Annotated bibliography

01 · Timeline · LT

Council on Foreign Relations

Spine dates. Treat as a chronology, not a verdict on motives.

cards: rail, atoms-1957, sofa-1964, iran-iraq-1980, impeached-1981, seated-1981, iran-contra-1985, cup-1988, robe-1989, bounce-2019, nine-eleven-2001, natanz-2002, mahsa-2022, the-leader-2026, late

02 · News · mixed

Al Jazeera

Used for the public memory of 1953 and later kinetic shots. Not the CIA file.

cards: coup-1953, soleimani-2020, twelve-days-2025, the-leader-2026, rail

03 · News · mixed

CNN

Dates the Twelve-Day close. Early intel: the plants were set back months, not buried.

cards: twelve-days-2025

04 · News · LT

The New York Times

28 February 2026. Ali Khamenei is killed in the opening wave. Israel had skipped that shot in June 2025.

cards: the-leader-2026

05 · News · mixed

Reuters

June 2026 memorandum. Hormuz on best efforts. Fighting in the Gulf resumes within days. Irish true as an off-ramp.

cards: the-leader-2026

06 · News · IT

Hoover Institution

Published 14 September 2026. Six months later the conflict continues. The June MOU did not hold as a peace.

cards: the-leader-2026

07 · News · mixed

INSS

Mojtaba succeeds Ali after 28 February. As of mid-September he has not appeared in public. Wounded is IT; unseen is LT.

cards: the-leader-2026

08 · Primary · LT

National Security Archive / CIA FOIA

LT on US/UK involvement. The Agency admitted it decades later. Tudeh is the file they sold. A file is not a proof.

cards: coup-1953

09 · News · LT

The New York Times

Histiocytic lymphoma diagnosed in New York. Carter's admission of the Shah is the spark the occupiers used.

cards: revolution-1979

10 · Investigation · mixed

Foreign Affairs (Vali Nasr)

The 2003 Swiss fax is real. How serious the Supreme Leader was is DK-to-IT.

cards: natanz-2002

11 · Index · mixed

Wikipedia (index of cited reporting)

LT that Stuxnet hit Natanz. LT-to-IT on US-Israel authorship. Damage numbers are IT.

cards: stuxnet-2010

12 · Timeline · mixed

Associated Press

Deal text is LT. Missiles and proxies are outside it. Whether it blocked the bomb or paved a delayed path is the fight.

cards: jcpoa-2015, rail

13 · Primary · LT

US Department of State (Obama archive)

Official fact sheet. Caps, inspections, not a treaty. Ballistic missiles are not in this text.

cards: jcpoa-2015

14 · Primary · LT

US Department of State

UAE, Bahrain, then Sudan and Morocco. The 2023 Saudi track is the later, heavier card. It dies on 7 October.

cards: abraham-2020, saudi-accord-2023

15 · News · LT

BBC

Campaign and arrests happened. Do not collapse this into 2022.

cards: white-wednesdays-2017

16 · News · mixed

The New York Times

LT on the raid and that the files show structured AMAD-era weaponization work. DK how much stayed live after 2003.

cards: archive-2018

17 · Timeline · mixed

Associated Press

LT on the Global Hawk shootdown and tanker seizures. Abqaiq attribution is the official US/Saudi line.

cards: hormuz-2019

18 · Primary · LT

US State Department, Foreign Relations of the United States

LT: the Majlis status bill, Khomeini's sermon, exile 4 November 1964. Johnson's $200 million military credit is the other half of the same week. Vietnam is why the desk barely looked.

cards: sofa-1964

19 · Index · LT

Wikipedia (index)

Khomeini made Quds Day official August 1979. Death to Israel is a founding slogan, not a late unlock.

cards: revolution-1979, factions

20 · Investigation · mixed

UN OHCHR

Early international figure used by UN special experts, March 2023: more than 1,200 schoolgirls. Who did it is DK.

cards: mahsa-2022

21 · Investigation · mixed

Stanford Law

2025 review of a subset: real physical symptoms, not 'just nerves'. State failed to investigate while arresting people for talking.

cards: mahsa-2022

22 · Index · mixed

Wikipedia (index of cited figures)

Gulf money and European dual supply. Exact dollar totals vary. The strategy (neither side wins) does not.

cards: you-him-fight-1980, iran-iraq-1980, tilt-1982

23 · Index · mixed

Wikipedia (index of cited official files)

Carter's official neutrality while the hostages ran. February 1982: Iraq off the terrorism list. Reagan's later 1982 tilt after Iranian offensives: intelligence to Baghdad, then Operation Staunch in 1983. LT on the sequence. Exact intel product is argued.

cards: you-him-fight-1980, tilt-1982, iran-iraq-1980, delist-1982, lebanon-1983

24 · Primary · LT

National Security Archive

LT: 26-27 February 1982 de-designation cable. Dual-use unlock. Press guidance claims no implications for the war. Later documents: almost daily CW use by November 1983 while the tilt continues. Western firms in the production chain.

cards: delist-1982, tilt-1982, lebanon-1983

25 · Primary · LT

Eisenhower Presidential Library / public record

US supplied the Tehran Research Reactor and fuel. Indigenous enrichment is a later argument, not the original deal.

cards: atoms-1957

26 · Index · mixed

Encyclopaedia Britannica

Land reform, literacy corps, women's suffrage, 1963 plebiscite. Clerical opposition and Khomeini's emergence are LT. How much land actually moved is argued.

cards: white-revolution-1963

27 · Primary · LT

US State Department, Foreign Relations of the United States

Kennedy's people treat Amini's reform cabinet as maybe the last chance. They want socio-economic reform over military baksheesh. LT on the cable. IT on whether it undercut the left.

cards: white-revolution-1963

28 · Investigation · mixed

War on the Rocks / FRUS

May 1972 blank check: any conventional US weapons system, any quantity. Twin pillars under the Nixon Doctrine after Britain left east of Suez in 1971. Sales then jump. George Ball's liquor-store line is IT.

cards: weapons-1972, pipeline-1975

29 · Index · LT

Encyclopaedia Iranica

1967 law, 1975 expansion: courts, marriage age, polygamy squeezed. Khomeini denounced it in 1967. Repealed in the first weeks of 1979. LT.

cards: weapons-1972, veil-1979

30 · Index · mixed

Wikipedia (index of cited reporting) / Iranica

Thousands of women protest compulsory hijab after Khomeini's ministry order. Temporary delay, then the law lands. Family Protection is already being treated as void. LT on the protests. IT on 'they marched with him.'

cards: veil-1979

31 · Primary · LT

US National Archives

LT on 4 November 1979 seizure, Shah admitted 22 October, 444 days, release 20 January 1981. 13 released in November 1979; Richard Queen in July 1980; 52 remained.

cards: hostages-1979, eagle-claw-1980, inaugurated-1981, election-1980

32 · Index · LT

Encyclopaedia Britannica

LT: impeached 21 June 1981, fled to France. Rajai assassinated 30 August 1981. Khamenei inaugurated president 13 October 1981. He is not yet the Leader.

cards: impeached-1981, seated-1981

33 · Primary · LT

US State Department, Foreign Relations of the United States

LT on the raid, the White House statement, Vance's resignation. Desert One is the strip. Eight dead.

cards: hostages-1979, eagle-claw-1980

34 · Index · mixed

CNN Fast Facts / US reporting

LT: 241 US dead including 220 Marines, 58 French the same morning. Truck bomb 6:22 a.m. at the airport barracks. Marines withdraw February 1984. Later US court judgment: Hezbollah at Iranian direction. Attribution at the time was Islamic Jihad.

cards: lebanon-1983

35 · Primary · LT

National Security Archive

LT on the arms sales to Iran, the diversion to the Contras, Boland, the November 1986 exposure. Hostages for missiles is the trade. The profit walking to Nicaragua is the other half.

cards: iran-contra-1985, cup-1988

36 · Index · LT

Wikipedia (index of cited reporting)

LT: 290 dead. Washington calls it a mistake. 18 July Iran accepts Resolution 598. Khomeini's cup of poison. Ceasefire 20 August 1988.

cards: cup-1988