Searching for sources about Iran 1979 - 1985 (war, bomb, 1980s, France)

[Rescue3]

I wonder if you can help me for a book I'm writing.

I'm looking for authoritative sources about the first few years of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, say from Khomeini's arrival from France in February 1979 through about the middle of 1985.

During that time, Iran essentially had two governments. It had a national level municipal government that provided water and roads and all the day to day things a government provides - which Khomeini really did not want to deal with. It also had a theological government, which Khomeini ran, above the national government. Hence, while you had an Iranian army and navy, you also had the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which was solely beholden to Khomeini and his level of government. (Some of this duality still exists today.)

But Khomeini was very insulated from the public after his return from exile. What I'm trying to get at is, who operationalized his thoughts? Who transformed his philosophies into governmental actions? For example, who took his concept of exporting the Islamic Revolution and used it to create Hezbollah in Lebanon? Who took Hossein Fahmideh's suicidal dive under an Iraqi tank in October 1980 and turned suicide into the goal for every basiji (the volunteer army made up mostly of kids) because Khomeini promised them a place in Paradise?

There had to be some structure of government bureaucrats who carried these governmental acts out because they happened - and all in the name of Khomeini's guidance, but there are precious few accounts (read: none) of Khomeini himself actually coming out and telling people to do things. And most of his closest friends and advisors were blown up just a year into his reign.

Does anyone know of a good source book or three about the early days of the Khomeini government? Specifically, how it operated and who used Khomeini's religious edicts to justify and carry out some of Iran's policies during that time?

Thanks in advance, R-3

[Snowball7]

Yes, based on your specific needs, regarding the temporal machinations
of how political and military power was shifted about during and after
the Islamic Revolution in Iran, not its ideological underpinnings, read this paper:

Khomeini's Incorporation of the Iranian Military
Mark Roberts
National Defense University
McNair Paper 48

make note of the bibliography as its extensive source materials cater
to exactly what you're researching.

The above paper is included on this homepage, some
of the contents therein require translation.

[Rescue3]

Snowball: That's perfect - Thanks!

(Odd bit of trivia: Two OSI agents barely escaped the hostage crisis in Tehran in 1979. One, Ed Kley, went on to retire from the ME Threat Desk at IVOA - which is what OSI used to call the desk that Roberts had when he wrote this paper in 1996. Ed retired in the late 1980s.)

[Nema98]

Good luck on your book OP, yes I have tried before to look up things about Iran under Ali Khamenei while he was president. He is now Supreme Leader, but was president under Khomeini form 1981-1989. I must say it was pretty scarce. Iran in the early half of the 1980's is hard to find on the internet, sans the war with Iraq.

[Rescue3]

Nema: It is tough. Thousands were killed, papers were shut down and anyone not on board with the regime were either driven into exile or jailed and executed. If it was written by a Khomeini sycophant, it doesn't get many stars on the truth-o-meter.

David Crist wrote a pretty good book called "The Twilight War;" Ronan Bergman wrote about Israel's 30 year war with Iran and the rest has had to come from US archives - painfully thin. For a good read about why the Shah was run out of town and how the Carter administration lost any credibility with Iran, see Dutch Heyser's book, "Mission to Tehran."

I just got a copy of Amir Taheri's book, "The Spirit of Allah," which is a pretty good bio of Ruhollah Khomeini through 1985. It was written by the former editor of Kayhan (Iran's daily newspaper) - in exile now. Ali Khameni has about a half dozen mentions between pages 250 and 288. He seems to have filled in as Khomeini's number one deputy after Beheshti was killed in the IRP bombing in June 1980.

Spoiler Alert: The Lebanese Shia had a much beloved cleric named Musa al-Sadr; he formed Amal (which means 'hope' in Arabic) before the Lebanese civil war. In the late 70s he went to see Qaddafi to get some weapons and supplies for his militia. He 'vanished' on that mission and was thereafter known as "the vanished Imam." The Lebanese Shia were then leaderless going into the 1980s, just as the Islamic Revolution was gearing up for export from Iran - into Lebanon. Beheshti had him killed in Libya - he told Qaddafi that Sadr's resurfacing just then wouldn't be helpful. See: Kia Bird's "The Good Spy."

The Middle East is full of intrigue...