ding documents. The scene was reminiscent of the
last hours of the U.S. embassy in Saigon, Vietnam.
444 Days of Captivity The students seized control
of the embassy compound, and they took hostage
sixty-three members of the embassy’s staff, as well as
three other Americans who were present. While the
U.S. population raged at this flaunting of the basic
principles of international law, the government re-
mained calm. President Jimmy Carter fruitlessly
asked for the release of hostages on humanitarian
grounds. He then decided to exert pressure. On No-
vember 12, oil imports from Iran were terminated.
Two days later, $8 billion in Iranian assets were
frozen in U.S. banks. These tactics had no apparent
effect. On November 19, the students released thir-
teen of their hostages, all women or African Ameri-
cans, claiming it was a gesture of solidarity with re-
pressed minorities and of Islamic respect for women.
No other hostages were released. Months passed. As
the crisis dragged on, blindfolded hostages were fre-
quently paraded before the press for the edification
of the Iranian people. An American public still trau-
matized by the disastrous outcome of the war in Viet-
nam watched in horror as their government groped
for a strategy to gain release of the hostages.
Clearly, Carter found it impossible to give in to
student demands. Instead, an ambitious rescue mis-
sion code-named Operation Eagle Claw was planned.
Eagle Claw was to be the first (known) mission un-
dertaken by Delta Force, an elite counterterrorism
unit of the U.S. Army formed under orders from
Carter in 1977. On April 24, 1980, eight U.S. Marine
Corps helicopters were landed in a desert near Tabas
for use in the mission. Disaster soon struck. One of
the helicopters broke down while landing, and two
more broke down in a sandstorm. A decision was
soon made to abort the mission, but as one helicop-
ter took off, it sideswiped a transport plane. Eight
servicemen lay dead. Compounding the public hu-
miliation caused by the failure of the mission, the
Iranian government gloated, claiming the debacle
was the result of divine intervention.
Settlement On July 11, 1980, the hostage-takers re-
leased Richard Queen, who had become seriously
ill. (He was later diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.)
The shah died of cancer on July 27, thus rendering
moot the students’ demand that he be returned to
Iran to stand trial. Iran faced a host of other prob-
lems, including a major war with Iraq that began in
September, 1980. Nevertheless, they held the hos-
tages through early November, when Ronald Rea-
gan was elected president. Algerian intermediaries
were used to broker an agreement that was con-
cluded on January 19, 1981. The terms of the negoti-
ations are subject to radical dispute. It was claimed
that the United States promised not to intervene in
Iranian affairs, to release the $8 billion in frozen Ira-
nian assets, and to grant immunity to Iran from law-
suits arising out of the seizure.
Subsequently, the United States sold weapons to
Iran, and the Reagan administration repeatedly de-
nied charges that there had been a secret agreement
to provide those weapons in return for the hostages.
Those on the far left, meanwhile, claimed that the
weapons were sold, not in exchange for releasing the
hostages but for delaying their release until after
Reagan’s victory, thereby assuring his election. Such
allegations were never proven, but they became one
of the many conspiracy theories that helped define
the decade. On January 20, 1981, as Reagan was
completing his inaugural speech, the hostages were
flown to Algeria. Waiting to receive them was former
president Jimmy Carter, who was sent by Reagan as a
special emissary. The 444 days of captivity were at an
end, for both the hostages and the nation.Impact The Iranian hostage crisis was a major hu-
miliation for a nation that still had not recovered
from the Vietnam War. It was a debacle that led to a
feeling of national impotence that proved lethal to
the reelection bid of Jimmy Carter. On the other
hand, the affair provided a kick start for Ronald Rea-
gan, who gained release of the hostages within his
first hour as president. Bitterness felt toward Iran
was manifest in U.S. support for Iraq in the Iran-Iraq
War. However, this bitterness did not preclude the
Reagan administration from selling missiles to Iran
covertly to gain illegal funds that were funneled to
aid the Contras fighting to overthrow a pro-Marxist
regime in Nicaragua. In spite of events in Iran, the
United States was still preoccupied with the Cold
War, and it saw any chance to resist communism as a
chance worth taking, even if it strengthened the mil-
itary capabilities of an anti-American extremist Mus-
lim regime.
In addition to its geopolitical effects, the hostage
crisis had a direct and lasting impact upon U.S. mili-
tary structure and counterterrorist strategy and tac-
tics. In the wake of the Operation Eagle Claw deba-The Eighties in America Iranian hostage crisis 533