On November 4, 1979, 52 United States diplomats and citizens were held hostage after a group of militarized
Iranian
Iranian may refer to:
* Iran, a sovereign state
* Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran
* Iranian lan ...
college students belonging to the
Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line
The Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line ( fa, دانشجویان مسلمان پیرو خط امام ''Dânešjuyân-e Mosalmân-e peyrov-e Xatt-e Emâm''), also called the Muslim Students of the Imam Khomeini Line, was an Iranian student g ...
, who supported the
Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynas ...
, took over the
U.S. Embassy
The United States has the second most diplomatic missions of any country in the world after Mainland China, including 166 of the 193 member countries of the United Nations, as well as observer state Vatican City and non-member countries Kosovo a ...
in
Tehran
Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
and took them as hostages. A diplomatic standoff ensued. The hostages were held for 444 days, being released on January 20, 1981.
Western media described the crisis as an "entanglement" of "vengeance and mutual incomprehension."
U.S. President
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...
Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...
called the hostage-taking an act of "blackmail" and the hostages "victims of terrorism and anarchy." In Iran, it was widely seen as an act against the U.S. and its influence in Iran, including its perceived attempts to undermine the Iranian Revolution and its longstanding support of the shah of Iran,
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
, title = Shahanshah Aryamehr Bozorg Arteshtaran
, image = File:Shah_fullsize.jpg
, caption = Shah in 1973
, succession = Shah of Iran
, reign = 16 September 1941 – 11 February 1979
, coronation = 26 October ...
, who was overthrown in 1979. After Shah Pahlavi was overthrown, he was admitted to the U.S. for cancer treatment. Iran demanded his return in order to stand trial for crimes that he was accused of committing during his reign. Specifically, he was accused of committing crimes against Iranian citizens with the help of his secret police. Iran's demands were rejected by the United States, and Iran saw the decision to grant him asylum as American complicity in those atrocities. The Americans saw the hostage-taking as an egregious violation of the principles of international law, such as the Vienna Convention, which granted diplomats immunity from arrest and made diplomatic compounds inviolable. The Shah left the United States in December 1979 and was ultimately granted asylum in
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
, where he died from complications of cancer at age 60 on July 27, 1980.
Six American diplomats who had evaded capture were rescued by a joint CIA–Canadian effort on January 27, 1980. The crisis reached a climax in early 1980 after
diplomatic negotiations
Diplomacy comprises spoken or written communication by representatives of states (such as leaders and diplomats) intended to influence events in the international system.Ronald Peter Barston, ''Modern diplomacy'', Pearson Education, 2006, p. 1 ...
failed to win the release of the hostages. Carter ordered the U.S. military to attempt a rescue mission –
Operation Eagle Claw
Operation Eagle Claw, known as Operation Tabas ( fa, عملیات طبس) in Iran, was a failed operation by the United States Armed Forces ordered by U.S. President Jimmy Carter to attempt the rescue of 52 embassy staff held captive at the ...
– using warships that included and , which were patrolling the waters near Iran. The failed attempt on April 24, 1980, resulted in the death of one Iranian civilian and the accidental deaths of eight American servicemen after one of the helicopters crashed into a transport aircraft. U.S. Secretary of State
Cyrus Vance
Cyrus Roberts Vance Sr. (March 27, 1917January 12, 2002) was an American lawyer and United States Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1980. Prior to serving in that position, he was the United States Deputy Secretary of ...
resigned his position following the failure. In September 1980,
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
invaded Iran, beginning the
Iran–Iraq War
The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. It began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for almost eight years, until the acceptance of United Nations Security Council ...
. These events led the Iranian government to enter negotiations with the U.S., with
acting as a mediator. The crisis is considered a pivotal episode in the history of
Iran–United States relations
Iran and the United States have had no formal diplomatic relations since April 7, 1980. Instead, Pakistan serves as Iran's protecting power in the United States, while Switzerland serves as the United States' protecting power in Iran. Contacts are ...
.
Political analysts cited the standoff as a major factor in the continuing downfall of
Carter's presidency
Jimmy Carter's tenure as the 39th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 1977, and ended on January 20, 1981. A Democrat from Georgia, Carter took office after defeating incumbent Republican President G ...
and his landslide loss in the 1980 presidential election; the hostages were formally released into United States custody the day after the signing of the
Algiers Accords
The Algiers Accords of January 19, 1981 was a set of agreements between the United States and Iran to resolve the Iran hostage crisis, brokered by the Algerian government and signed in Algiers on January 19, 1981. The crisis arose from the takeo ...
, just minutes after American President
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
was sworn into office. In Iran, the crisis strengthened the prestige of
Ayatollah
Ayatollah ( ; fa, آیتالله, āyatollāh) is an Title of honor, honorific title for high-ranking Twelver Shia clergy in Iran and Iraq that came into widespread usage in the 20th century.
Etymology
The title is originally derived from ...
Ruhollah Khomeini
Ruhollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Khomeini, Imam Khomeini ( , ; ; 17 May 1900 – 3 June 1989) was an Iranian political and religious leader who served as the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989. He was the founder of ...
and the political power of
theocrats
Theocracy is a form of government in which one or more deities are recognized as supreme ruling authorities, giving divine guidance to human intermediaries who manage the government's daily affairs.
Etymology
The word theocracy originates fr ...
who opposed any normalization of relations with the West. The crisis also led to American economic
sanctions against Iran
There have been a number of sanctions against Iran imposed by a number of countries, especially the United States, and international entities. Iran was the most sanctioned country in the world until it was surpassed by Russia following its inva ...
, which further weakened ties between the two countries.
Background
1953 coup d'état
During the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
and the
Soviet government
The Government of the Soviet Union ( rus, Прави́тельство СССР, p=prɐˈvʲitʲɪlʲstvə ɛs ɛs ɛs ˈɛr, r=Pravítelstvo SSSR, lang=no), formally the All-Union Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, commonly ab ...
Reza Shah Pahlavi
,
, spouse = Maryam Savadkoohi Tadj ol-Molouk Ayromlu (queen consort)Turan AmirsoleimaniEsmat Dowlatshahi
, issue = Princess Hamdamsaltaneh Princess ShamsMohammad Reza Shah Princess Ashraf Prince Ali Reza Prince Gholam Reza Prin ...
to abdicate in favor of his eldest son,
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
, title = Shahanshah Aryamehr Bozorg Arteshtaran
, image = File:Shah_fullsize.jpg
, caption = Shah in 1973
, succession = Shah of Iran
, reign = 16 September 1941 – 11 February 1979
, coronation = 26 October ...
. The two nations claimed that they acted preemptively in order to stop Reza Shah from aligning his petroleum-rich country with
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
. However, the Shah's declaration of neutrality, and his refusal to allow Iranian territory to be used to train or supply Soviet troops, were probably the real reasons for the invasion of Iran.
The United States did not participate in the invasion but it secured Iran's independence after the war ended by applying intense diplomatic pressure on the Soviet Union which forced it to withdraw from Iran in 1946.
By the 1950s,
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
, title = Shahanshah Aryamehr Bozorg Arteshtaran
, image = File:Shah_fullsize.jpg
, caption = Shah in 1973
, succession = Shah of Iran
, reign = 16 September 1941 – 11 February 1979
, coronation = 26 October ...
was engaged in a power struggle with Iran's prime minister,
Mohammad Mosaddegh
Mohammad Mosaddegh ( fa, محمد مصدق, ; 16 June 1882 – 5 March 1967) was an Iranian politician, author, and lawyer who served as the 35th Prime Minister of Iran from 1951 to 1953, after appointment by the 16th Majlis. He was a member of ...
, an immediate descendant of the preceding
Qajar dynasty
The Qajar dynasty (; fa, دودمان قاجار ', az, Qacarlar ) was an IranianAbbas Amanat, ''The Pivot of the Universe: Nasir Al-Din Shah Qajar and the Iranian Monarchy, 1831–1896'', I. B. Tauris, pp 2–3 royal dynasty of Turkic peoples ...
. Mosaddegh led a general strike, demanding an increased share of the nation's petroleum revenue from the
Anglo-Iranian Oil Company
The Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) was a British company founded in 1909 following the discovery of a large oil field in Masjed Soleiman, Persia (Iran). The British government purchased 51% of the company in 1914, gaining a controlling number ...
which was operating in Iran. The UK retaliated by reducing the amount of revenue which the Iranian government received. In 1953, the
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
and
MI6
The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...
helped Iranian royalists depose Mosaddegh in a military ''
coup d'état
A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...
'' codenamed
Operation Ajax
Operation or Operations may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity
* Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory
* ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Man ...
, allowing the Shah to extend his power. For the next two decades the Shah reigned as an
absolute monarch
Absolute monarchy (or Absolutism (European history), Absolutism as a doctrine) is a form of monarchy in which the monarch rules in their own right or power. In an absolute monarchy, the king or queen is by no means limited and has absolute pow ...
, "disloyal" elements within the state were purged. The U.S. continued to support the Shah after the coup, with the CIA training the Iranian secret police. In the subsequent decades of the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
, various economic, cultural, and political issues united Iranian opposition against the Shah and led to his eventual overthrow.
Carter administration
Months before the
Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynas ...
, on New Year's Eve 1977, U.S. President
Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...
further angered anti-Shah Iranians with a televised toast to Pahlavi, claiming that the Shah was "beloved" by his people. After the revolution commenced in February 1979 with the return of the Ayatollah
Khomeini
Ruhollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Khomeini, Imam Khomeini ( , ; ; 17 May 1900 – 3 June 1989) was an Iranian political and religious leader who served as the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989. He was the founder of ...
, the American Embassy was occupied and its staff held hostage briefly. Rocks and bullets had broken so many of the embassy's front-facing windows that they were replaced with
bulletproof glass
Bulletproof glass, ballistic glass, transparent armor, or bullet-resistant glass is a strong and optically transparent material that is particularly resistant to penetration by projectiles. Like any other material, it is not completely impenetr ...
. The embassy's staff was reduced to just over 60 from a high of nearly one thousand earlier in the decade.
Bowden Bowden may refer to:
Places Australia
* Bowden Island, one of the Family Islands in Queensland
* Bowden, South Australia, northwestern suburb of Adelaide
* Bowden railway station
Canada
* Bowden, Alberta, town in central Alberta
England
* Bowden ...
, p. 19
The
Carter administration
Jimmy Carter's tenure as the 39th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 1977, and ended on January 20, 1981. A Democrat from Georgia, Carter took office after defeating incumbent Republican President ...
tried to mitigate anti-American feeling by promoting a new relationship with the ''de facto'' Iranian government and continuing military cooperation in hopes that the situation would stabilize. However, on October 22, 1979, the United States permitted the Shah, who had
lymphoma
Lymphoma is a group of blood and lymph tumors that develop from lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell). In current usage the name usually refers to just the cancerous versions rather than all such tumours. Signs and symptoms may include enlar ...
, to enter
New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
for medical treatment. The State Department had discouraged this decision, understanding the political delicacy. But in response to pressure from influential figures including former Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger
Henry Alfred Kissinger (; ; born Heinz Alfred Kissinger, May 27, 1923) is a German-born American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the presid ...
and
Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank
A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, mi ...
Chairman
David Rockefeller
David Rockefeller (June 12, 1915 – March 20, 2017) was an American investment banker who served as chairman and chief executive of Chase Manhattan Corporation. He was the oldest living member of the third generation of the Rockefeller family, ...
, the Carter administration decided to grant it.Farber, p. 122
The Shah's admission to the United States intensified Iranian revolutionaries' anti-Americanism and spawned rumors of another U.S.–backed coup that would re-install him. Khomeini, who had been exiled by the shah for 15 years, heightened the rhetoric against the "
Great Satan
The Great Satan ( fa, شيطان بزرگ; ''Shaytân-e Bozorg'') is a demonizing epithet for the United States of America in Iranian foreign policy statements. Occasionally, these words have also been used toward the government of the United ...
", as he called the U.S, talking of "evidence of American plotting." In addition to ending what they believed was American sabotage of the revolution, the hostage takers hoped to depose the provisional revolutionary government of Prime Minister
Mehdi Bazargan
Mehdi Bazargan ( fa, مهدی بازرگان; 1 September 1907 – 20 January 1995) was an Iranian scholar, academic, long-time pro-democracy activist and head of Iran's interim government. He was appointed prime minister in February 1979 by Ay ...
, which they believed was plotting to normalize relations with the U.S. and extinguish Islamic revolutionary order in Iran. The occupation of the embassy on November 4, 1979, was also intended as leverage to demand the return of the Shah to stand trial in Iran in exchange for the hostages.
A later study claimed that there had been no American plots to overthrow the revolutionaries, and that a CIA intelligence-gathering mission at the embassy had been "notably ineffectual, gathering little information and hampered by the fact that none of the three officers spoke the local language,
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
." Its work, the study said, was "routine, prudent espionage conducted at diplomatic missions everywhere."
Prelude
First attempt
On the morning of February 14, 1979, the
Organization of Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas
The Organization of Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas (OIPFG; fa, سازمان چريکهای فدايی خلق ايران, Sāzmān-e čerikhā-ye Fadāʾi-e ḵalq-e Irān), simply known as Fadaiyan-e-Khalq ( fa, فداییان خلق, Fad ...
stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took a Marine named
Kenneth Kraus
Kenneth L. Kraus is a former United States Marine who was the first American taken hostage by Iranian militants prior to the Iran hostage crisis.
Experience
On February 14, 1979, at approximately 9:45 am in Tehran, Embassy of the United States, T ...
hostage. Ambassador
William H. Sullivan
William Healy Sullivan (October 12, 1922 – October 11, 2013) was an American Foreign Service career officer who served as ambassador to Laos from 1964 to 1969, the Philippines from 1973 to 1977, and Iran from 1977 to 1979.
Early life and care ...
surrendered the embassy to save lives, and with the assistance of Iranian Foreign Minister
Ebrahim Yazdi
Ebrahim Yazdi ( fa, ابراهیم یزدی; 26 September 1931 – 27 August 2017) was an Iranian politician, pharmacist, and diplomat who served as deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs in the interim government of Mehdi Bazarga ...
, returned the embassy to U.S. hands within three hours. Kraus was injured in the attack, kidnapped by the militants, tortured, tried, and convicted of murder. He was to be executed, but President Carter and Sullivan secured his release within six days. This incident became known as the Valentine's Day Open House.
Second attempt
The next attempt to seize the American Embassy was planned for September 1979 by
Ebrahim Asgharzadeh
Ebrahim Asgharzadeh ( fa, ابراهیم اصغرزاده) is an Iranian political activist and politician. He served as a member of the 3rd Majlis (Iran's legislature) from 1988–1992 and as a member of the first City Council of Tehran from 199 ...
, a student at the time. He consulted with the heads of the Islamic associations of Tehran's main universities, including the
University of Tehran
The University of Tehran (Tehran University or UT, fa, دانشگاه تهران) is the most prominent university located in Tehran, Iran. Based on its historical, socio-cultural, and political pedigree, as well as its research and teaching pro ...
,
Sharif University of Technology
Sharif University of Technology (SUT; fa, دانشگاه صنعتی شریف) is a public research university in Tehran, Iran. It is widely considered as the nation's most prestigious and leading institution for science, technology, engineering, ...
,
Amirkabir University of Technology
Amirkabir University of Technology (AUT) ( fa, دانشگاه صنعتی امیرکبیر), also called the Tehran Polytechnic, is a public technological university located in Tehran, Iran. Founded in 1928, AUT is the second oldest technical univ ...
(Polytechnic of Tehran), and
Iran University of Science and Technology
Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST) ( fa, دانشگاه علم و صنعت ایران, ''Danushgah-e 'lâm vâ Sân't-e Iran'') is a research institution and university of engineering and science in Iran. The university is home to ...
. They named their group
Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line
The Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line ( fa, دانشجویان مسلمان پیرو خط امام ''Dânešjuyân-e Mosalmân-e peyrov-e Xatt-e Emâm''), also called the Muslim Students of the Imam Khomeini Line, was an Iranian student g ...
.
Asgharzadeh later said there were five students at the first meeting, two of whom wanted to target the Soviet Embassy because the USSR was "a
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
and anti-God regime". Two others,
Mohsen Mirdamadi
Mohsen Mirdamadi ( fa, محسن میردامادی, born 1955 in Najafabad, Isfahan) is an Iranian academic and politician. He is the Deputy Secretary General of "Ettehad-e Mellat", the largest pro-reform political party in Iran. After the 2009 ...
and
Habibolah Bitaraf
Habibolah Bitaraf ( fa, حبیبالله بیطرف) is an Iranian reformist politician. He was Energy Minister for 8 years during Mohammad Khatami presidency. He also served as provincial governor of Yazd.
He was nominated as the energy ...
, supported Asgharzadeh's chosen target: the United States. "Our aim was to object against the American government by going to their embassy and occupying it for several hours," Asgharzadeh said. "Announcing our objections from within the occupied compound would carry our message to the world in a much more firm and effective way." Mirdamadi told an interviewer, "We intended to detain the diplomats for a few days, maybe one week, but no more."
Masoumeh Ebtekar
Masoumeh Ebtekar ( fa, معصومه ابتکار; born 21 September 1960) was the former Vice President of Iran for Women and Family Affairs, from August 9, 2017, to September 1, 2021. She previously headed Department of Environment from 1997 t ...
, the spokeswoman for the Iranian students during the crisis, said that those who rejected Asgharzadeh's plan did not participate in the subsequent events.
The students observed the procedures of the
Marine Security Guard
A Marine Security Guard (MSG), also known as a Marine Embassy Guard, is a member of the Marine Corps Embassy Security Group (formerly Marine Security Guard Battalion), a brigade-sized organization of the United States Marine Corps (USMC) whose de ...
s from nearby rooftops overlooking the embassy. They also drew on their experiences from the recent revolution, during which the U.S. Embassy grounds were briefly occupied. They enlisted the support of police officers in charge of guarding the embassy and of the Islamic
Revolutionary Guards
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC; fa, سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی, Sepāh-e Pāsdārān-e Enghelāb-e Eslāmi, lit=Army of Guardians of the Islamic Revolution also Sepāh or Pasdaran for short) is a branch o ...
.
According to the group and other sources, Ayatollah Khomeini did not know of the plan beforehand. The students had wanted to inform him, but according to the author
Mark Bowden
Mark Robert Bowden (; born July 17, 1951) is an American journalist and writer. He is a national correspondent for ''The Atlantic''. He is best known for his book ''Black Hawk Down (book), Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War'' (1999) about th ...
, Ayatollah
Mohammad Mousavi Khoeiniha
Sayyid Mohammad Mousavi Khoeiniha (born 1945) is an Iranian cleric and secretary general of the reformist Association of Combatant Clerics. He was the founder of the now defunct '' Salam'' and was a member of the Expediency Discernment Council.
...
persuaded them not to. Khoeiniha feared that the government would use the police to expel the students as they had the occupiers in February. The provisional government had been appointed by Khomeini, and so Khomeini was likely to go along with the government's request to restore order. On the other hand, Khoeiniha knew that if Khomeini first saw that the occupiers were faithful supporters of him (unlike the leftists in the first occupation) and that large numbers of pious Muslims had gathered outside the embassy to show their support for the takeover, it would be "very hard, perhaps even impossible," for him to oppose the takeover, and this would paralyze the Bazargan administration, which Khoeiniha and the students wanted to eliminate.
Supporters of the takeover stated that their motivation was fear of another American-backed coup against their popular revolution.
Takeover
On November 4, 1979, one of the demonstrations organized by Iranian student unions loyal to Khomeini erupted into an all-out conflict right outside the walled compound housing the U.S. Embassy.
At about 6:30 a.m., the ringleaders gathered between three hundred and five hundred selected students and briefed them on the battle plan. A female student was given a pair of metal cutters to break the chains locking the embassy's gates and hid them beneath her
chador
A chādor (Persian, ur, چادر, lit=tent), also variously spelled in English as chadah, chad(d)ar, chader, chud(d)ah, chadur, and naturalized as , is an outer garment or open cloak worn by many women in the Persian-influenced countries of Ira ...
.
At first, the students planned a symbolic occupation, in which they would release statements to the press and leave when government security forces came to restore order. This was reflected in placards saying: "Don't be afraid. We just want to sit in." When the embassy guards brandished firearms, the protesters retreated, with one telling the Americans, "We don't mean any harm." But as it became clear that the guards would not use deadly force and that a large, angry crowd had gathered outside the compound to cheer the occupiers and jeer the hostages, the plan changed. According to one embassy staff member, buses full of demonstrators began to appear outside the embassy shortly after the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line broke through the gates.
Bowden Bowden may refer to:
Places Australia
* Bowden Island, one of the Family Islands in Queensland
* Bowden, South Australia, northwestern suburb of Adelaide
* Bowden railway station
Canada
* Bowden, Alberta, town in central Alberta
England
* Bowden ...
As Khomeini's followers had hoped, Khomeini supported the takeover. According to Foreign Minister Yazdi, when he went to
Qom
Qom (also spelled as "Ghom", "Ghum", or "Qum") ( fa, قم ) is the seventh largest metropolis and also the seventh largest city in Iran. Qom is the capital of Qom Province. It is located to the south of Tehran. At the 2016 census, its popul ...
to tell Khomeini about it, Khomeini told him to "go and kick them out." But later that evening, back in Tehran, Yazdi heard on the radio that Khomeini had issued a statement supporting the seizure, calling it "the second revolution" and the embassy an " American spy den in Tehran."
The Marines and embassy staff were blindfolded by the occupiers, and then paraded in front of assembled photographers. In the first couple of days, many of the embassy workers who had sneaked out of the compound or had not been there at the time of the takeover were rounded up by Islamists and returned as hostages. Six American diplomats managed to avoid capture and took refuge in the British Embassy before being transferred to the Canadian Embassy. In a joint covert operation known as the
Canadian caper
The "Canadian Caper" was the joint covert rescue by the Canadian government and the CIA of six American diplomats who had evaded capture during the seizure of the United States embassy in Tehran, Iran, on November 4, 1979, after the Iranian ...
, the Canadian government and the CIA managed to smuggle them out of Iran on January 28, 1980, using Canadian passports and a cover story that identified them as a film crew. Others went to the Swedish Embassy in Tehran for three months.
A State Department diplomatic cable of November 8, 1979, details "A Tentative, Incomplete List of U.S. Personnel Being Held in the Embassy Compound."
Motivations
The Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line demanded that Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi return to Iran for trial and execution. The U.S. maintained that the Shah – who was to die less than a year later, in July 1980 – had come to America for medical attention. The group's other demands included that the U.S. government apologize for its interference in the internal affairs of Iran, including the overthrow of Prime Minister Mosaddegh in 1953, and that
Iran's frozen assets
Iranian frozen assets in international accounts are calculated to be worth between $100 billion and $120 billion. Almost $2 billion of Iran's assets are frozen in the United States. According to the Congressional Research Service, in addition to t ...
in the United States be released.
The initial plan was to hold the embassy for only a short time, but this changed after it became apparent how popular the takeover was and that Khomeini had given it his full support. Some attributed the decision not to release the hostages quickly to President Carter's failure to immediately deliver an ultimatum to Iran. His initial response was to appeal for the release of the hostages on humanitarian grounds and to share his hopes for a strategic
anti-communist
Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, w ...
alliance with the Ayatollah. As some of the student leaders had hoped, Iran's moderate prime minister, Bazargan, and his cabinet resigned under pressure just days after the takeover.
The duration of the hostages' captivity has also been attributed to internal Iranian revolutionary politics. As Ayatollah Khomeini told Iran's president:
This has united our people. Our opponents do not dare act against us. We can put the constitution to the people's vote without difficulty, and carry out presidential and parliamentary elections.
Leftist
People's Mujahedin of Iran
The People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), also known as Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) or Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) ( fa, سازمان مجاهدين خلق ايران, sâzmân-e mojâhedīn-e khalq-e īrân), is an Iranian pol ...
supported the taking of hostages at the US embassy. According to scholar
Daniel Pipes
Daniel Pipes (born September 9, 1949) is an American historian, writer, and commentator. He is the president of the Middle East Forum, and publisher of its ''Middle East Quarterly'' journal. His writing focuses on American foreign policy and the ...
, writing in 1980, the
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
-leaning leftists and the Islamists shared a common antipathy toward market-based reforms under the late Shah, and both subsumed individualism, including the unique identity of women, under conservative, though contrasting, visions of collectivism. Accordingly, both groups favored the Soviet Union over the United States in the early months of the Iranian Revolution. The Soviets, and possibly their allies
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
,
Libya
Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...
, and East Germany, were suspected of providing indirect assistance to the participants in the takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran. The
PLO
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establishing Arab unity and s ...
under
Yasser Arafat
Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini (4 / 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), popularly known as Yasser Arafat ( , ; ar, محمد ياسر عبد الرحمن عبد الرؤوف عرفات القدوة الحسيني, Mu ...
provided personnel, intelligence liaisons, funding, and training for Khomeini's forces before and after the revolution, and was suspected of playing a role in the embassy crisis.
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 200 ...
reportedly praised Khomeini as a revolutionary anti-imperialist who could find common cause between revolutionary leftists and anti-American Islamists. Both expressed disdain for modern
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...
and a preference for authoritarian collectivism. Cuba and its socialist ally Venezuela, under
Hugo Chávez
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician who was president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013, except for a brief period in 2002. Chávez was also leader of the Fifth Republ ...
, would later form
ALBA
''Alba'' ( , ) is the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland. It is also, in English language historiography, used to refer to the polity of Picts and Scottish people, Scots united in the ninth century as the Kingdom of Alba, until it developed i ...
in alliance with the Islamic Republic as a counter to
neoliberal
Neoliberalism (also neo-liberalism) is a term used to signify the late 20th century political reappearance of 19th-century ideas associated with free-market capitalism after it fell into decline following the Second World War. A prominent fa ...
American influence.
Revolutionary teams displayed secret documents purportedly taken from the embassy, sometimes painstakingly reconstructed after shredding, to buttress their claim that the U.S. was trying to destabilize the new regime.
By embracing the hostage-taking under the slogan "America can't do a thing," Khomeini rallied support and deflected criticism of his controversial theocratic constitution, which was scheduled for a referendum vote in less than one month. The referendum was successful, and after the vote, both leftists and theocrats continued to use allegations of pro-Americanism to suppress their opponents: relatively moderate political forces that included the Iranian Freedom Movement, the National Front, Grand Ayatollah
Mohammad Kazem Shariatmadari
Sayyid Mohammad Kazem Shariatmadari ( fa, محمد کاظم شریعتمداری), also spelled Shariat-Madari (5 January 1906 – 3 April 1986), was an Iranian Grand Ayatollah. He favoured the traditional Shiite practice of keeping clerics away ...
, and later President
Abolhassan Banisadr
Seyyed Abolhassan Banisadr ( fa, سید ابوالحسن بنیصدر; 22 March 1933 – 9 October 2021) was an Iranian politician, writer, and political dissident. He was the first president of Iran after the 1979 Iranian Revolution abolis ...
. In particular, carefully selected diplomatic dispatches and reports discovered at the embassy and released by the hostage-takers led to the disempowerment and resignation of moderate figures such as Bazargan. The failed rescue attempt and the political danger of any move seen as accommodating America delayed a negotiated release of the hostages. After the crisis ended, leftists and theocrats turned on each other, with the stronger theocratic group annihilating the left.
Documents discovered inside the American embassy
Supporters of the takeover claimed that in 1953, the American Embassy had been used as a "den of spies" from which the coup was organized. Later, documents which suggested that some of the members of the embassy's staff had been working with the Central Intelligence Agency were found Inside the embassy. Later, the CIA confirmed its role and that of MI6 in ''Operation Ajax''. After the Shah entered the United States, Ayatollah Khomeini called for street demonstrations.
Revolutionary teams displayed secret documents purportedly taken from the embassy, sometimes painstakingly reconstructed after shredding, in order to buttress their claim that "the Great Satan" (the U.S.) was trying to destabilize the new regime with the assistance of Iranian moderates who were in league with the U.S. The documents – including telegrams, correspondence, and reports from the U.S.
State Department
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...
and the CIA – were published in a series of books which were titled ''Documents from the U.S. Espionage Den'' ( fa, اسناد لانه جاسوسی امریكا). According to a 1997
Federation of American Scientists
The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) is an American nonprofit global policy think tank with the stated intent of using science and scientific analysis to attempt to make the world more secure. FAS was founded in 1946 by scientists who wo ...
bulletin, by 1995, 77 volumes of ''Documents from the U.S. Espionage Den'' had been published. Many of these volumes are now available online.
The 444-day crisis
Living conditions of the hostages
The hostage-takers, declaring their solidarity with other "oppressed minorities" and declaring their respect for "the special place of
women in Islam
The experiences of Muslim women ( ''Muslimāt'', singular مسلمة ''Muslimah'') vary widely between and within different societies. At the same time, their adherence to Islam is a shared factor that affects their lives to a varying degree ...
," released one woman and two
African Americans
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
on November 19.Efty, Alex; 'If Shah Not Returned, Khomeini Sets Trial for Other Hostages'; ''
Kentucky New Era
The ''Kentucky New Era'' is the major daily newspaper in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, in the United States.
History
The paper was founded in 1869 by John D. Morris and Asher Graham Caruth, as the ''Weekly Kentucky New Era.'' According to the then United States Ambassador to Lebanon,
John Gunther Dean
John Gunther Dean (February 24, 1926 – June 6, 2019) was an American diplomat. From 1974–1988, he served as the United States ambassador to five nations under four American presidents.
Early years
Dean was born as Gunther Dienstfertig in B ...
, the 13 hostages were released with the assistance of the Palestine Liberation Organization, after
Yassir Arafat
Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini (4 / 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), popularly known as Yasser Arafat ( , ; ar, محمد ياسر عبد الرحمن عبد الرؤوف عرفات القدوة الحسيني, Mu ...
and
Abu Jihad
Khalil Ibrahim al-Wazir Standardized Arabic transliteration: '' / / '' ( ar, خليل إبراهيم الوزير, also known by his '' kunya'' Abu JihadStandardized Arabic transliteration: ' —"Jihad's Father"; 10 October 1935 – 16 April 1 ...
personally traveled to Tehran to secure a concession. The only African-American hostage not released that month was Charles A. Jones, Jr. One more hostage, a white man named
Richard Queen
Richard Ivan Queen (August 7, 1951 – August 14, 2002) was born in Washington D.C. and worked for the U.S. State Department as Vice Consul at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran. On November 4, 1979, he was among the 66 hostages taken by Islamic mi ...
, was released in July 1980 after he became seriously ill with what was later diagnosed as
multiple sclerosis
Multiple (cerebral) sclerosis (MS), also known as encephalomyelitis disseminata or disseminated sclerosis, is the most common demyelinating disease, in which the insulating covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord are damaged. This d ...
. The remaining 52 hostages were held until January 1981, up to 444 days of captivity.
The hostages were initially held at the embassy, but after the takers took the cue from the failed rescue mission, the detainees were scattered around Iran in order to make a single rescue attempt impossible. Three high-level officials –
Bruce Laingen
Lowell Bruce Laingen (August 6, 1922 – July 15, 2019) was an American diplomat who served as the United States Ambassador to Malta from 1977 to 1979. Laingen is best known for having been the most senior American official held hostage during th ...
,
Victor L. Tomseth
Victor L. Tomseth (born April 14, 1941) is a former American diplomat and U.S. Ambassador (1993–1996) to Laos. He was Deputy Chief of Mission in Tehran, Iran and was among the Americans taken hostage by the Iranians from 1979 to 1981.
Early ...
, and Mike Howland – were at the Foreign Ministry at the time of the takeover. They stayed there for several months, sleeping in the ministry's formal dining room and washing their socks and underwear in the bathroom. At first, they were treated as diplomats, but after the provisional government fell, the treatment of them deteriorated. By March, the doors to their living space were kept "chained and padlocked."
By midsummer 1980, the Iranians had moved the hostages to prisons in Tehran to prevent escapes or rescue attempts and to improve the logistics of guard shifts and food deliveries. The final holding area, from November 1980 until their release, was the
Teymur Bakhtiar
Teymur Bakhtiar ( fa, تیمور بختیار; 1914 – 12 August 1970) was an Iranian general and the founder and head of SAVAK from 1956 to 1961 when he was dismissed by the Shah. In 1970, SAVAK agents assassinated him in Iraq.
He was an as ...
mansion in Tehran, where the hostages were finally given tubs, showers, and hot and cold running water. Several foreign diplomats and ambassadors – including the former Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor – visited the hostages over the course of the crisis and relayed information back to the U.S. government, including dispatches from Laingen.
Iranian propaganda stated that the hostages were "guests" and it also stated that they were being treated with respect. Asgharzadeh, the leader of the students, described the original plan as a nonviolent and symbolic action in which the students would use their "gentle and respectful treatment" of the hostages to dramatize the offended sovereignty and dignity of Iran to the entire world. In America, an Iranian
chargé d'affaires
A ''chargé d'affaires'' (), plural ''chargés d'affaires'', often shortened to ''chargé'' (French) and sometimes in colloquial English to ''charge-D'', is a diplomat who serves as an embassy's chief of mission in the absence of the ambassador ...
, Ali Agha, stormed out of a meeting with an American official, exclaiming: "We are not mistreating the hostages. They are being very well taken care of in Tehran. They are our guests."
The actual treatment of the hostages was far different. They described beatings, theft, and fear of bodily harm. Two of them, William Belk and Kathryn Koob, recalled being paraded blindfolded before an angry, chanting crowd outside the embassy. Others reported having their hands bound "day and night" for days or even weeks, long periods of solitary confinement, and months of being forbidden to speak to one another or to stand, walk, or leave their space unless they were going to the bathroom. All of the hostages "were threatened repeatedly with execution, and took it seriously." The hostage-takers played Russian roulette with their victims.
One hostage, Michael Metrinko, was kept in solitary confinement for several months. On two occasions, when he expressed his opinion of Ayatollah Khomeini, he was severely punished. The first time, he was kept in handcuffs for two weeks, and the second time, he was beaten and kept alone in a freezing cell for two weeks.
Another hostage, U.S. Army medic Donald Hohman, went on a
hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke a feeling of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most ...
for several weeks, and two hostages attempted
suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...
. Steve Lauterbach broke a water glass and slashed his wrists after being locked in a dark basement room with his hands tightly bound. He was found and rushed to the hospital by guards. Jerry Miele, a CIA communications technician, smashed his head into the corner of a door, knocking himself unconscious and cutting a deep gash. "Naturally withdrawn" and looking "ill, old, tired, and vulnerable," Miele had become the butt of his guards' jokes, and they had rigged up a mock electric chair to emphasize the fate that awaited him. His fellow hostages applied
first aid
First aid is the first and immediate assistance given to any person with either a minor or serious illness or injury, with care provided to preserve life, prevent the condition from worsening, or to promote recovery. It includes initial in ...
and raised the alarm, and he was taken to a hospital after a long delay which was caused by the guards.
Other hostages described threats to boil their feet in oil (Alan B. Golacinski), cut their eyes out (Rick Kupke), or kidnap and kill a disabled son in America and "start sending pieces of him to your wife" (David Roeder).
Four hostages tried to escape, and all of them were punished with stretches of solitary confinement when their escape attempts were discovered.
Queen, the hostage who was sent home because of his
multiple sclerosis
Multiple (cerebral) sclerosis (MS), also known as encephalomyelitis disseminata or disseminated sclerosis, is the most common demyelinating disease, in which the insulating covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord are damaged. This d ...
, first developed dizziness and numbness in his left arm six months before his release. At first, the Iranians misdiagnosed his symptoms as a reaction to drafts of cold air. When warmer confinement did not help, he was told that it was "nothing" because the symptoms would disappear soon. Over the months, the numbness spread to his right side, and the dizziness worsened until he "was literally flat on his back, unable to move without growing dizzy and throwing up."
The cruelty of the Iranian prison guards became "a form of slow torture." The guards often withheld mail – telling one hostage, Charles W. Scott, "I don't see anything for you, Mr. Scott. Are you sure your wife has not found another man?" – and the hostages' possessions went missing.
As the hostages were taken to the aircraft that would fly them out of Tehran, they were led through a gauntlet of students forming parallel lines and shouting, "Marg bar Amrika" ("
death to America
Death to America ( fa, مرگ بر آمریکا, translit=Marg bar Āmrikā; ) is an anti-American political slogan. It is used in Iran,Arash KaramiKhomeini Orders Media to End 'Death to America' Chant, Iran Pulse, October 13, 2013 Afghanistan, ...
"). When the pilot announced that they were out of Iran, the "freed hostages went wild with happiness. Shouting, cheering, crying, clapping, falling into one another's arms."
Impact in the United States
In the United States, the hostage crisis created "a surge of patriotism" and left "the American people more united than they have been on any issue in two decades." The hostage-taking was seen "not just as a diplomatic affront," but as a "declaration of war on diplomacy itself.""Doing Satan's Work in Iran", ''New York Times'', November 6, 1979. Television news gave daily updates. In January 1980, the ''CBS Evening News'' anchor
Walter Cronkite
Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the ''CBS Evening News'' for 19 years (1962–1981). During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the mo ...
began ending each show by saying how many days the hostages had been captive. President Carter applied economic and diplomatic pressure: Oil imports from Iran were ended on November 12, 1979, and with
Executive Order 12170
Executive Order 12170 was issued by American president Jimmy Carter on November 14, 1979, ten days after the Iran hostage crisis had started. The executive order, empowered under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, ordered the freezi ...
, around US$8 billion of Iranian assets in the United States were frozen by the
Office of Foreign Assets Control
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is a financial intelligence and enforcement agency of the U.S. Treasury Department. It administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions in support of U.S. national security and foreign policy ob ...
on November 14.
During the weeks leading up to Christmas in 1979, high school students made cards that were delivered to the hostages. Community groups across the country did the same, resulting in bales of Christmas cards. The
National Christmas Tree
The National Christmas Tree is a large evergreen tree located in the northeast quadrant of the Ellipse near the White House in Washington, D.C. Each year since 1923, the tree has been decorated as a Christmas tree. Every year, early in Decembe ...
was left dark except for the top star.
At the time, two Trenton, N.J., newspapers – ''The Trenton Times'' and ''the Trentonian'' and perhaps others around the country – printed full-page color American flags in their newspapers for readers to cut out and place in the front windows of their homes as support for the hostages until they were brought home safely.
A severe backlash against Iranians in the United States developed. One
Iranian American
Iranian Americans are United States citizens or nationals who are of Iranian ancestry or who hold Iranian citizenship.
Iranian Americans are among the most highly educated people in the United States. They have historically excelled in busin ...
later complained, "I had to hide my Iranian identity not to get beaten up, even at university."
According to Bowden, a pattern emerged in President Carter's attempts to negotiate the hostages' release: "Carter would latch on to a deal proffered by a top Iranian official and grant minor but humiliating concessions, only to have it scotched at the last minute by Khomeini."
Canadian rescue of hostages
On the day the hostages were seized, six American diplomats evaded capture and remained in hiding at the home of the Canadian diplomat
John Sheardown
John Vernon Sheardown (October 11, 1924 – December 30, 2012) was a Canadian diplomat who played a leading role in the "Canadian Caper". He and his wife Zena personally sheltered Americans hiding in Iran during the Iran hostage crisis.
Early li ...
, under the protection of the Canadian ambassador, Ken Taylor. In late 1979, the government of Prime Minister
Joe Clark
Charles Joseph Clark (born June 5, 1939) is a Canadian statesman, businessman, writer, and politician who served as the 16th prime minister of Canada from 1979 to 1980.
Despite his relative inexperience, Clark rose quickly in federal polit ...
secretly issued an
Order in Council
An Order-in-Council is a type of legislation in many countries, especially the Commonwealth realms. In the United Kingdom this legislation is formally made in the name of the monarch by and with the advice and consent of the Privy Council ('' Ki ...
allowing Canadian passports to be issued to some American citizens so that they could escape. In cooperation with the CIA, which used the cover story of a film project, two CIA agents and the six American diplomats boarded a
Swissair
Swissair AG/ S.A. (German: Schweizerische Luftverkehr-AG; French: S.A. Suisse pour la Navigation Aérienne) was the national airline of Switzerland between its founding in 1931 and bankruptcy in 2002.
It was formed from a merger between Bal ...
flight to Zurich, Switzerland, on January 28, 1980. Their rescue from Iran, known as the Canadian Caper, was fictionalized in the 1981 film '' Escape from Iran: The Canadian Caper'' and the 2012 film ''Argo''.
Negotiations for release
Rescue attempts
First rescue attempt
Cyrus Vance
Cyrus Roberts Vance Sr. (March 27, 1917January 12, 2002) was an American lawyer and United States Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1980. Prior to serving in that position, he was the United States Deputy Secretary of ...
, the
United States Secretary of State
The United States secretary of state is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State. The office holder is one of the highest ranking members of the president's Ca ...
, had argued against the push by
Zbigniew Brzezinski
Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzeziński ( , ; March 28, 1928 – May 26, 2017), or Zbig, was a Polish-American diplomat and political scientist. He served as a counselor to President Lyndon B. Johnson from 1966 to 1968 and was President Jimmy Carter's ...
, the
National Security Advisor A national security advisor serves as the chief advisor to a national government on matters of security. The advisor is not usually a member of the government's cabinet but is usually a member of various military or security councils.
National sec ...
, for a military solution to the crisis. Vance, struggling with
gout
Gout ( ) is a form of inflammatory arthritis characterized by recurrent attacks of a red, tender, hot and swollen joint, caused by deposition of monosodium urate monohydrate crystals. Pain typically comes on rapidly, reaching maximal intensit ...
, went to Florida on Thursday, April 10, 1980, for a long weekend. On Friday Brzezinski held a newly scheduled meeting of the
National Security Council
A national security council (NSC) is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security. An NSC is often headed by a na ...
where the president authorized
Operation Eagle Claw
Operation Eagle Claw, known as Operation Tabas ( fa, عملیات طبس) in Iran, was a failed operation by the United States Armed Forces ordered by U.S. President Jimmy Carter to attempt the rescue of 52 embassy staff held captive at the ...
, a military expedition into Tehran to rescue the hostages. Deputy Secretary
Warren Christopher
Warren Minor Christopher (October 27, 1925March 18, 2011) was an American lawyer, diplomat and politician. During Bill Clinton's first term as president, he served as the 63rd United States Secretary of State.
Born in Scranton, North Dakota, ...
, who attended the meeting in Vance's place, did not inform Vance. Furious, Vance handed in his resignation on principle, calling Brzezinski "evil."
Late in the afternoon of April 24, 1980, eight RH‑53D helicopters flew from the aircraft carrier USS ''Nimitz'' to a remote road serving as an airstrip in the
Great Salt Desert
Dasht-e Kavir ( fa, دشت كوير, lit=Low Plains in classical Persian, from ''khwar'' (low), and ''dasht'' (plain, flatland)), also known as Kavir-e Namak () and the Great Salt Desert, is a large desert lying in the middle of the Iranian Plat ...
of Eastern Iran, near
Tabas
Tabas ( fa, طبس, also Romanized as Ṭabas), formerly known as Golshan, is the capital city of Tabas County in South Khorasan Province of Iran. At the 2011 census, its population was 35,150, in 9,903 families.
Tabas is located in central Iran, ...
. They encountered severe dust storms that disabled two of the helicopters, which were traveling in complete
radio silence
In telecommunications, radio silence or Emissions Control (EMCON) is a status in which all fixed or mobile radio stations in an area are asked to stop transmitting for safety or security reasons.
The term "radio station" may include anything cap ...
. Early the next morning, the remaining six helicopters met up with several waiting
Lockheed C-130 Hercules
The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin). Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 was originally design ...
transport aircraft at a landing site and refueling area designated "Desert One".
At this point, a third helicopter was found to be unserviceable, bringing the total below the six deemed vital for the mission. The commander of the operation, Col.
Charles Alvin Beckwith
Charles Alvin "Charlie" Beckwith (January 22, 1929 – June 13, 1994) was a career U.S. Army Special Forces officer best remembered for creating Delta Force, the premier counterterrorism and asymmetrical warfare unit of the U.S. Army, base ...
, recommended that the mission be aborted, and his recommendation was approved by President Carter. As the helicopters repositioned themselves for refueling, one ran into a C‑130 tanker aircraft and crashed, killing eight U.S. servicemen and injuring several more.
Two hours into the flight, the crew of helicopter No. 6 saw a warning light indicating that a main rotor might be cracked. They landed in the desert, confirmed visually that a crack had started to develop, and stopped flying in accordance with normal operating procedure. Helicopter No. 8 landed to pick up the crew of No. 6, and abandoned No. 6 in the desert without destroying it. The report by Holloway's group pointed out that a cracked helicopter blade could have been used to continue the mission and that its likelihood of catastrophic failure would have been low for many hours, especially at lower flying speeds. The report found that the pilot of No. 6 would have continued the mission if instructed to do so.
When the helicopters encountered two
dust storm
A dust storm, also called a sandstorm, is a meteorological phenomenon common in arid and semi-arid regions. Dust storms arise when a gust front or other strong wind blows loose sand and dirt from a dry surface. Fine particles are transporte ...
s along the way to the refueling point, the second more severe than the first, the pilot of No. 5 turned back because the mine-laying helicopters were not equipped with
terrain-following radar
Terrain-following radar (TFR) is a military aerospace technology that allows a very-low-flying aircraft to automatically maintain a relatively constant altitude above ground level and therefore make detection by enemy radar more difficult. It is ...
. The report found that the pilot could have continued to the refueling point if he had been told that better weather awaited him there, but because of the command for radio silence, he did not ask about the conditions ahead. The report also concluded that "there were ways to pass the information" between the refueling station and the helicopter force "that would have small likelihood of compromising the mission" – in other words, that the ban on communication had not been necessary at this stage.
Helicopter No. 2 experienced a partial
hydraulic system
Hydraulics (from Greek language, Greek: Υδραυλική) is a technology and applied science using engineering, chemistry, and other sciences involving the mechanical properties and use of liquids. At a very basic level, hydraulics is th ...
failure but was able to fly on for four hours to the refueling location. There, an inspection showed that a hydraulic fluid leak had damaged a pump and that the helicopter could not be flown safely, nor repaired in time to continue the mission. Six helicopters was thought to be the absolute minimum required for the rescue mission, so with the force reduced to five, the local commander radioed his intention to abort. This request was passed through military channels to President Carter, who agreed.Holloway
In May 1980, the
Joint Chiefs of Staff
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) is the body of the most senior uniformed leaders within the United States Department of Defense, that advises the president of the United States, the secretary of defense, the Homeland Security Council and the ...
commissioned a
Special Operations
Special operations (S.O.) are military activities conducted, according to NATO, by "specially designated, organized, selected, trained, and equipped forces using unconventional techniques and modes of employment". Special operations may include ...
review group of six senior military officers, led by Adm.
James L. Holloway III
James Lemuel Holloway III (February 23, 1922 – November 26, 2019) was a United States Navy admiral and naval aviator who was decorated for his actions during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. After the Vietnam War, he was poste ...
, to thoroughly examine all aspects of the rescue attempt. The group identified 23 issues that were significant in the failure of the mission, 11 of which it deemed major. The overriding issue was
operational security
Operations security (OPSEC) is a process that identifies critical information to determine if friendly actions can be observed by enemy intelligence, determines if information obtained by adversaries could be interpreted to be useful to them, a ...
– that is, keeping the mission secret so that the arrival of the rescue team at the embassy would be a complete surprise. This severed the usual relationship between pilots and weather forecasters; the pilots were not informed about the local dust storms. Another security requirement was that the helicopter pilots come from the same unit. The unit picked for the mission was a U.S. Navy mine-laying unit flying CH-53D Sea Stallions; these helicopters were considered the best suited for the mission because of their long range, large capacity, and compatibility with shipboard operations.
After the mission and its failure were made known publicly, Khomeini credited divine intervention on behalf of Islam, and his prestige skyrocketed in Iran. Iranian officials who favored release of the hostages, such as President
Bani Sadr
Seyyed Abolhassan Banisadr ( fa, سید ابوالحسن بنیصدر; 22 March 1933 – 9 October 2021) was an Iranian politician, writer, and political dissident. He was the first president of Iran after the 1979 Iranian Revolution abolis ...
, were weakened. In America, President Carter's political popularity and prospects for being re-elected in 1980 were further damaged after a television address on April 25 in which he explained the rescue operation and accepted responsibility for its failure.
Planned second attempt
A second rescue attempt, planned but never carried out, would have used highly modified YMC-130H Hercules aircraft.Thigpen, (2001), p. 241. Three aircraft, outfitted with rocket thrusters to allow an extremely short landing and takeoff in the Shahid Shiroudi football stadium near the embassy, were modified under a rushed, top-secret program known as
Operation Credible Sport
Operation Credible Sport was a joint project of the U.S. military in the second half of 1980 to prepare for a second rescue attempt of the hostages held in Iran. The concept included using a Lockheed C-130 Hercules airlifter modified with th ...
. One crashed during a demonstration at
Eglin Air Force Base
Eglin Air Force Base is a United States Air Force (USAF) base in the western Florida Panhandle, located about southwest of Valparaiso in Okaloosa County.
The host unit at Eglin is the 96th Test Wing (formerly the 96th Air Base Wing). The ...
on October 29, 1980, when its braking rockets were fired too soon. The misfire caused a hard touchdown that tore off the starboard wing and started a fire, but all on board survived. After Carter lost the
presidential election
A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President.
Elections by country
Albania
The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public.
Chile
The pre ...
in November, the project was abandoned.
The failed rescue attempt led to the creation of the
160th SOAR
The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), abbreviated as 160th SOAR (A), is a special operations force of the United States Army that provides helicopter aviation support for special operations forces. Its missions have include ...
, a helicopter aviation Special Operations group.
Release
With the completion of
negotiations
Negotiation is a dialogue between two or more people or parties to reach the desired outcome regarding one or more issues of conflict. It is an interaction between entities who aspire to agree on matters of mutual interest. The agreement ...
signified by the signing of the
Algiers Accords
The Algiers Accords of January 19, 1981 was a set of agreements between the United States and Iran to resolve the Iran hostage crisis, brokered by the Algerian government and signed in Algiers on January 19, 1981. The crisis arose from the takeo ...
on January 19, 1981, the hostages were released on January 20, 1981. That day, minutes after President Reagan completed his 20‑minute inaugural address after being
sworn in
Traditionally an oath (from Anglo-Saxon ', also called plight) is either a statement of fact or a promise taken by a sacrality as a sign of verity. A common legal substitute for those who conscientiously object to making sacred oaths is to giv ...
, the 52 American hostages were released to U.S. personnel. There are theories and conspiracy theories regarding why Iran postponed the release until that moment. ''(See also:
October Surprise conspiracy theory
The October Surprise conspiracy theory refers to an alleged plot to influence the outcome of the 1980 United States presidential election, contested between Democratic incumbent president Jimmy Carter and his Republican opponent, former Californ ...
Boeing 727
The Boeing 727 is an American narrow-body airliner that was developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
After the heavy 707 quad-jet was introduced in 1958, Boeing addressed the demand for shorter flight lengths from smaller airpo ...
-200 commercial airliner (registration 7T-VEM) from
Tehran
Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
,
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
to
Algiers
Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...
, where they were formally transferred to Warren M. Christopher, the representative of the United States, as a symbolic gesture of appreciation for the Algerian government's help in resolving the crisis. The flight continued to
Rhein-Main Air Base
Rhein-Main Air Base (located at ) was a United States Air Force air base near the city of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was a Military Airlift Command (MAC) and United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) installation, occupying the south side o ...
in West Germany and on to an Air Force hospital in
Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...
, where former President Carter, acting as emissary, received them. After medical check-ups and debriefings, the hostages made a second flight to a refueling stop in
Shannon, Ireland
Shannon () or Shannon Town (), named after the river near which it stands, is a town in County Clare, Ireland. It was given town status on 1 January 1982. The town is located just off the N19 road, a spur of the N18/M18 road between Limeric ...
, where they were greeted by a large crowd. The released hostages were then flown to
Stewart Air National Guard Base
Stewart Air National Guard Base, located in Orange County, New York, is the base of the 105th Airlift Wing (105 AW), an Air Mobility Command unit of the New York Air National Guard and "host" wing for the installation. The airport also host ...
in
Newburgh, New York
Newburgh is a city in the U.S. state of New York, within Orange County. With a population of 28,856 as of the 2020 census, it is a principal city of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown metropolitan area. Located north of New York City, a ...
. From Newburgh, they traveled by bus to the
United States Military Academy
The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort, since it sits on strategic high groun ...
at West Point and stayed at the
Thayer Hotel
The Thayer Hotel is a 151-room "Historic Hotel of America" property located 50 miles north of New York City on the banks of the Hudson River at 674 Thayer Road in West Point, New York on the campus of the United States Military Academy. It is named ...
for three days, receiving a heroes' welcome all along the route. Ten days after their release, they were given a
ticker tape parade
A ticker-tape parade is a parade event held in an urban setting, characterized by large amounts of shredded paper thrown onto the parade route from the surrounding buildings, creating a celebratory flurry of paper. Originally, actual ticker tap ...
through the
Canyon of Heroes
Broadway () is a road in the U.S. state of New York. Broadway runs from State Street at Bowling Green for through the borough of Manhattan and through the Bronx, exiting north from New York City to run an additional through the Westcheste ...
in New York City.
Aftermath
Iran–Iraq War
The
Iraqi invasion of Iran
The Iraqi invasion of Iran refers to the Iraqi military campaign against neighbouring Iran in 1980, when the Iraqi Armed Forces crossed the international border and invaded the country, sparking the protracted Iran–Iraq War. The initial inv ...
occurred less than a year after the embassy employees were taken hostage. The journalist
Stephen Kinzer
Stephen Kinzer (born August 4, 1951) is an American author, journalist, and academic. A former ''New York Times'' correspondent, he has published several books, and writes for several newspapers and news agencies.
Reporting career
During the 198 ...
argues that the dramatic change in American–Iranian relations, from allies to enemies, helped embolden the Iraqi leader,
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...
, and that the United States' anger with Iran led it to aid the Iraqis after the war turned against them. The United States supplied Iraq with, among other things, "helicopters and satellite intelligence that was used in selecting bombing targets." This assistance "deepened and widened anti-American feeling in Iran."
Consequences for Iran
The hostage-taking is considered largely unsuccessful for Iran, as the negotiated settlement with the U.S. did not meet any of Iran's original demands. Iran lost international support for its war against Iraq. However, anti-Americanism intensified and the crisis served to benefit those Iranians who had supported it. Politicians such as Khoeiniha and
Behzad Nabavi
Behzad Nabavi ( fa, بهزاد نبوی) (born 1941) is an Iranian reformist politician. He served as Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of Iran and was one of the founders of the reformist party Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization. Pr ...
were left in a stronger position, while those associated with – or accused of association with – the U.S. were removed from the political picture. Khomeini biographer,
Baqer Moin
Baqer Moin ( fa, باقر معین) is a BBC journalist and author. He has been described as "a specialist on Iran and Islam and is head of the BBC's Persian Service" (in 1999) and as "BBC's Central Asia specialist" (2001)
According to the America ...
, described the crisis as "a watershed in Khomeini's life" that transformed him from "a cautious, pragmatic politician" into "a modern revolutionary single-mindedly pursuing a dogma." In Khomeini's statements, ''imperialism'' and ''liberalism'' were "negative words," while ''revolution'' "became a sacred word, sometimes more important than ''Islam''."
The Iranian government commemorates the event every year with a demonstration at the embassy and the burning of an American flag. However, on November 4, 2009, pro-democracy protesters and reformists demonstrated in the streets of Tehran. When the authorities encouraged them to chant "death to America," the protesters instead chanted "death to the dictator" (referring to
Iran's Supreme Leader
The Supreme Leader of Iran ( fa, رهبر ایران, rahbar-e irān) is the List of heads of state of Iran, head of state of the Iran, Islamic Republic of Iran. The Supreme Leader directs the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, executiv ...
, Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei
Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei ( fa, سید علی حسینی خامنهای, ; born 19 April 1939) is a Twelver Shia ''marja and the second and current Supreme Leader of Iran, in office since 1989. He was previously the third president o ...
) and other anti-government slogans.
Consequences for the United States
Gifts, including lifetime passes to any
minor league
Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nor ...
or
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
game, were showered on the hostages upon their return to the United States.
In 2000, the hostages and their families tried unsuccessfully to sue Iran under the Antiterrorism Act of 1996. They originally won the case when Iran failed to provide a defense, but the State Department then tried to end the lawsuit, fearing that it would make international relations difficult. As a result, a federal judge ruled that no damages could be awarded to the hostages because of the agreement the United States had made when the hostages were freed.
The former U.S. Embassy building is now used by Iran's government and affiliated groups. Since 2001 it has served as a museum to the revolution. Outside the door, there is a bronze model based on the
Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; French: ''La Liberté éclairant le monde'') is a List of colossal sculpture in situ, colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor in New York City, in the U ...
on one side and a statue portraying one of the hostages on the other.
''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' reported in 2006 that a group called the Committee for the Commemoration of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Campaign had used the embassy to recruit "martyrdom seekers": volunteers to carry out operations against Western and
Israeli
Israeli may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the State of Israel
* Israelis, citizens or permanent residents of the State of Israel
* Modern Hebrew, a language
* ''Israeli'' (newspaper), published from 2006 to 2008
* Guni Israeli ...
targets. Mohammad Samadi, a spokesman for the group, signed up several hundred volunteers in a few days.
Diplomatic relations
The United States and Iran broke off formal diplomatic relations over the hostage crisis. Iran selected Algeria as its
protecting power
A protecting power is a country that represents another sovereign state in a country where it lacks its own diplomatic representation. It is common for protecting powers to be appointed when two countries break off diplomatic relations with e ...
in the United States, transferring the mandate to Pakistan in 1992. The United States selected Switzerland as its protecting power in Iran. Relations are maintained through the Iranian Interests Section of the Pakistani Embassy and the U.S. Interests Section of the Swiss Embassy.
Hostages
There were 66 original captives: 63 of them were taken at the embassy and three of them were captured and held at the Foreign Ministry offices. Three of the hostages were operatives of the CIA. One of them was a chemical engineering student from URI.
Thirteen hostages were released on November 19–20, 1979, and one hostage was released on July 11, 1980.
Diplomats who evaded capture
* Robert Anders, 54 – consular officer
* Mark J. Lijek, 29 – consular officer
* Cora A. Lijek, 25 – consular assistant
* Henry L. Schatz, 31 – agriculture attaché
* Joseph D. Stafford, 29 – consular officer
* Kathleen F. Stafford, 28 – consular assistant
Hostages who were released on November 19, 1979
* Kathy Gross, 22 – secretary
* Sgt Ladell Maples, USMC, 23 – Marine Corps embassy guard
* Sgt William Quarles, USMC, 23 – Marine Corps embassy guard
Hostages who were released on November 20, 1979
* Sgt James Hughes, USAF, 30 – Air Force administrative manager
* Lillian Johnson, 32 – secretary
* Elizabeth Montagne, 42 – secretary
* Lloyd Rollins, 40 – administrative officer
* Capt Neal (Terry) Robinson, USAF, – Air Force military intelligence officer
* Terri Tedford, 24 – secretary
* MSgt Joseph Vincent, USAF, 42 – Air Force administrative manager
* Sgt David Walker, USMC, 25 – Marine Corps embassy guard
* Joan Walsh, 33 – secretary
* Cpl Wesley Williams, USMC, 24 – Marine Corps embassy guard
Hostage who was released in July 1980
*
Richard Queen
Richard Ivan Queen (August 7, 1951 – August 14, 2002) was born in Washington D.C. and worked for the U.S. State Department as Vice Consul at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran. On November 4, 1979, he was among the 66 hostages taken by Islamic mi ...
, 28 – vice consul
Hostages who were released on January 1981
* Thomas L. Ahern, Jr. – narcotics control officer (later identified as CIA station chief)
* Clair Cortland Barnes, 35 – communications specialist
* William E. Belk, 44 – communications and records officer
* Robert O. Blucker, 54 – economics officer
* Donald J. Cooke, 25 – vice consul
* William J. Daugherty, 33 – third secretary of U.S. mission (CIA officer)
* LCDR Robert Engelmann, USN, 34 – Navy attaché
* Sgt William Gallegos, USMC, 22 – Marine Corps guard
* Bruce W. German, 44 – budget officer
* IS1 Duane L. Gillette, 24 – Navy communications and intelligence specialist
* Alan B. Golacinski, 30 – chief of embassy security,
regional security officer
Regional Security Officer (RSO) is the title given to a special agent of the U.S. Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) who is in charge of a Regional Security Office. The RSO is the principal security attaché and advisor to the U.S. Ambassador at ...
* John E. Graves, 53 – public affairs officer
* CW3 Joseph M. Hall, USA, 32 – Army attaché
* Sgt Kevin J. Hermening, USMC, 21 – Marine Corps guard
* SFC Donald R. Hohman, USA, 38 – Army medic
* COL Leland J. Holland, USA, 53 – military attaché
* Michael Howland, 34 – assistant regional security officer
* Charles A. Jones, Jr., 40 – communications specialist, teletype operator
* Malcolm K. Kalp, 42 – commercial officer
* Moorhead C. Kennedy, Jr., 50 – economic and commercial officer
* William F. Keough, Jr., 50 – superintendent of the American School in Islamabad (visiting Tehran at time of embassy seizure)
* Cpl Steven W. Kirtley, USMC – Marine Corps guard
* Kathryn L. Koob, 42 – embassy cultural officer (one of two unreleased female hostages)
* Frederick Lee Kupke, 34 – communications officer and electronics specialist
* L. Bruce Laingen, 58 – chargé d'affaires
* Steven Lauterbach, 29 – administrative officer
* Gary E. Lee, 37 – administrative officer
* Sgt Paul Edward Lewis, USMC, 23 – Marine Corps guard
* John W. Limbert, Jr., 37 – political officer
* Sgt James M. Lopez, USMC, 22 – Marine Corps guard
* Sgt John D. McKeel, Jr., USMC, 27 – Marine Corps guard
* Michael J. Metrinko, 34 – political officer
* Jerry J. Miele, 42 – communications officer
* SSgt Michael E. Moeller, USMC, 31 – head of Marine Corps guard unit
* Bert C. Moore, 45 – administration counselor
*
Richard Morefield
Richard Henry Morefield (September 9, 1929 – October 11, 2010) was an American diplomat who served in the United States Foreign Service. He was one of the 66 staff members at the American embassy in Tehran who were taken captive by a militan ...
, 51 – consul general
* Capt Paul M. Needham, Jr., USAF, 30 – Air Force logistics staff officer
* Robert C. Ode, 65 – retired foreign service officer on temporary duty in Tehran
* Sgt Gregory A. Persinger, USMC, 23 – Marine Corps guard
* Jerry Plotkin, 45 – civilian businessman visiting Tehran
* MSG Regis Ragan, USA, 38 – Army soldier, defense attaché's office
* Lt Col David M. Roeder, USAF, 41 – deputy Air Force attaché
* Barry M. Rosen, 36 – press attaché
* William B. Royer, Jr., 49 – assistant director of Iran–American Society
* Col Thomas E. Schaefer, USAF, 50 – Air Force attaché
* COL Charles W. Scott, USA, 48 – Army attaché
* CDR Donald A. Sharer, USN, 40 – Naval attaché
* Sgt Rodney V. (Rocky) Sickmann, USMC, 22 – Marine Corps guard
* SSG Joseph Subic, Jr., USA, 23 – military police, Army, defense attaché's office
* Elizabeth Ann Swift, 40 – deputy head of political section (one of two unreleased female hostages)
*
Victor L. Tomseth
Victor L. Tomseth (born April 14, 1941) is a former American diplomat and U.S. Ambassador (1993–1996) to Laos. He was Deputy Chief of Mission in Tehran, Iran and was among the Americans taken hostage by the Iranians from 1979 to 1981.
Early ...
, 39 – counselor for political affairs
* Phillip R. Ward, 40 – CIA communications officer
Civilian hostages
A small number of hostages, not captured at the embassy, were taken in Iran during the same time period. All were released by late 1982.
* Jerry Plotkin – American Businessman released January 1981.
* Mohi Sobhani – Iranian American engineer and member of the
Baháʼí Faith
The Baháʼí Faith is a religion founded in the 19th century that teaches the Baháʼí Faith and the unity of religion, essential worth of all religions and Baháʼí Faith and the unity of humanity, the unity of all people. Established by ...
. Released February 4, 1981.
* Zia Nassry – Afghan American. Released November 1982.
* Cynthia Dwyer – American reporter, arrested May 5, 1980, charged with espionage and freed on February 10, 1981.
* Paul Chiapparone and Bill Gaylord –
Electronic Data Systems
Electronic all cash BSN acc: 1311729000110205 Data Systems (EDS) was an American multinational information technology equipment and services company headquartered in Plano, Texas which was founded in 1962 by Ross Perot. The company was a subs ...
(EDS) employees, rescued by team led by retired
United States Army Special Forces
The United States Army Special Forces (SF), colloquially known as the "Green Berets" due to their distinctive service Berets of the United States Army, headgear, are a special operations special operations force, force of the United States Ar ...
Ross Perot
Henry Ross Perot (; June 27, 1930 – July 9, 2019) was an American business magnate, billionaire, politician and philanthropist. He was the founder and chief executive officer of Electronic Data Systems and Perot Systems. He ran an inde ...
, in 1979.
* Four British missionaries, including John Coleman; his wife, Audrey Coleman; and Jean Waddell; released in late 1981
Hostages who were honored
All State Department and CIA employees who were taken hostage received the
State Department Award for Valor
The Award for Valor is an obsolete award of the United States Department of State. It has since been replaced with the Award for Heroism. It was presented to employees of State, USAID and Marine guards assigned to diplomatic and consular facili ...
. Political Officer Michael J. Metrinko received two: one for his time as a hostage and another for his daring rescue of Americans who had been jailed in
Tabriz
Tabriz ( fa, تبریز ; ) is a city in northwestern Iran, serving as the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. It is the List of largest cities of Iran, sixth-most-populous city in Iran. In the Quri Chay, Quru River valley in Iran's historic Aze ...
months before the embassy takeover.
The U.S. military later awarded the 20 servicemen among the hostages the
Defense Meritorious Service Medal
The Defense Meritorious Service Medal (DMSM) is an award bestowed upon members of the United States military by the United States Department of Defense. In the order of precedence of the United States Armed Forces, it is worn between the Purple ...
. The only hostage serviceman not issued the medal was Staff Sgt Joseph Subic, Jr., who "did not behave under stress the way noncommissioned officers are expected to act" – that is, he cooperated with the hostage-takers, according to other hostages.
The
Humanitarian Service Medal
The Humanitarian Service Medal (HSM) is a military service medal of the United States Armed Forces which was created on January 19, 1977 by President Gerald Ford under . The medal may be awarded to members of the United States military (includi ...
was awarded to the servicemen of Joint Task Force 1–79, the planning authority for Operation Rice Bowl/Eagle Claw, who participated in the rescue attempt.
The Air Force Special Operations component of the mission was given the Air Force Outstanding Unit award for performing their part of the mission flawlessly, including evacuating the Desert One refueling site under extreme conditions.
Compensation payments
The Tehran hostages received $50 for each day in captivity after their release. This was paid by the US Government. The deal that freed them reached between the United States and Iran and brokered by Algeria in January 1981 prevented the hostages from claiming any restitution from Iran due to foreign sovereign immunity and an executive agreement known as the ''Algiers Accords'', which barred such lawsuits. After failing in the courts, the former hostages turned to Congress and won support from both Democrats and Republicans, resulting in Congress passing a bill (2015 United States Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Act SVSST in December 2015 that afforded the hostages compensation from a fund to be financed from fines imposed on companies found guilty of breaking American sanctions against Iran. The bill authorised a payment of US$10,000 for each day in captivity (per hostage) as well as a lump sum of $600,000 in compensation for each of the spouses and children of the Iran hostages. This meant that each hostage would be paid up to US$4.4 million. The first funds into the trust account from which the compensation would be paid came from a part of the $9 billion penalty paid by the Paris-based bank
BNP Paribas
BNP Paribas is a French international banking group, founded in 2000 from the merger between Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP, "National Bank of Paris") and Paribas, formerly known as the Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas. The full name of the grou ...
for violating sanctions against Iran, Cuba and Sudan.
Some of the ex-hostages and their families received payments, but then Justice Department lawyers interpreted the law to allow 9/11 family members to get a judgment against Iran as well and to apply to the USVSST fund. Later, victims of the 1983 Beirut bombings also instituted claims against USVSST fund. Due to depletion of the fund, by February 2019, only 17.8% of the legislated amount had been paid to the freed hostages and their direct families.
Notable hostage-takers, guards, and interrogators
*
Abbas Abdi
Abbas Abdi (; fa, عباس عبدی; born 1 October 1956) is one of Iran's most influential reformists, journalist, self-taught sociologist and social activist.
Biography
Abdi was born in 1956. He studied polymer engineering at Tehran Polytec ...
– reformist, journalist, self-taught sociologist, and social activist.
*
Hamid Aboutalebi
Hamid Aboutalebi ( fa, حمید ابوطالبی, born 16 June 1957) is a former Iranian diplomat and ambassador. Aboutalebi was previously ambassador of Iran to Australia, the European Union, Belgium, Italy, and a political director general to I ...
– former Iranian ambassador to the United Nations.
*
Ebrahim Asgharzadeh
Ebrahim Asgharzadeh ( fa, ابراهیم اصغرزاده) is an Iranian political activist and politician. He served as a member of the 3rd Majlis (Iran's legislature) from 1988–1992 and as a member of the first City Council of Tehran from 199 ...
– then a student; later an Iranian political activist and politician, member of
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
(1989–1993), and chairman of
City Council of Tehran
The Islamic City Council of Tehran ( fa, شورای اسلامی شهر تهران) is the directly elected council that presides over the city of Tehran, elects the mayor of Tehran in a mayor–council government system, and budgets of the Mu ...
(1999–2003).
*
Mohsen Mirdamadi
Mohsen Mirdamadi ( fa, محسن میردامادی, born 1955 in Najafabad, Isfahan) is an Iranian academic and politician. He is the Deputy Secretary General of "Ettehad-e Mellat", the largest pro-reform political party in Iran. After the 2009 ...
– member of Parliament (2000–2004), head of
Islamic Iran Participation Front
The Islamic Iran Participation Front ( fa, جبهه مشارکت ایران اسلامی; ''Jebheye Mosharekate Iran-e Eslaami'') was a reformist political party in Iran. It was sometimes described as the most dominant member within the 2nd of Kho ...
.
*
Masoumeh Ebtekar
Masoumeh Ebtekar ( fa, معصومه ابتکار; born 21 September 1960) was the former Vice President of Iran for Women and Family Affairs, from August 9, 2017, to September 1, 2021. She previously headed Department of Environment from 1997 t ...
– interpreter and spokeswoman for the student group that occupied the embassy; later a scientist, journalist, first female
Vice President of Iran
The vice president of Iran ( fa, معاون رئیسجمهور ایران) is defined by article 124 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Constitution of Iran, as anyone appointed by the president of Iran to lead an organization ...
, and head of Environment Protection Organization of Iran.
*
Mohammad Mousavi Khoeiniha
Sayyid Mohammad Mousavi Khoeiniha (born 1945) is an Iranian cleric and secretary general of the reformist Association of Combatant Clerics. He was the founder of the now defunct '' Salam'' and was a member of the Expediency Discernment Council.
...
– spiritual leader of the hostage-takers.
*
Hossein Sheikholeslam
Hossein Sheikholeslam ( fa, حسین شیخ الاسلام; 29 November 1952 – 5 March 2020) was an Iranian conservative politician and diplomat who was advisor to the foreign minister Javad Zarif. He also was a member of the Seventh Islam ...
– then a student; later a member of Parliament and Iranian ambassador to Syria, died during the
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
outbreak in 2020.
October Surprise conspiracy theory
The timing of the release of the hostages gave rise to allegations that representatives of Reagan's presidential
campaign
Campaign or The Campaign may refer to:
Types of campaigns
* Campaign, in agriculture, the period during which sugar beets are harvested and processed
*Advertising campaign, a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme
* Bl ...
had conspired with Iran to delay the release until after the
1980 United States presidential election
The 1980 United States presidential election was the 49th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 4, 1980. Republican nominee Ronald Reagan defeated incumbent Democratic President Jimmy Carter in a landslide victory. ...
to thwart Carter from pulling off an "
October surprise
In U.S. political jargon, an October surprise is a news event that may influence the outcome of an upcoming November election (particularly one for the U.S. presidency), whether deliberately planned or spontaneously occurring. Because the date f ...
". In 1992,
Gary Sick
Gary G. Sick (born April 4, 1935) is an American academic and analyst of Middle East affairs, with special expertise on Iran, who served on the U.S. National Security Council under Presidents Ford, Carter, and for a couple weeks under Reagan as w ...
, the former national security adviser to Ford and Carter, presented the strongest accusations in an editorial that appear in ''The New York Times'', and others, including former Iranian president
Abolhassan Banisadr
Seyyed Abolhassan Banisadr ( fa, سید ابوالحسن بنیصدر; 22 March 1933 – 9 October 2021) was an Iranian politician, writer, and political dissident. He was the first president of Iran after the 1979 Iranian Revolution abolis ...
, repeated and added to them. This alleged plot to influence the outcome of the
1980 United States presidential election
The 1980 United States presidential election was the 49th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 4, 1980. Republican nominee Ronald Reagan defeated incumbent Democratic President Jimmy Carter in a landslide victory. ...
between Carter and Reagan became known as the
October Surprise conspiracy theory
The October Surprise conspiracy theory refers to an alleged plot to influence the outcome of the 1980 United States presidential election, contested between Democratic incumbent president Jimmy Carter and his Republican opponent, former Californ ...
.
After twelve years of varying media attention, both houses of the
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
held separate inquiries and concluded that credible evidence supporting the allegation was absent or insufficient.
In popular culture
Over 80 songs which are about the Iran hostage crisis or contain references to it have been released.
*
Laurie Anderson
Laurel Philips Anderson (born June 5, 1947), known as Laurie Anderson, is an American avant-garde artist, composer, musician, and film director whose work spans performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects. Initially trained in violin and ...
's surprise 1982 UK #2 hit "
O Superman
"O Superman", also known as "O Superman (For Massenet)", is a 1981 song by performance artist and musician Laurie Anderson. The song became a surprise hit in the United Kingdom after it was championed by DJ John Peel, rising to #2 on the UK Single ...
" was a response to the crisis, and to
Operation Eagle Claw
Operation Eagle Claw, known as Operation Tabas ( fa, عملیات طبس) in Iran, was a failed operation by the United States Armed Forces ordered by U.S. President Jimmy Carter to attempt the rescue of 52 embassy staff held captive at the ...
in particular.;
* The 1982 hit "
I Ran (So Far Away)
"I Ran (So Far Away)", also released as "I Ran", is a song by English new wave band A Flock of Seagulls. It was released in 1982 as their third single and it was the second single from their self-titled debut album. It topped the chart in ...
" by
A Flock of Seagulls
A Flock of Seagulls are an English new wave band formed in Liverpool in 1979. The group, whose best-known line-up comprised Mike Score, Ali Score, Frank Maudsley and Paul Reynolds, hit the peak of their chart success in the early 1980s.
The ...
does not actually refer to the crisis, but as Dave Thompson has pointed out, the song was "punningly political" to American listeners.
The 2012 Hollywood movie ''
Argo
In Greek mythology the ''Argo'' (; in Greek: ) was a ship built with the help of the gods that Jason and the Argonauts sailed from Iolcos to Colchis to retrieve the Golden Fleece. The ship has gone on to be used as a motif in a variety of sour ...
,'' which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, was based on the
Canadian Caper
The "Canadian Caper" was the joint covert rescue by the Canadian government and the CIA of six American diplomats who had evaded capture during the seizure of the United States embassy in Tehran, Iran, on November 4, 1979, after the Iranian ...
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
agents Russell Adler, Frank Woods and Alex Mason are sent to target two Iranian diplomats due to their roles in the crisis. They theorize that the
KGB
The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
Perseus
In Greek mythology, Perseus (Help:IPA/English, /ˈpɜːrsiəs, -sjuːs/; Greek language, Greek: Περσεύς, Romanization of Greek, translit. Perseús) is the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty. He was, alongside Cadmus ...
was responsible for the instigation of the crisis.
1979 U.S. embassy burning in Islamabad
On 21 November 1979, Pakistani people, enraged by a radio report claiming that the United States had bombed the Masjid al-Haram, Islam's holy site at Mecca, stormed the U.S. embassy in Islamabad, and burned it to the ground. The Grand Mosque had ...
*
2011 attack on the British Embassy in Iran
The 2011 attack on the British Embassy in Iran was a mob action on 29 November 2011 by a crowd of Iranian protesters who stormed the embassy and another British diplomatic compound in Tehran, Iran, ransacking offices and stealing documents. One ...
*
2016 attack on the Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran
The 2016 attack on the Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran was a mob action on 2 January 2016 by protesters against the execution of a prominent Saudi Arabian Shi'a cleric. Mobs stormed the embassy in Tehran and the Saudi consulate in Mashhad and r ...
*
Attack on the United States embassy in Baghdad
The 2019–20 attack on the U.S. embassy occurred in Baghdad, Iraq, on 31 December 2019. Kata'ib Hezbollah militiamen and their Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) supporters and sympathizers attacked the U.S. embassy in the Green Zone in response ...
*
Avenue of Flags
Avenue of Flags is a park in the city of Hermitage in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, United States, erected during the Iran hostage crisis of 1979–1981 to honor the American diplomats held hostage in Tehran, Iran. The park is on the grounds of th ...
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, United States, erected during the crisis in order to honor the American diplomats who were being held hostage in
Tehran
Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
,
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
.
*
Case Concerning United States Diplomatic and Consular Staff in Tehran
''United States of America v. Islamic Republic of Iran'' [1980ICJ 1(also called the ''Case Concerning United States Diplomatic and Consular Staff in Tehran'') is a public international law case (issued in two decisions) brought to the Internationa ...
* Lebanon hostage crisis
* List of foreign nationals detained in Iran
* List of hostage crises
* ''Nightline'': This ABC News program named "The Iran Crisis: America Held Hostage" got its start as a method for informing viewers of the latest developments during the crisis. The current title premiered on March 24, 1980, with
Ted Koppel
Edward James Martin Koppel (born February 8, 1940) is a British-born American broadcast journalist, best known as the anchor for '' Nightline'', from the program's inception in 1980 until 2005.
Before ''Nightline'', he spent 20 years as a broad ...
as anchor.
*
United Nations Security Council Resolution 457
United Nations Security Council Resolution 457, adopted unanimously on 4 December 1979, addressed the ongoing Iran hostage crisis. After expressing concern at the level of tensions between Iran and the United States as a potential threat to inte ...
*
* Ebtekar, Massoumeh; Reed, Fred (2000). ''Takeover in Tehran: The Inside Story of the 1979 U.S. Embassy Capture''. Burnaby, BC: Talonbooks. .
* Harris, Les (1997). ''444 Days to Freedom: What Really Happened in Iran''. DVD UPC 033909253390
*
*
* Sick, Gary (1991). ''October Surprise: America's Hostages in Iran and the Election of Ronald Reagan''. New York: Random House.
Congressional Research Service
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a public policy research institute of the United States Congress. Operating within the Library of Congress, it works primarily and directly for members of Congress and their committees and staff on a c ...
Joint Staff
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) is the body of the most senior uniformed leaders within the United States Department of Defense, that advises the president of the United States, the secretary of defense, the Homeland Security Council and the ...
FOIA Center site.
; United Kingdom
Records of the Prime Minister's Office, Correspondence & Papers; 1979–97 at discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk: IRAN. Internal situation in Iran; Attack on British Embassy; Hostage-taking at US Embassy; Freezing of Iranian Assets; US Mission to release hostages; Relations with US & UK following hostage taking at US Embassy.
Part 1
Hostage crisis
A hostage is a person seized by an abductor in order to compel another party, one which places a high value on the liberty, well-being and safety of the person seized, such as a relative, employer, law enforcement or government to act, or ref ...
Hostage crisis
A hostage is a person seized by an abductor in order to compel another party, one which places a high value on the liberty, well-being and safety of the person seized, such as a relative, employer, law enforcement or government to act, or ref ...
Hostage crisis
A hostage is a person seized by an abductor in order to compel another party, one which places a high value on the liberty, well-being and safety of the person seized, such as a relative, employer, law enforcement or government to act, or ref ...
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
Attacks on diplomatic missions of the United StatesCarter administration controversiesConflicts in 1979Conflicts in 1980
Conflicts in 1981
Conflicts involving the People's Mujahedin of Iran
Diplomatic incidents
History of the foreign relations of the United States
History of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hostage crisis
1979 in the United States
1980 in the United States
1981 in the United States
Hostage taking in Iran
Iran–United States relations
Kidnappings in Iran
Political controversies
Political controversies in the United States
United States Marine Corps in the 20th century