This paper examines the Iran-U.S. standoff by analyzing the history of the Iran-Iraq War. It does so by addressing the following questions: How do Iranian accounts of the war portray the U.S. role in the conflict? How do Iranian views of the U.S. role shape Iran’s policies today? What is the conflict’s significance for the international history of the modern Middle East? The paper answers those questions by demonstrating that the United States is a central player in Iranian accounts of the war and that Iranian views of the U.S. role in the conflict have a significant impact on Iran’s policies and perceptions of the United States today. It argues that addressing the war’s legacies is important to easing U.S.-Iran tensions, and that international intervention in the conflict represents a critical yet under-appreciated episode in how regional powers understand the global history of the Middle East. This paper utilizes historical methodology and critical analysis of Persian-language primary sources to understand the war’s significance and narratives thereof in Iranian history and politics. According to Iranian accounts, it was U.S. intervention—its extensive support for Iraq and its allies; its protection of oil tankers from Iranian attacks and its engagements in the Gulf “Tanker War”; its failure to condemn Iraq for initiating the war and using chemical weapons; and its shooting down of an Iranian passenger plane in 1988—that convinced Iran that the war was unwinnable and had to end. For Iranian leaders, this history reinforces the conviction that the United States is determined to limit Iran’s power and thus cannot be trusted. However, despite the critical U.S. role in the war, English-language studies of the conflict have consistently neglected Iranian narratives of the conflict, the Persian-language sources in which they can be found, and the valuable perspectives they provide. Such neglect is important to address not only from a historical and academic perspective, but also from a policy perspective. That is especially true because this history informs Iran’s political and strategic outlook, its conception of itself and its position in the world, and its non-relationship with the United States. Iranian leaders consistently argue that if their relationship with the United States is to improve, this history will have to be addressed. It is accordingly important for anyone concerned with this relationship to understand how Iran perceives its history, and particularly the U.S. role therein. This paper contributes to that understanding.