Iran hostage crisis

The Iran hostage crisis was a 444-day period during which the new government of Iran after the Iranian Revolution held hostage 66 diplomats and citizens of the United States. It is believed by many to have caused President Jimmy Carter of the United States to lose his re-election attempt, and punctuated the first fundamentalist Islamic revolution of modern times. It began on November 4, 1979 and lasted until January 20, 1981.

Events

On November 1, 1979 Iran's new leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini urged his people to demonstrate against United States and Israeli interests. Ruhollah Khomeini was virulently anti-American in his rhetoric, denouncing the American government as the "Great Satan" and "Enemies of Islam".

Related Topics:
November 1 - 1979 - Iran's - Leader - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini - United States - Israel

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Thousands gathered around the U.S. embassy in Tehran, protesting. The embassy grounds had been briefly occupied before, during the revolution, and protest crowds outside the fence were common. Iranian police were less and less helpful. On November 4, amid another chaotic occupation of the grounds, a mob of around 500 Iranian students calling themselves the Imam's Disciples (although reported numbers vary from 300 to 2000) seized the main embassy building. The token guard of Marines was thoroughly outnumbered, and staff rushed to destroy communications equipment and sensitive documents. Out of 90 occupants, 66 were taken captive, including three who were taken from the Iranian Foreign Ministry.

Related Topics:
Embassy - Tehran - November 4 - Marines

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The revolutionaries justified taking the hostages as retaliation against the United States' years of support of the Shah's totalitarian rule, and for the admission of the Shah into the U.S. for medical treatment, and demanded the Shah be returned to Iran for a trial. Foreign-policy realists considered the hostage-taking less a response to specific events and more a demonstration that the new Iranian government was capable of opposing the United States.

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Revolutionary teams displayed secret documents taken from the embassy, sometimes painstakingly reconstructed after shredding. Though generally treated well, the hostages were often shown blindfolded to local crowds and television cameras. There were some hostages that were beaten after escape attempts and psychological torture was used on others throughout the 444 days. Some spent extended periods in solitary confinement. The crisis led to daily (yet seemingly unchanging) news updates; the ABC late-night program America Held Hostage, anchored by Ted Koppel, would later become the stalwart news magazine Nightline.

Related Topics:
Shredding - ABC - Ted Koppel - Nightline

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The U.S. President at the time, Jimmy Carter, immediately applied economic and diplomatic pressure on Iran: oil imports from Iran were ended on November 12, 1979, a number of Iranians in the U.S. were expelled (some of whom were unrelated to the crisis or the new Iranian government), and around USD 8 billion of Iranian assets in the U.S. were frozen on November 14, 1979.

Related Topics:
Jimmy Carter - November 12 - 1979 - USD - Frozen - November 14

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Escape and partial rescue

During the riot, six Americans escaped in the confusion and hid out in one of their apartments before finding refuge at the Canadian and Swedish embassies, under the JKOTJ hospitality of Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor. Mark Lijek, Cora Amburn Lijek, Joseph Stafford, Kathleen Stafford, Robert Anders and Henry Lee Schatz were then given fake Canadian passports so they were able to leave the Canadian Embassy, without being identified as Americans, after it had closed on January 20, 1980. The CIA actually supplied the passports and ran the entire rescue mission.

Related Topics:
Canadian - Embassies - Canadian - Ambassador - Ken Taylor - Passports - Embassy - January 20 - 1980 - CIA

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Thirteen of the hostages, the women and African-Americans in the group, were released on November 19 and 20, 1979, but the remaining 53 continued to be held. One more hostage was released because of illness on July 11, 1980.

Related Topics:
November 19 - 20 - July 11 - 1980

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Negotiations and failed rescue attempts

Carter pledged himself to preserving the lives of the hostages, but beyond the initial measures he could do little. At first the Iranian government denied that the embassy takeover had been an official action of the government, but as time passed with no action to free the hostages, this claim wore thin. In February 1980, Iran issued a set of demands in return for freeing the hostages. They included the return of the deposed Shah to Iran, and certain diplomatic gestures including an apology for prior American actions in Iran (including the U.S.-aided 1953 coup against Mossadegh) and a promise to not to interfere in the future.

Related Topics:
February - 1980 - 1953 - Coup - Mossadegh

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Knowing he could not meet the Iranian demands, Carter publicly sought negotiation, using friendly third-party governments such as Switzerland. Meanwhile, he approved an ill-conceived secret rescue mission code-named Operation Eagle Claw. On the night of April 24-25, 1980, transport aircraft preparing for a special forces landing in Tehran rendezvoused at an airstrip in the Great Salt Desert of Eastern Iran. The mission, already aborted due to aircraft damage suffered in a sandstorm, turned to disaster when one departing helicopter clipped a C-130 airplane and crashed, killing eight U.S. servicemen. Mission material was left behind for the Iranians to discover and later display, and the dead bodies were paraded through Tehran during massive street protests, broadcast worldwide. Carter's Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance, who had opposed the rescue, resigned.

Related Topics:
Switzerland - Operation Eagle Claw - April 24 - 25 - 1980 - Special forces - Great Salt Desert - Sandstorm - C-130 - Tehran - Secretary of State - Cyrus Vance

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A second rescue attempt labeled Credible Sport was prepared using C-130 Hercules aircraft highly modified with rocket motors for an extremely short landing and take-off in a soccer stadium, but abandoned after the November election.

Related Topics:
Credible Sport - Hercules

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While the crisis ensued, former Johnson Administration Attorney General Ramsey Clark — now an antiwar activist — flew to Tehran and participated in a "Crimes of America" trial.

Related Topics:
Ramsey Clark - Antiwar

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Final months

The death of the Shah on July 27 and the invasion of Iran by Iraq in September, 1980 made Iran more receptive to resolving the hostage crisis.

Related Topics:
July 27 - Invasion of Iran by Iraq - 1980

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In the United States, Carter lost the November 1980 presidential election to Ronald Reagan. Most analysts believe Carter's inability to solve the hostage crisis played a large role in his decisive defeat. Unproven, controversial allegations persist that the hostage release was delayed until after the election through an illegal deal between the government of Iran and the Reagan kitchen cabinet, which was keen to avoid what they saw as an October surprise -- i.e., a pre-election hostage release that would have handed the vote to Carter. (Confusingly, the term "October surprise" now refers to the alleged deal by the Reagan campaign to prevent the release until after the election.)

Related Topics:
1980 presidential election - Ronald Reagan - Kitchen cabinet - October surprise

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Shortly after the election, the lame duck Carter administration, with the assistance of intermediaries such as Algerian diplomat Abdulkarim Ghuraib, opened fruitful negotiations began between the U.S. and Iran. In exchange for the unfreezing of 8 billion dollars worth of Iranian assets and immunity from lawsuits Iran might have faced, the hostages were to be freed. On January 20, 1981, minutes after President Reagan's inauguration, the hostages were formally released into U.S. custody, having spent 444 days in captivity.

Related Topics:
Lame duck - Algeria - January 20 - 1981

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The hostages were flown to Frankfurt am Main Air Force Base in West Germany, where former President Jimmy Carter, acting as an emissary for the Reagan administration, received them. After medical check-ups and debriefings they took a second flight to Washington, D.C., where they received a hero's welcome. For some, this only added to the nation's celebration of Reagan taking the presidency.

Related Topics:
Frankfurt am Main - West Germany - Washington, D.C.

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