The Iranian revolution was born out of the conflict with the “Great Satan.” Ayatollah Khomeini’s approval of Iran taking American hostages at their country’s embassy in Tehran was akin to blowing up the bridges. The first actual shot of the war was the bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983. Iranian fingerprints were found again, sometimes obscure and sometimes unmistakable, in embassy bombings and hostage-taking incidents. America responded by preventing Iran from defeating Iraq in the bitter war between the two countries.