The Betrayal: Jimmy Carter, Khomeini, and America’s Secret Surrender in Iran
Kambiz Fattahi

A gripping revisionist history, The Betrayal exposes how the United States—far from being blindsided by the 1979 Iranian Revolution—played a covert but decisive role in enabling it. Deliberately backing away from the Shah and secular forces, Washington opened the door to Ayatollah Khomeini and his Islamist followers.

Investigative journalist Kambiz Fattahi draws on five years of original reporting, newly declassified documents, and exclusive interviews to uncover the hidden decisions and fatal misjudgments that turned Iran from a stalwart U.S. ally into a long-term adversary. At the center is the extraordinary mission of General Robert “Dutch” Huyser, dispatched not to stabilize Iran’s monarchy but to sideline its military and manage the Shah’s collapse.

Through clandestine diplomacy and backchannel messages, Carter’s administration secretly assured Khomeini’s aides of American neutrality—even as revolutionaries mobilized across Iran. Among the book’s startling revelations: the Shah had quietly launched a nuclear weapons program; the White House concealed knowledge of his cancer; and, just weeks before the U.S. Embassy takeover, Carter’s team was considering sending a high-level emissary to Khomeini, followed by a public speech endorsing the new regime.

Part Cold War thriller, part investigative history, The Betrayal dismantles the sanitized version of events that has dominated official memory. It reveals how Washington’s strategy of accommodation and appeasement—designed to preserve U.S. influence—backfired catastrophically, ushering in a regime that would define American foreign policy for decades.

Timely, explosive, and meticulously researched, The Betrayal reframes a pivotal chapter of U.S.–Iran relations and offers a chilling lesson on the cost of wishful diplomacy—and the danger of mistaking radicals for moderates.