Henry Kissinger said it best:
Telling It Like It Is: Kissinger and the Kurds
"Kissinger, as Nixon's security adviser, who visited Tehran in May 1972, and agreed to do the Shah the favor of organizing a Kurdish insurrection against Saddam, with whom the Shah was having trouble..."
"The uprising was going great guns (literally) for three years, with the Kurds sustaining thousands of casualties.
"Then suddenly the Shah and Saddam patched up their differences and the Shah agreed to have the CIA call off the $16 million operation..."
"In 1975, Kissinger was asked before the House Intelligence Committee how he could justify this betrayal.
"He replied, 'Covert action should not be confused with missionary work.'"