Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, soon to be dictator of Iran, was “some kind of a saint,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young told Carter administration colleagues as the Islamic Revolution unfolded in Iran. In a November 1978 memo, ironically titled “Thinking the Unthinkable,” the United States Ambassador to Iran William Sullivan, called Khomeini a “Gandhi-like” figure.

Less than three months later — 40 years ago this month — Khomeini returned to Iran from Paris. Within two months, the country would be declared an Islamic republic, forever changing both the Middle East and the world.