The Iran Hostage Crisis and the United States

“Because his American-supplied army and his American-trained secret police kept the shah in power, his opponents hated the United States almost as much as they hated their autocratic ruler. The shah’s rule was not one of constant decency” (Carnes and Garraty). From 1977 to 1979, Iran grew more and more unstable, as the Iranian people’s hatred of the shah further intensified. 1977 saw numerous riots, along with both the wounding and even killing of large numbers of the Iranian people. The Iranian people finally rose up against the shah in 1978, by January of the next year the shah was forced to flee. “A revolutionary government headed by a religious leader, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, assumed power. He that freedom was an enemy of Islam, as well as that Islam condoned terror. Khomeini denounced the United States as the “Great Satan” whose support of the shah, he said, had caused the Iranian people untold suffering” (Carnes and Garraty). Upon his exile, the shah was dying of cancer, after seeking refuge in numerous countries he was finally given refuge in the United States. The Iranian people wouldn’t have it, and began protesting outside the U.S. Embassy demanding the shah be returned, tried, and hanged. The Iranian Hostage Crisis was quickly approaching.

“The Shah, who had been in exile, contacted the United States and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) put together Operation AJAX to drive Mossadegh from Iran and put himself back in power.” The Shah also followed up on the United States idea and he started a unique police group that was officially called SAVAX. The CIA trained these people and they were not really big fans of the Iranian people. This group had special skills that one police officer normally wouldn’t have, all of the members of SAVAX also had the talent of spying which was used for listening in on the Iranian citizens.

Following the Coup, Iranians began to protest that the United States retained unnecessary authority on Iranian associations (1). Therefore, the Shah introduced the SAVAK, trained by the CIA, as an enforcement agency to root out government enemies’. The SAVAK of the shah murdered and tortured thousands of people causing significant tension and becoming one of the most feared enforcement agencies in the world (Bechtel 2: Iran Hostage Crisis). Furthermore, the Shah signed agreements with the United States and several other European countries for oil creating more apprehension. President

Not only did the American public hope to be able to rely on and trust their federal government, but they also desired strong management of foreign affairs. During the Presidency of Jimmy Carter, America faced many blunders overseas. One particular high-profile issue was the Iranian Hostage Crisis where, “Iranian students stormed the U.S embassy in Tehran and took 53 Americans hostage,” and the attempted rescue of said hostages which resulted in a collision between two helicopters and eight dead marines (Davidson, et al 937). The Carter Administration’s handle on foreign affairs proved to be disastrous. As a result, the Republican party’s platform for the election of 1980, in which Carter was running for reelection, focused heavily on

Imagine being held hostage for four hundred and forty four days. The thought alone is scary but this was reality for Fifty-three Americans when they was held hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran. This was a tough situation because America and Iran had bigger problems to deal with. Insurgency broke out and former King Reza Shah Pahlavi was forced into exile by the people of Iran. The United States backed the former King and when Pahlavi came to America looking for refuge this caused a serious situation. The United States learned that Pahlavi had cancer and made a choice to let him in for treatment. This angered the people of Iran and forced Iranian students to protest outside of the American embassy. On

By 1951 Mohammad Mossadegh had established himself firmly in the political scene in the mountainous country of Iran. Mossadegh ran for the office of Prime Minister with just one campaign promise: to free Iran from the British imperial yoke (Gavin, 1999, p.64). He had also built his political strength, based largely on his call to nationalize the concession and installations in Iran of the British-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (Risen, 2000, p.10). Mossadegh embodied the fierce nationalistic pride felt by so many Iranians, this brought Mohammad Mossadegh an easy victory (Gregory,1951,p.31). On May Day 1951, after three days of raging Pro-Mossadegh rioting, Mossadegh announced that the Majlis had passed the Nationalization Act, despite strong opposition by many members of the Majlis (Gavin,1999, 65). By this time Mossadegh's power had grown so great that the Shah (monarchy) was virtually forced to appoint him Premier. Even after being appointed to the Premiership, popularity continued to skyrocket for Mossadegh. Mossadegh's popularity, growing power, and intransigence on the oil issue were creating friction between the prime minister and the Shah.

Argo is an Academy Award winning movie, directed by Ben Affleck. The movie shows the first couple months of the Iran Hostage Crisis. Argo is a hollywoodized way of showing the true events of the escape and rescue of the six United States diplomats during the Iranian Hostage Crisis. Subsequently there has been various documentaries made based on the events of the Iranian Hostage Crisis, one of the best ones to date is Argo: Inside Story.

The foundation of the Iranian hostage crisis had its origins in the longstanding United States support of the Shah. This consequently built social and political resentment in the Islamic world and forced America to confront militant Islam for the first time.

The Iran Hostage Crisis changed the political connections between the United States and Iran for several years to come. The Iran Hostage Crisis became a symbol of America 's global power and influence On November 4, 1979, Iranian students stormed the US embassy in Tehran, Iran, and took sixty-three Americans hostage. The students agreed that the hostages would not be released until the Shah returned to “Iran to stand trial for the crimes committed against the Iranian people.” (Bechtel). Despite the Shah’s treatment of the Iranian people, the President Carted allowed the Shah into the United States to receive medical treatment. Although President Carter made attempts to negotiate the hostages released, he failed several times. Because of his failures he was viewed inept and ineffective in regards to the crisis. The hostages were released on January 20, 1981, the day that President Ronald Reagan was sworn into office. This paper will discuss the main reason why the hostages were taken, and why they were not released sooner.

On December 31, 1977, The United States president was in Tehran, the capital of Iran, speaking to their leader. During the stay, he called Iran “an Island of Stability”. Less than two years later, on November 4, 1979, the US embassy in Tehran was stormed by Iranian Students and all United Citizens were taken hostage. Four-hundred forty-four days later, on January 20, 1981, the hostages were finally released. Every single one of those days, the world was watching.

Wikipedia, Hector Villalon and Christian Bourget began the initial negotiations for the release of the hostages. They “delivered a formal request to Panama for extradition of the Shah” which was "a pretext to cover secret negotiations to free the American hostages." This happened as the Soviets invaded Iran's neighbor Afghanistan an event America hoped would "illustrate the threat" of its superpower neighbor and need for better relations with the

The American government is known to promote democratic values throughout the world. Though the ideals America was fighting for during the Cold War, the government still managed to participate in the overthrow of democratically elected Prime Minister, Mohammed Mossadegh. Mossadegh threatened to nationalize Iran’s oil in 1951 and later gained the support of the Iranian government. The British companies had many investments in Iranian oil. It is with the approval of nationalization that the economies of both British and Iran were ultimately harmed. The British government requested the help of the US so that they could perform a coup to overthrow Mossadegh. With suspicions of Mossadegh supporting communism, and being supported by the Tudeh Party, the United States government was willing to sacrifice their democratic ideologies and credibility in the region for the insurance of an anti-communist leader. This would prove to cause problems that still resonate in today’s political and military negotiations in this region.

On November 4, 1979 the Iranians had had enough with the United States. Thousands of protesters gathered around the United States embassy, yelling anti-American slogans. At about 10 that morning approximately three thousand people started to climb over the 10-foot wall that surrounded the embassy, forcing their way into the chancery building. The guards were ordered not to fire at the crowd in case it should start a war, but use tear gas. The tear gas was unsuccessful however and the protesters captured the marine guards, military officials and the embassy workers, totaling 66 men and women blindfolded and tied up. It was unclear if Khomeini helped plan the hostage crisis, but he did little to prevent it. Khomeini saw how popular the hostage

What might be going on in their minds for the hostages, is If they are going to come out of this situation alive. If they will be able to see their loved ones again. Is there a way out. Why them and why now. As for the Hostage takers in their minds they are probably thinking how things escalated so quickly. It was probably not meant to go that far. They have to decide whether they will go out guns blazing or surrender, during the hostage situation. After the hostages are released, there should be an immediate intervention. To increase their personal recovery. Follow up resources for hostages can include counseling and therapy. Multicultural considerations to take into account can be language. Possibly not all of the hostages are able to speak

A hostage situation can arise from many different activities such as terrorist, a bank robbery, riots, or when a crime is in progress. Hostage takers may be mentally unstable and have all sorts of personal problems and do not seek for help. A hostage situation is a scary thing to be in because anybody can get hurt whether is a police officer or the people that are being held hostage. Police officers response to the situation into three broad categories; do nothing and wait out the hostage taker, attack or assault the hostage taker’s position, or negotiate with the hostage taker. Although, none of these options seem to satisfy anybody it is taken from the perspective of keeping the officers and the hostages safe. Also there is another different