painful with the great satan. in the name of heroic flexibility the leader and allowed himself to overcome the islamic republic's visceral anti americanism one of the regime's major ideological standpoints and enter negotiations with the united states. the islamic republic's anti americanism goes back to the early days of the revolution. in november one thousand nine hundred seventy nine iranian students took fifty two american diplomats hostage. their objective was to demonstrate that the new islamic order was set against the west particularly