centrated ranks. Now you should hold your destiny in your own hands and not give
any opportunity to those who are waiting for an excuse. With the power of God,
which is manifested in the people, take the next steps. Send the [word indistinct] class
and your leaders to the constituent assembly to approve the constitution of the Islamic
republic and, in the same way that with love and joy, you voted for the Islamic repub-
lic, vote for the trusted ones of the nation so that there is no room left for those who
have evil designs. The [word indistinct] of 1 April, which is the first day of the gov-
ernment of God, is one of our greatest religious and national feasts.
Our nation should celebrate this day and keep it alive. This is the day when the
parapets of a 2,500-year-old palace of an idolatrous government were torn down, and
the satanic dominance was destroyed forever. The government of the lowly people, the
government of God, has taken its place. Now, dear nation, you who have achieved your
right with the blood of your youth, regard this right as precious and defend it. Under
the banner of Islam and the flag of the Quran, establish divine justice by your support
of it. I will use your service, which is service to Islam, and I expect the nation to guard
Islam and the Islamic republic with all its might. I expect the governments to cleanse
the country of the remnants of the idolatrous regime, whose effects are still evident in
all aspects of the nation’s life, without fear of either the West or the East and with
independence, thoughtfulness and decision; to transform education and justice and all
other ministries and departments which are built upon Western forms and are inspired
from the West, to their Islamic forms; and to demonstrate to the world their social jus-
tice and their cultural, economic and political independence. I beseech the Almighty
God for the greatness and independence of the country and the Islamic nation. Greet-
ings be upon you and God’s grace. Ruhollah Mosavi Khomeini. 1 April 1979.
SOURCE:Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Daily Report: Middle East and North Africa, April 2, 1979,
pp. R7–R8 (Iran).Iranian Hostage Crisis
DOCUMENT IN CONTEXT
The seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran by a group of Iranian students in late 1979
developed into a major diplomatic and political crisis that attracted world attention
for fifteen months, contributed to the electoral defeat of a sitting U.S. president, and
continued to poison relations between Iran and the United States for decades after-
ward. The Iranian hostage crisis, as the incident came to be known in the United
States, also illustrated the limits to U.S. military power in the Middle East, a lesson
still being learned in Washington in the early twenty-first century.
IRAN 383