November 4, 1979
November 11, 1979 photo believed to be of former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and American hostage Jerry Miele.
America’s first confrontation with militant Islam did not occur on September 11, 2001. Rather, it was November 4, 1979, when Iranians, mostly younger students, overran the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took 66 Americans hostage. The Iranian Hostage Crisis would grip the nation for 444 days.
The origins of the crisis had its roots in a 1953 C.I.A. operation that installed Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi as the ruler of Iran. He was viewed as more pro-Western and anti-communist than Iran’s prior ruler, Muhammed Mossadegh. This was at a time when the Soviet Union had to be considered in every U.S. foreign policy decision.
Although his rule included a period of economic prosperity for Iran, like many despots in the Middle East then and now, the Shah used his power to eliminate any opposition against him, resorting to the arrest, torture, and murder of thousands of people. During this period, a radical cleric named Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini gained influence in Iran, rising up against what he considered to be the negative influence of the United States and promoting a fundamentalist Islamist government. After a period of exile in Iraq, Khomeini returned to Iran in July 1979 after his supporters successfully forced the Shah to flee to Egypt. Khomeini quickly established militant Islam and strong anti-Americanism as the governing principles of his rule.
Against this backdrop, the Shah, diagnosed with an advanced form of cancer, asked the United States to allow him to enter the country to seek treatment. President Jimmy Carter decided to allow him in on humanitarian grounds, a decision met with great anger by many inside Iran.
On November 4, 1979, young supporters of Khomeini stormed the gates of the United States Embassy and took 66 Americans hostage. Under international law, storming an embassy is treated the same as a direct attack against that country. The situation was serious and only grew in scope as the days and months went by. The Iranians vowed not to release any hostages until the Shah was returned to Iran for trial. Khomeini is not viewed as having planned the storming of the American Embassy but issued a statement supporting the actions against what he called the American “den of spies.”
President Carter would be consumed by the crisis for the rest of his presidency. He decided early in the crisis that military action was too risky. Instead, he resorted to economic sanctions such as freezing Iranian assets in the United States and diplomacy. However, despite the best efforts of diplomats, sometimes using back channels, the situation did not improve.
In April of 1980, Carter approved a secret military mission. Known as Operation Eagle Claw, the aim was to put a group of special forces soldiers into the embassy to rescue the hostages. However, the operation would end in tragedy. A severe sandstorm on the day of the operation caused visibility issues for the helicopter pilots. One of the helicopters crashed into a C-130 transport plane during take-off in the Iranian desert, killing eight servicemen and injuring three more. The operation was aborted, and the Iranians exploited the mission’s failure for propaganda purposes.
By the summer of 1980, 52 American hostages remained inside the embassy. Some hostages were released because they were women, African Americans, or in one case, because of illness. Life for the hostages was extremely difficult. They were subject to harsh interrogations, were often blindfolded and put in front of cameras, and were also the victims of mock executions. The hostages had no idea if they would be released or killed on any given day. Their daily existence included no reading or talking, only time to think about their uncertain fate.
Finally, in September 1980, some progress was made to free the hostages. Khomeini set new terms for their release revolving around the late Shah’s financial assets, estimated to be $32 billion. A U.S. delegation worked through intermediaries in Algeria to respond to the new conditions. However, time kept going forward without a resolution.
Carter lost the presidential election of 1980 in a landslide to Ronald Reagan. He spent his last few months in office trying to free the hostages. On January 19, 1981, an agreement was reached to release the hostages in exchange for unfreezing $8 billion of Iranian assets. In a final slight to Carter by Iran, the hostages were released on January 20, 1981, a few hours after President Reagan was inaugurated.
Hostages return home
Some footnotes of interest:
The ABC television series Nightline began in response to the Iran Hostage Crisis.
Argo, the Best Picture Winner for 2012, was based on the true events of six Americans who escaped the American Embassy on the first day of the crisis and fled to the Canadian Embassy. Although the events were true, some aspects of the movie were dramatized.
Recommended Reading: Guests of the Ayatollah by Mark Bowden.