Gary Sick, President Jimmy Carter’s principal White House aide for Persian Gulf affairs and National Security Council (NSC) advisor on Iran during the Iranian Revolution and hostage crisis, sat down with this reporter to discuss those events, their impact on today’s relations..…

His successor, Bill Clinton, pursued what he called a policy of democratic ‘enlargement and engagement’, and his National Security Advisor, Anthony Lake, referred to himself as a pragmatic Wilsonian. ..…