During the 1980’s, Anderson was one of seven-
teen American hostages held in Lebanon by Hez-
bollah, a radical Shiite group seeking to expel West-
ern and Israeli occupation forces from the country.
A number of Europeans, including Anglican
Church envoy Terry Waite, were also held at the
same time. Anderson never stopped resisting: He
created games out of materials at hand, learned
French from hostage Thomas Sutherland—an ad-
ministrator with American University in Beirut—
and renewed his faith with help from hostage Law-
rence Jenco, a Roman Catholic priest. Many people
worked to free Anderson, including family members
(especially his sister, Peggy Say), officials with the
Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush administra-
tions, his employers, and many fellow journalists,
hundreds of whom petitioned Iran’s Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini, who was thought to have influ-
ence with the Shiites holding Anderson.
Impact Perhaps as a result of the worldwide atten-
tion paid to Anderson’s plight, kidnapping of West-
erners in the Middle East seemed to decline a bit or
simply to get less media attention. If the former, it
could be because of the rise of governmental and
corporate task forces to deal with hostage taking,
also a possible consequence of the years of attention
that Anderson’s imprisonment received. The trend
continued, until the war in Iraq of the early twenti-
eth century opened a new chapter in Middle Eastern
hostage taking. At any rate, Anderson’s release, sur-
vival, and growth while a prisoner all were remark-
able in the 1980’s—an eraTimemagazine called “the
decade of hostages.”Subsequent Events Anderson was released on De-
cember 4, 1991, when he faced reporters in Damas-
cus, Syria, and said, “I’ll try to answer a few ques-
tions, although you’ll understand I have a date with a
couple of beautiful ladies and I’m already late.” He
was reunited with his fiancé, Madeleine Bassil, and
their daughter Sulome, born three months after his
abduction.
Anderson wrote a memoir of his ordeal,Den ofThe Eighties in America Anderson, Terry 55
Former hostage Terry Anderson arrives in Wiesbaden, Germany, where he is met by his sister, Peggy Say.(AP/Wide World Photos)