The privileged American

"Few foreign policy issues have aroused as much passion in Iran as a 1964 Iranian law granting US military personnel diplomatic immunity. Denounced by Ayatollah Khomeini as a throwback to the hated capitulations of the nineteenth century that had been terminated by Iran in 1928, it led to his exile to Iraq, from where he led the eventually victorious religious opposition against the last Shah. The author puts this law and the subsequent exchange of notes between the United States and Iran in historical context. He uses hitherto unutilized primary sources, including interviews with American witnesses to probe the legal issues involved and provide a sober analysis of their consequences on the ground. In so doing he strips away decades of impassioned if not always accurate rhetoric, affording us what bids fair to become the definitive study of US privileges and immunities in Iran"--Provided by publisher.