Khomeini's Long Shadow: 30 Years After the Iran Hostage Crisis

Reflections
Despite the wrenching changes he effected in Iran, Khomeini was highly reticent during his lifetime to acknowledge the power he wielded. Responding to an interviewer who suggested in 1979 that he exercised absolute dictatorial rule over his country, he replied, "Iran is not in my hands. Iran is in the hands of the people."

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