As oil was beginning to flow at a near normal rate from Iranian wells and Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi seemed to be holding fast, Washington policymakers and analysts were heatedly examining why the Carter Administration had been caught by surprise when violent riots swept Iran. TIME Diplomatic Correspondent Strobe Talbott reports:
All Washington seemed to be playing a thoroughly unedifying game of "Who lost Iran?" For a while last week Foggy Bottom was a morass of recriminations and alibis. Almost everybody agreed that the U.S. should have anticipated the Shah's troubles much soonerbut that...