Iranian Hostage Crisis

The diplomatic standoff between Iran and America is known in as the Iran hostage crisis. Between the period from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981 52 American diplomats were held as hostages after a group of Iranian students from the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam’s Line attacked the American Embassy in Tehran. This historical episode is considered to be the longest hostage crisis in the recorded history. The Western media described this crisis as “an entanglement of vengeance and mutual incomprehension” (Skow1981). President Jimmy Carter commented upon this crisis in the following way: “The United States will not yield to blackmail. In Iran it was widely seen as a blow against the United States and its influence in Iran, including its perceived attempts to undermine the Iranian Revolution and its longstanding support of the recently overthrown Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who had led an autocratic regime. “4 November 1979 is a date I will never forget” (Kinzer 2014). Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was diagnosed with cancer and arrived to the US upon his overthrow in 1979. Iran claimed that their Shah was to stand trial for the committed crimes and thus should have been returned to his country. Pahlavi was accused of committing crimes against the citizens of Iran, which he initiated with the help of his secret police – the SAVAK. However, America rejected the demands of the Iranian citizens. “The Americans saw the hostage-taking as an egregious violation of the principles of international law, which granted diplomats immunity from arrest and made diplomatic compounds inviolable.” (Kinzer 2003). The diplomatic negotiations with the aim to release the hostages were not successful and the crisis continued to grow. The president of the United States Jimmy Carter gave the order to prepare a military operation for rescuing of the hostages with the help of warships, which were patrolling the waters close to Iran. The Operation Eagle Claw took place on April 24, 1980 and was not successful. The result of it was death of eight American servicemen and an Iranian civilian. Americans lost two helicopters. Thanks to the CIA-Canadian effort six American diplomats were rescued on January 27, 1980. At the end of the year 1979 Shah Pahlavi left America and was granted asylum in Egypt. There he died because of cancer complications in July 1980. Two months later the Iraqi military invaded Iran and the Iran-Iraq War started.  Under such conditions the Iranian government was forced to initiate negotiations with America, involving Algeria as a mediator. Upon signing of the Algiers Accords the hostages were formally set free. This coincided with Ronald Reagan’s  – the new American president- taking the office. Generally the Iran hostage crisis is considered to be an utterly important episode in the history of relations between Iran and America. Most of the political experts agree that this was the most influential factor, which ended the presidency of Jimmy Carter. “In Iran the crisis strengthened the prestige of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the political power of theocrats who opposed any normalization of relations with the West.” (Mackey 1996). In addition the further relations between the countries were impacted by the economic sanctions against Iran.

In order to better understand the Iran hostage crisis, it is necessary to trace the background of these events. In 1979 in the process of Iranian Revolution the Pahlavi dynasty was overthrown. Before that, America supported the dynasty of the Shah and allied with it. During the years World War II Allied powers Britain and the Soviet Union occupied Iran and made them abdicate the first Pahlavi monarch Reza Shah Pahlavi, passing his power to the eldest son Crown Prince Mohammad. (Mackey 1996). The reason for this was their fears regarding his potential decision to align with Nazi Germany and this could be a serious threat, taking into consideration the petroleum resources of the country. Reza Shah declared about the neutral position and did not allow using the Iranian territory for training of the Soviet troops against Germany. Such decisions became the most important motives for the Allied to invade the country. Later Iran was called “The Bridge of Victory” by Winston Churchill.

In the 1950s Mohammad Reza Pahlavi struggled with the Iran’s Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, who was a descendant of the Qajar dynasty. Mosaddegh became the leader of the strike, representing the interests of the poor Iranians, who wanted to get the share of the national petroleum revenue from Britain’s Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. The sum was too high – $50 million in damages and lost revenue. The British and the American were forced to support the Shah in 1953 and let him extend his power. The Shah claimed that he was an absolute monarch and not a constitutional monarch; this was done with the aim to secure absolute control over the government of the country. America continued to provide support for the Shah, the Central Intelligence Agency was created with the aim of training the SAVAK secret police of the government. During the period of the Cold War a lot of other events nurtured the opposition against the Shah and finally led to his overthrow.

Anti-Shah Iranians were angered by President Carter by his televised toast to Pahlavi. He claimed that American people love the Shah and this was additional motivation for the Iranians to initiate the revolution, the culmination of which was related to the return of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who was in France. In 1979 the American Embassy was occupied and the staff of it was held hostages. Most of the front-facing windows of the embassy were broken and later they were substituted wit the bulletproof glasses. Around one thousand of the workers in the embassy were replaced with just 60 individuals. “The Carter administration 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, to enter New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center for medical treatment.” (Daniels 1979). The fact of the Shah’s admission to the United States contributed to negative perception of the Americans by the Iranian revolutionaries. More and more rumors were spread that America was going to re-install another coup. Also they were convinced that America contributed to sabotaging of the revolution in Iran and was going to use the relations with Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan in order to extinguish the revolutionary order in the country. The occupation of embassy on November 4, 1979 was related to the demand to return the shah and make him stand his trial in Iran. Later it was proved that there were no American plots with the aim to cause obstacles for the revolutionaries from the side of America. However, in February 1979 the Organization of Iranian People’s Fedai Querrilas stormed the American Embassy in Tehran and took Jenneth Kraus as hostage. With the help of the Iranian Foreign Minister Ebrahim Yazdi the American Embassy was returned to America within three hours. Kraus was injured in the process and then kidnapped and tortured, later convicted of murder. He was not executed thanks to President Carter and Sullivan. Later this incident entered the history under the name of the Valentine’s Day Open House.

This was the first attempt to seize the American Embassy and it was not the last. The next one was planned for September 1979. The leader was Engahim Asgharzadeh, who contacted the heads of the Islamic associations in the major universities of Tehran and created a group called Muslim Student Followers of the Imam’s line. Later Asgharzadeh commented that their intention was to seize the American Embassy in order to claim about their objections to the American position and held the hostages just for several hours there, in order to make their message sound more firm and effective.  Most of the sources stated that Ayatollah Khomeini was not aware of the initial plan in advance. The students did not inform him according to the advise of Ayatollah Mohammad Mousavi Khoeiniha, who thought that the government could involve the police force, as it was already done in February. The major motivation of the supporters of the takeover was related to the fears regarding one more American-backed coup, who would ruin the popular revolution. On November 4, 1979 the takeover of the embassy took place. Initially the students wanted to conduct a symbolic occupation, they planned to communicate with the press and let the government security forces restore the order. But then the angry crowd gathered in order to support the occupiers. Khomeini also supported the takeover and called it the second revolution. The Marines and staff of the embassy were bound and blindfolded. Then they were paraded in front of photographers. In the next days a lot of embassy workers, who were not there at the moment of takeover, were found and returned there as hostages. Only six American diplomats managed to take refuge in the British Embassy in Tehran. “In a joint covert operation known as the Canadian caper, 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.” (Mackey 1996).

The hostage–takers claimed about their solidarity with oppressed minorities and acknowledging of the special position of women in Islam and thus one woman and African Americans were released in November 1979. The only African –American hostage was Richard Queen, he was released only in 1980, when he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The rest 52 hostages were held for the period of 444 days until January 1981. Initially all the hostages were in the building of embassy, but later after the failed rescue mission, they were taken to different places in order to make single rescue operation not possible. Initially the hostages were treated as diplomats, but then the treatment deteriorated, as the provisional government fell. In 1980 the hostages were taken to prisons in Tehran, the aim was to prevent rescue operations or escapes. Irianian propaganda claimed that the hostages were treated rather like guests and they did not lack respect. In reality the situation was different. Later the hostages told about beatings and thefts, they were all afraid of physical harm. Some of them had to face solitary confinement with hands bond for many hours. During one night in February 1980 the guards came to the hostages in ski masks and took them to other rooms, where they were ordered to strip and keep their hands up. Then they were to kneel down and the guards imitated the intention to fire them. Then they were ordered to get dressed and the guards commented that that was just such a joke. One of the hostages claimed hunger strike and the other two attempted suicide. “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).” (Bowden 2006).

The reaction from the side of the United States was later commented as a “surge of patriotism”. This hostage-taking was considered something more than just “diplomatic affront” , rather as “declaration of war on diplomacy itself” (Bowden 2006). President Carter was forced to apply the economic and diplomatic pressures, ending the supplies of oil imports from Iran and around $8 billion of Iranian assets in America were frozen. The first rescue attempt was taken in the frames of the Operation Eagle Claw, which was a military expedition to Tehran with the aim to save the hostages. This attempt was an absolute failure. The second attempt was planned and never carried out. On the basis of negotiations the hostages were finally released on January 20, 1981. This was the day of the inaugural speech of President Reagan. The hostages were taken from Iran to Algeria and then to West Germany, where they arrived to an Air Force hospital. After medical checks and debriefings, they were taken to Ireland and then to New York. There they were met as heroes.

The Iran hostage crisis had definitely had a strong impact upon all the sides of the conflict. Within less than a year period Iraq invaded Iran. There was a serious change in the diplomatic relations between Iran and America, the two countries turned into enemies. America provided aid to Iraqis, which only deepened the negative feelings towards Americans in Iran. At the same time Iran had lost international support for the war against Iraq. Iran selected Algeria as the protecting power in the United States, then passing the mandate to Pakistan in 1992. America chose Switzerland as the protecting power in Iran and this was actually the breaking of formal diplomatic relations between the countries, which followed the hostage crisis.

Works cited:

Bowden, Mark. Guests of the Ayatollah: The Iran Hostage Crisis: The First Battle in America’s War with Militant Islam. New York: Grove Press, 2006

Daniels, Lee A. “Medical tests in Manhattan”. The New York Time, 1979

Kinzer, Stephen. “Thirty-five years after Iranian hostage crisis, the aftershocks remain – The Boston Globe”. BostonGlobe.com, 2014

Kinzer, Stephen.  All The Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2003

Mackey, Sandra. The Iranians: Persia, Islam and the Soul of a Nation. New York: Dutton, 1996

National Archives and Records Administration, Access to Archival Databases (AAD): Central Foreign Policy Files, created 7/1/1973 – 12/31/1979; Electronic Telegrams. Aad.archives.gov, 1979

Skow, John. “The Long Ordeal of the Hostages”. Time, 1981

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

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freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
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[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]
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