The Iran Hostage Crisis Essay

November 4, 1979, seizure of the United States embassy in Tehran and the hostage of four hundred and forty-four days following, were the first steps leading up to the perpetual War on Terror. In the book Taken Hostage by David Farber informs about the Iran Hostage Crisis and the First Encounter with Radical Islam. United States and Iran got into conflict, leading to the Iranians holding American Embassy members hostage as revenge for them feeling betrayed by the United States. It also informs us about other events that occurred in a decade that caused the United States many problems. Farber believes the failure of American policymakers and more specifically from President Carter, to identify the severity of the crisis made for the prolonged crisis. The sheer ineptitude of the Carter administration was the cost of the US to lose it’s way economically, culturally, politically and even military. Carter struggled to respond to the impulses of Islamic fundamentalism within the prevailing Cold War paradigm. They saw the real problem as against modernism and they knew that the US was the major force spreading this belief throughout the world. The media misrepresentations of the struggle and mass media manipulation of Americans played on the peoples emotions. Although Carter was popular at the beginning of his presidency, this began to change when he was unable to solve economic problems and was unsuccessful in negotiating the release of the American hostages in Iran.

The United States history during 1977 to 1989 went through two presidencies and whirlwind of events happened. When President Jimmy Carter became president he wanted to lower the inflation rates to make life easier for the people of the United States. While that was his goal it got completely derailed. Near the end of Jimmy Carters presidency, a group of Iranian students took over the U.S Embassy in Tehran and took people hostage. Over the course of the 444 days the hostages where held captive while the people of the United States voted for a new president to help lead them into a new direction. The people voted for Ronald Reagan. While he was president things didn’t go as he planned as well. The issues with Iran did not calm down and escalated to something bigger. After the Iran hostage crisis, the US had another issues with Iran and it was the Iran- Contra affair. During this essay I will be talking about the book called “Taken Hostage” by David Farber and the information in the book. The book is about the time frame of Jimmy Carter’s presidency and the issues with Iran and the hostage crisis. The second half of my essay is towards President Ronald Reagan’s and the issues about the Iran- Contra affair and the lasting issues between Iran and the United states.

On November 4th, 1979, a group of enraged of Islamic revolutionists invaded the United States Embassy in Tehran. They had taken 60 Americans hostage for 444 days until President Ronald Reagan had taken Oath of office. It was nearly minutes after Reagan had taken office that they were released. Ayatollah Khomeini enforced an anti-Western Islamic theocracy, overrode the pro-Western monarchy of the Shah of Iran. Iran had felt that the United States was interfering with their internal affairs. They feared that they would return the Shah to power. The Shah had fled to mexico and the doctors there had uncovered that he was suffering an aggressive cancer. With this recent discovery they pushed the Shah to be admitted into a

On the first day of his presidency 66 American diplomats that were held hostage in Iran for 444 days were released. The 444 day period of captivity of is referred to as the “Iranian Hostage Crisis”. Due to how Jimmy Carter, the President at the time, stretched the boundaries set by the new Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini this situation ruined the relationship with a major gas and oil provider, Iran. While Reagan was in office he appointed Sandra Day O’Connor, a woman, to

“Because his American-supplied army and his American-trained secret police kept the shah in power, his opponents hated the United States almost as much as they hated their autocratic ruler. The shah’s rule was not one of constant decency” (Carnes and Garraty). From 1977 to 1979, Iran grew more and more unstable, as the Iranian people’s hatred of the shah further intensified. 1977 saw numerous riots, along with both the wounding and even killing of large numbers of the Iranian people. The Iranian people finally rose up against the shah in 1978, by January of the next year the shah was forced to flee. “A revolutionary government headed by a religious leader, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, assumed power. He that freedom was an enemy of Islam, as well as that Islam condoned terror. Khomeini denounced the United States as the “Great Satan” whose support of the shah, he said, had caused the Iranian people untold suffering” (Carnes and Garraty). Upon his exile, the shah was dying of cancer, after seeking refuge in numerous countries he was finally given refuge in the United States. The Iranian people wouldn’t have it, and began protesting outside the U.S. Embassy demanding the shah be returned, tried, and hanged. The Iranian Hostage Crisis was quickly approaching.

The people of Iran became angry that the United States would allow the Shah to seek medical treatment in the US, and overtook the U.S. embassy in Tehran. Many of them feared that the United States planned to return to Iran and reinstate Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi as their leader, because of the close diplomatic ties that had been established with him. The United States had helped him to overthrow Iran’s Prime Minister during a power struggle in 1953 and modernize Iran (“The Hostage Crisis in Iran”). The Iranian protesters- many of whom were college students- took hostages, 66 of the hostages holding American citizenship, and refused to release them until the Unites States stopped helping the Shah and turned him over to them. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini decided to support the actions of the student protesters, and dissolved treaties that had been made with the Soviet Union and the United States, preventing international intervention towards the violent protests in Iran. Premier Mehdi Bazargan and most of the

The Iran Hostage Crisis was a discretionary standoff between Iran and the United States. In 1979, a group of Iranian students went to the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking more than 60 American hostages. Fifty-two hostages were held for 444 days, from November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981. The reputation of Iran's leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, started to become awful as the Hostage Crisis kept going. Ayatollah Khomeini was the Iranian Shia Muslim religious leader and politician and he made several demands that needed to be met before the hostages were released. The Iran Hostage Crisis caused the United States to cut ties with Iran and was an exemplary demonstration of America’s resolve to ensure the safe return of our citizens.

For days, military flights brought thousands of Americans out of Iran and into safe countries until on February 10th 1979, Iranians closed the Mehrahad Airport putting a halt on the evacuation of Americans. In response, the Joint Chiefs of Staff were planning and organizing a rescue and support mission to the U.S. Embassy in Iran. Before the rescue and evacuation mission could begin, armed Iranians took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took 102 Americans hostage. Khomeini security returned the hostages and embassy while also getting the airport to be reopened.2

For days, military flights brought thousands of Americans out of Iran and into safe countries until on February 10th 1979, Iranians closed the Mehrahad Airport putting a halt on the evacuation of Americans. In response, the Joint Chief of Staffs were planning and organizing a rescue and support mission to the U.S. Embassy in Iran. Before the rescue and evacuation mission could begin, armed Iranians took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took 102 Americans hostage. Khomeini security returned the hostages and embassy while also getting the airport to be reopened.2

The scandal begun with American patriotism, trying to rescue a number of their citizens held hostage in Lebanon by people who were claimed to have Iran ties. Army of the Guardians of Islamic Revolution is a terrorist group, which claims to have the best interest of the Islamic community, protecting their rights. The group that was holding the Americans hostages was associated with this deadly group,

Militant student, followers of the Ayatollah stormed the Embassy and took all personnel hostage. This was the second time in 1979 the embassy was taken and only a few people remained behind its gates. The students only planned to take the hostages for a few days, hopping that the United States would return the ousted Shah, to face trial. When the US refused, to return the Shah, the stalemate began, and the students held the hostages for 444 days.

During the 1970s a man named Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was leading Islamic fundamentalists to oppose the pro-American Iranian government that was in charge by Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi. Protests were more often as time went on, but on February 14, 1979 Ayatollah took it to an extreme when armed Iranians took siege of a United States embassy. 102 Americans were taken hostage during the event and would stay there for a while.

The Iran Hostage Crisis lasted for 444 days and went from 4 November 1979 to 20 January 1981. This crisis happened only after a long time friend and ally, the Shah of Iran, was ousted from power and left Iran in January 1979. A revolutionary leader named Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini came to power in Iran when he returned in February 1979. Khomeini started rhetoric against the United States as the "Great Satan" that provided young Iranian students a reason to storm the U.S. Embassy and take 66 people hostage. Fourteen people where released during the hostage crisis leaving 52 remaining. (1)

Hostility against the U.S. was extremely high when the Shah, who was suffering from cancer, came to America for treatment in October 1979 (Smith). On November 4, 1979, thousands of young Iranians, many of them college students, overran the United States embassy's 27-acre compound in Tehran, seizing the 66 Americans inside. "They seemed to be kids about 20 years old . . . kids from small towns with rather strict upbringings," one hostage, John Limbert, recalled. "Many of them had never seen an American before." The 14-month standoff that followed frustrated and humbled President Carter. During this hostage crisis, President Carter launched, on April 24, 1980, a risky military rescue operation, which

On November 4, 1979, students who supported Ayatollah Khomeini and the revolution, known as the Muslim Student Followers of Imam’s Line, charged the American embassy in Tehran and captured the diplomats. The revolutionaries captured fifty-two Americans working in the embassy. Khomeini approved of the student’s actions and encouraged them to