The United States and Israel on Saturday launched a sweeping attack on Iran, raising the risk of a wider regional war. In announcing the strikes, President Donald Trump pledged to crush Iran’s military forces, dismantle its nuclear program, and ultimately force a change in its leadership by appealing to Iranians to “take over your government.” President Trump said Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the strikes. The attack followed weeks of warnings from Trump pressing Tehran to accept a new nuclear agreement and earlier threats tied to Iran’s crackdown on protesters. Iran responded by launching multiple waves of ballistic missiles toward Israel; the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Jordan — all hosting U.S. bases — reported being targeted.
To put today’s conflict in context, 60 Minutes revisited decades of reporting on Iran, from pre-revolutionary interviews with the Shah to modern coverage of nuclear talks, missile strikes, and global assassination plots.
1974: Oil and the Shah
Mike Wallace visited Tehran in early 1974 amid the Arab oil embargo that caused U.S. gas shortages. He interviewed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi about rising oil profits, corruption, and his relationship with the Iranian people. The Shah defended Iran’s oil gains as “natural wealth” and insisted he was not afraid of his people: “They trust in me; I trust in them.”
1976: The Shah and SAVAK
Wallace returned in 1976 and questioned the Shah about his support for Israel and the secret police, SAVAK, notorious for brutality. When asked if SAVAK tortured detainees, the Shah denied “torture in the old sense,” saying there were now “intelligent ways of questioning.”
1978: Growing unrest
By November 1978, street protests and rioting in Tehran signaled deep discontent. Wallace reported mass demonstrations chanting “Down with the Shah!” and described widespread complaints about SAVAK’s repression and government corruption. The Shah refused another interview.
1979: Ayatollah Khomeini
After the Shah’s exile and Iran’s vote to become an Islamic republic, militants seized the U.S. Embassy in November 1979 and held Americans hostage. Two weeks later, Wallace interviewed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Qom. Khomeini tied the hostages’ fate to the question of the Shah’s return: unless the Shah was returned, “the hostages will not be freed.” Wallace had agreed to preapproved questions but pressed further, prompting Khomeini to denounce Egypt’s Anwar Sadat and refuse to say what would happen if President Carter refused to return the Shah.
1980: Explaining animosity
With the hostage crisis ongoing, Wallace examined why many Iranians blamed the U.S., noting the 1953 CIA-orchestrated coup that ousted Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh and reinstated the Shah. A classified Senate report confirmed CIA support in building SAVAK. Former embassy press officer Max McCarthy described a U.S. policy of propping up the Shah as a strategic pillar in the Gulf.
1997: Hashemi Rafsanjani
Wallace interviewed President Hashemi Rafsanjani during U.S. trade sanctions and accusations that Iran sought nuclear weapons. Rafsanjani insisted Iran wanted nuclear energy, not weapons, and rebuffed demands to swear otherwise: “Swearing is not needed. Those who swear are the ones who want to lie.”
2007: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Scott Pelley interviewed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ahead of his UN trip. Pelley pressed him about uranium enrichment amid UN Security Council demands to stop. Ahmadinejad argued a nuclear bomb was no longer useful geopolitically and bristled at the interrogation style: “This is not Guantanamo Bay… This is Iran. I’m the president of this country!”
2015: Hassan Rouhani and the JCPOA
In 2015 Iran signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France, and Germany. The deal required Iran to ship out 98% of enriched uranium, lock up thousands of centrifuges, close Fordow, disable Arak’s heavy-water reactor, and submit to extensive inspections in exchange for sanctions relief. Steve Kroft interviewed President Hassan Rouhani, who acknowledged lingering mistrust — and said the key question was whether relations would move toward greater enmity or rapprochement. The Trump administration later withdrew the U.S. from the deal in 2018.
2020–2021: Soleimani and missile retaliation
Tensions nearly reached open war in January 2020 after a U.S. drone strike killed Qasem Soleimani, Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard general accused of orchestrating attacks that killed U.S. troops. Iran retaliated with 16 ballistic missiles aimed at bases in Iraq; 11 struck Al Asad airbase, which had evacuated aircraft and personnel. Remarkably, no U.S. troops were killed. CBS national security correspondent David Martin reported that had the base not evacuated, casualties and aircraft losses could have been significant; Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie said the U.S. had a plan to retaliate if Americans had died.
2021–2022: Ebrahim Raisi and mistrust
Ebrahim Raisi, elected president in 2021, led Iran under heavy U.S. sanctions after the U.S. exit from the JCPOA. In a 2022 interview with Lesley Stahl, Raisi said he could not trust Americans: “The Americans broke their promises. They did it unilaterally… Now making promises is becoming meaningless.” Raisi also described Israel as a “false regime” and warned that states normalizing relations with Israel would be complicit in its crimes.
2023: Proxies and assassination plots
Lesley Stahl’s 2023 reporting highlighted Iran’s global use of proxies and hired operatives to intimidate, abduct, and assassinate opponents, including plots on U.S. soil. Former national security adviser John Bolton told Stahl the Revolutionary Guard sought to procure kidnappings or assassinations via hired hitmen. Journalist Masih Alinejad, a vocal critic of Iran’s hijab laws who fled to New York, was informed by the FBI of a plot to kidnap her. Stahl and others reported that sanctions alone have not deterred such actions.
60 Minutes’ decades of reporting — through interviews with Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Ayatollah Khomeini, Presidents Rafsanjani, Ahmadinejad, Rouhani, Raisi, and coverage of hostage crises, covert history, nuclear diplomacy, missile attacks, and assassination plots — traces the arc of Iran’s revolutionary state and its fraught relations with the United States and the region.
In:
– Iran