"America can't do a damn thing against us" () is a slogan originally used by the former Iranian supreme leader

Ruhollah Khomeini Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini (17 May 1900 or 24 September 19023 June 1989) was an Iranian revolutionary, politician, political theorist, and religious leader. He was the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the main leader of the Iranian ...

during the

Iran hostage crisis The Iran hostage crisis () began on November 4, 1979, when 66 Americans, including diplomats and other civilian personnel, were taken hostage at the Embassy of the United States in Tehran, with 52 of them being held until January 20, 1981. Th ...

. It was used for the first time to assure the Iranians that the United States would not be able to restore the ousted

Shah of Iran The monarchs of Iran ruled for over two and a half millennia, beginning as early as the 7th century BC and enduring until the 20th century AD. The earliest Iranian king is generally considered to have been either Deioces of the Median dynasty () ...

back to the Iranian throne. The statement then became an unofficial slogan for the

Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution (, ), also known as the 1979 Revolution, or the Islamic Revolution of 1979 (, ) was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution led to the replacement of the Impe ...

, which resulted in the establishment of an

Islamic Republic The term Islamic republic has been used in different ways. Some Muslim religious leaders have used it as the name for a form of Islamic theocratic government enforcing sharia, or laws compatible with sharia. The term has also been used for a s ...

under Khomeini's rule.

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Responding to Iran's request for extradition of the Shah of Iran, Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, United States president

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...

provided for the Shah's travel plans to

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

. By doing so, Carter sought to eliminate the possibility of the extradition in exchange for hostages who were held by the revolutionary Iran for 444 days (4 November 1979 – 20 January 1981) after a group of Iranian revolutionary students affiliated with

Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line The Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line ( ''Dânešjuyân-e Mosalmân-e peyrov-e Khatt-e Emâm''), also called the Muslim Students of the Imam Khomeini Line, was an Iranian student group that occupied the U.S. embassy in Tehran on 4 Novem ...

broke into and entered the

Embassy of the United States, Tehran The Embassy of the United States of America in Tehran (Persian: سفارت آمریکا در تهران) was the American diplomatic mission in the Imperial State of Iran. Direct bilateral diplomatic relations between the two governments were se ...

, and took its diplomatic staff hostage. This in turn had been an action in response to the United States offering political asylum to the Shah. A week after the incident, the sheets and finances of Iran were confiscated by the United States. Yet, in spite of what were deemed by Iran to be international threats, there was still the possibility of holding trials for alleged American spies, and the reaction of Khomeini against the threat of Carter published regularly by international media, was the slogan "America can't do a damn thing against us". The slogan appeared on many walls and banners such as a billboard along the Iran-Iraq border, and a banner which was hung in front of the captured drone as part of the

Iran–U.S. RQ-170 incident On 5 December 2011, an American Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was captured by Iranian forces near the city of Kashmar in northeastern Iran. The Iranian government announced that the UAV was brought down by its cyber ...

. The slogan was also used by

Ali Khamenei Ali Hosseini Khamenei (; born 19 April 1939) is an Iranian cleric and politician who has served as the second supreme leader of Iran since 1989. He previously served as the third President of Iran, president from 1981 to 1989. Khamenei's tenure ...

, Khomeini's successor as the

Supreme Leader of Iran The supreme leader of Iran, also referred to as the supreme leader of the Islamic Revolution, but officially called the supreme leadership authority, is the head of state and the highest political and religious authority of Iran (above the Presi ...

, or alluded to in varied form. It was also used by some other Iranian officials.

References

External links

The lecture of Ayatollah Khomeini in which he used the slogan for the first time
{{Iran–United States relations 1979 quotations Slogans Political terminology of Iran Iranian political phrases Political quotes Anti-American sentiment in Iran Iran hostage crisis Iran–United States relations Ruhollah Khomeini

Application

See also

References

External links