In 1997, the election of the popular reformist Mohammed Khatami as president raised hopes that the nearly twenty-year enmity between Iran and the U.S. might soon subside. For a while it seemed that images of the hostage crisis, of Iranian masses burning American flags and shouting "Marg bar Amrika" (Death to America), and of clerics decrying the "Great Satan," were being replaced by that of a conciliatory Khatami on CNN calling for "dialogue" and "understanding."…… More »