wave The Iranian Revolution, which led directly to the Iran-Iraq War, presents the world with its second oil crisis. The first was brought on seven years earlier, by Arab oil-exporters deciding to witaaold shipments to the West. This second crisis is sparked by disruption of the Iranian oil industry at the start of the Iranian Revolution. This causes the steepest worldwide recession since the Second World War, which lasts for three years (top right). It hits America hard. | |||||||||
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Proxy War The war in Afghanistan goes badly for the Soviets, who had expected an easy victory. This is largely because the CIA begins covertly supplying the Afghan fighters with modern Stinger missiles, which make short work of Soviet helicopters. The Soviets throw in everything they've got, but the rough terrain is much more friendly to local defenders than foreign invaders. Afghanistan becomes a giant quagmire for the Soviets, who are forced to withdraw after nine years of fruitless struggle. | |||||||||