Iran Hostage Crisis
The Iran Hostage Crisis was a pivotal event that unfolded from November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981, when a group of Iranian students, estimated to number between 300 and 500, seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took 52 American diplomats and citizens hostage. This incident occurred in the context of the recent overthrow of the pro-American Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and the rise of the Islamist government led by Grand Ayatollah Khomeini, who consolidated power during this tumultuous period. The hostage-takers demanded the return of the exiled Shah for trial and other reparations related to U.S. involvement in Iranian affairs.
The crisis lasted for 444 days and played a significant role in U.S. domestic politics, particularly affecting the 1980 presidential election, which was lost by President Jimmy Carter. It also marked a turning point in U.S.-Iran relations, establishing a long-standing animosity between the two nations. Efforts to resolve the situation, including a failed military rescue attempt, only intensified the conflict and led to the U.S. supporting Iraq during its subsequent invasion of Iran. Hostages were finally released on January 21, 1981, coinciding with the inauguration of President Ronald Reagan. The crisis left a lasting impact on America's global standing and its foreign policy in the Middle East.
Iran Hostage Crisis
Date: Nov. 4, 1979-Jan. 20, 1981.
Place: Tehran, Iran.
Incident: Iranian "students"---essentially a mob of supporters of the Islamist government--- seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.
Context: A fundamentalist Muslim Shiite leader, Grand Ayatollah Khomeini, became Iran's Supreme Leader after the exile of the pro-U.S. Shah of Iran in 1979. Partly the hostage crisis helped consolidate Islamist rule in Iran. Iraq's invasion of Iran in 1980 helped persuade Iran to enter into negotiations to end the crisis.
Known or presumed perpetrators: A crowd estimated at 300 to 500 people seized the embassy and took the hostages; the government denied responsibility, although it took no steps to free the captive diplomats.
Impact: The prolonged crisis played a role in the 1980 presidential elections, lost by President Jimmy Carter, and put the United States on a collision course with Iran that led to U.S. support for Iraqi dictator (and invader of Iran) Saddam Hussein for the next decade.
The Incident
On Nov. 4, 1979, a crowd of young Iranians, usually referred to as "students" and numbering between 300 and 500, swarmed over the walls of the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took hostage 63 Americans, mostly diplomats, inside. At the Iranian Foreign Ministry, three more Americans were taken hostage, bringing the total held captive to 66.
Within three weeks 13 women and African-American hostages were released; later, a sick hostage was released, leaving 52 to be held captive for a total of 444 days.
The hostage takers paraded their captives before television cameras repeatedly to mock the U. S., which had provided military and economic support to the overthrown Shah of Iran since 1953.
The administration of President Jimmy Carter quickly froze Iranian assets in the United States worth about $8 billion, barred Iranian imports (mostly oil) from the United States, and applied whatever diplomatic pressures were possible, all to no effect.
In February 1980 the Iranian government issued a list of demands to end the crisis, including returning the Shah to Iran for trial, an apology for past American involvement in Iranian affairs, and a promise to leave Iran alone in the future. The Carter administration declined to meet any of the demands.
On April 24, 1980, the U. S. attempted to rescue the hostages. The military operation, dubbed "Operation Eagle Claw," ended in fiasco. Of eight helicopters sent into Iran, two became disabled and a third was blown into a C-130 cargo plane by a fierce desert sandstorm, killing eight American servicemen. The rescue mission was called off; later, debris and burned bodies of American servicemen were paraded through the streets of Tehran. A second rescue plan was never enacted.
Negotiations to end the crisis began in the autumn of 1980, after Iraq had invaded Iran. Under terms eventually negotiated the United States freed the $8 billion in frozen assets and the hostages were released on Jan. 21, 1981, the day Carter's successor, Ronald Reagan, was inaugurated as president.
Perpetrators/Suspects
Officially the crisis was the act of the "students" who invaded the embassy, seemingly in reaction to the American decision to admit the exiled Shah of Iran to the United States for medical treatment. The failure of the fundamentalist Islamist government led by Ayatollah Khomeini to take action to end the crisis and free the hostages quickly turned the event into a contest of wills between the government of Iran and the United States.
The invading students continued to be identified as a single mob. In 2005 Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected president of Iran as the candidate of a fundamentalist Shiite Muslim party. Some former hostages insist they recognize Ahmadinejad as one of the hostage-takers; the government of Iran insists he was not present during the crisis and played no role in the drama.
Broader Impact
The prolonged hostage crisis, including the failure of the military rescue mission, played a major role in the presidential campaign of 1980 in which Carter was running for reelection against Republican Ronald Reagan. Although Reagan did not raise the crisis specifically, his promise to restore American power and prestige in the world were widely understood to be referring to the humiliation suffered as a result of the hostage-taking and failed rescue mission.
The crisis also helped consolidate the rule of Islamist fundamentalists inside Iran by pitting the government led by Ayatollah Khomeini against the U. S., whom Khomeini characterized as the "Great Satan."
The inability of the United States to effectively end the crisis, including the debacle of the attempted military rescue, seriously diminished the reputation of the U. S. as a superpower not to be challenged.
History/Background
The hostage crisis followed a long string of events dating to 1951 when a left-wing politician, Mohammed Mossadegh, was named prime minister. Mossadegh moved to enforce an act by the Iranian parliament to nationalize the assets of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co., leading Britain to withdraw technicians from the country and effectively to block oil exports. A political crisis pitting Mossadegh against Mohammad Pahlavi, the Shah, ensued with Mossadegh receiving support from two key groups: Islamic fundamentalists and Iran's communists. In 1953 the Central Intelligence Agency oversaw a plot that removed Mossadegh from office (he was jailed for three years) and the imposition of a military officer as prime minister under the Shah, who had briefly fled into exile before the plot was hatched.
Over the next 27 years the Shah of Iran enjoyed close relations with a succession of American administrations which acted to modernize his country on a Western model-a move that alienated traditional Islamic fundamentalists.
In 1977 the Shah relaxed some restrictions on civil rights, and the following year there were large demonstrations against the government. Martial law was imposed on major cities in September 1978 after many casualties were recorded in demonstrations. A major focus of the demonstrations had been the perceived westernization of Iran that was viewed as a threat to traditional, notably Islamic, values. From his exile in France, Ayatollah Khomeini encouraged the demonstrations in the name of Shiite Islam. On Jan. 16, 1979 the Shah took a "vacation"-in fact he fled the country for the second time during his reign. Neither military councils or the government of Prime Minister Shahpur Bakhtiar were able to restore order as crowds of up to a million people demonstrated in Tehran in support of Khomeini who returned to Iran on Feb. 1, 1979. Ten days later Bakhtiar also left office, first going into hiding and later into a French exile, marking the end of the Shah's regime. A national referendum was held to affirm the declaration of an Islamic Republic and on April 1, 1979 the new government was declared by Khomeini. This was followed by imposition of revolutionary committees patrolling the streets enforcing Islamist codes of behavior and dress. Many pro-Western Iranians fled the country.
It was in this supercharged atmosphere that a crowd stormed the U.S. embassy on Nov. 4, 1979.
Bibliography
"October Surprise Panel Vouches for Bush," Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report; 7/4/92, Vol. 50 Issue 27, p. 1980.
Doherty, C. J. "House May Investigate Charges of GOP Hostage Release Deal," Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report; 6/29/91, Vol. 49 Issue 26, p. 1774.
Moens, Alexander. "President Carter's Advisers and the Fall of the Shah," Political Science Quarterly; Summer 1991, Vol. 106 Issue 2, p. 211.
Schachter, Oscar. "Self-Help in International Law: U.S. Action in the Iranian Hostages Crisis," Journal of International Affairs; Winter 1984, Vol. 37 Issue 2, p. 231.
Norton, Joseph Jude and Michael H. Collins. "Reflections on the Iranian Hostage Settlement," ABA Journal, Apr 1981, Vol. 67 Issue 4, p. 428.