Not true about Carter decreasing defense spending, see below; and just what did he need "military readiness" for? I had a great fact, but since I don't have 15 posts, I could not post a link to it, but the post shows Carter increased defense spending from 4.7 to 5.2% of GDP during his 4 years in office, and as GDP grows, the spending would have been increasing also.First, he made deep cuts in military spending which compromised the very military readiness he needed later.
The Shah was an autocratic tyrant in his later years, using his secret police, SAVAK, to torture and terrorize the population into submission. Do you believe that liberalization of that form of govt. was bad?Second, he applied pressure on the Shan to liberalize his society which only allowed room for Muslim radicals to operate unimpeded and laid the foundation for the Iran/Iraq War that reduced world oil supply--thus increasing world price of oil.
You recall the first Arab Oil Embargo was in in 1973, over the US support of Israel in the Yom Kipor War, and the price of oil doubled from $3 to $6 a barrel in short order, under Nixon. You can't lay all this on Carter, although there was a second embargo in 78.
This makes little sense. You mean the students were armoring the embassy? Do you think anything they could do would stop a properly planned helicopter assault? I believe the hostages had been separated and were being moved around in case of a rescue attempt, even knowing where they were was a problem. Carter was in a tough spot, and any US president would have been also.And finally, his refusal to consider a military option only until late in the hostage crisis means the students had time to fortify their positions around the hostages and made America appear impotent to the Islamic world.
These appear to be overly broad assertions based on isolated interpretations of a broad swath of history, that attempt to discredit Carter without consideration of everything else going on at the time.
I find little correlation between the incident cited and the proposed result of that incident, if you look a little closer.