The document summarizes major events in the Middle East from 1979 to the late 1980s involving the US. Key events include: 1) The 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran which established an Islamic republic and ended American control, taking of US hostages in Tehran for over a year in response. 2) Iraq invading Iran in 1980 starting the Iran-Iraq War which lasted until 1988 with over 500,000 casualties and chemical weapons used, though no territorial changes. 3) The US publicly backed Iraq in the war but the Iran-Contra scandal revealed the US also secretly sold weapons to Iran in the 1980s violating arms embargoes.