“The region changed following the Islamic Revolution, and clearly, the West had no idea.” — Javad Mansouri, former commander, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

As the first American and Israeli missiles hit Iran on February 28, 2026, U.S. government officials argued that this was not the start of war. Instead, it was just the next stage in a conflict that started with the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the American and Israeli-backed regime of the Shah, and made the U.S. and Israel sworn enemies of the new Islamic state.

THE MARCH TO WAR is a unique three-part series that looks at the deep roots of the “infinite roller-coaster” of conflict that has ensnared Israel and Iran and drawn in the United States. Was open war inevitable, the series asks? And could the escalation have been stopped?

The series tells the story through the voices of those that shaped it: politicians (including former U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu), military commanders, intelligence chiefs and ambassadors, from all sides, along with political scientists and historians.

CHAPTER 1: BROKEN DREAMS

In the 1970s, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi saw himself as a modern Cyrus. Like the ancient Persian king he would preside over an empire and return Iran to its ancient glory. But the Shah, installed and backed by the United States, was also a ruthless dictator presiding over an authoritarian state that brutalized its own citizens. This episode retraces the military and civilian co-operation among Israelis, Americans, and Iranians — Israel built dams and advised the Iranian secret police, the U.S. supplied arms and encouraged the Iranian nuclear industry. Neither country was prepared for the Islamic Revolution, that would lead to a dramatic realignment of regional power.