The Iranian Hostage Crisis was an international hostage situation that took place between the governments of Iran and the United States. This crisis is the longest ever hostage situation lasting from November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981, a total of 444 days. While the crisis only occurred at the turn of a decade, it was not only a response to previous events but the cause of many in the decades after. The crisis was started when a group of Iranian student assailed the United States Embassy in Iran and took 66 Americans hostage. 63 of these hostages were either diplomat or worked at the embassy and the other three were CIA operatives. There were six other diplomats who were able to escape and lived in the house of a Canadian diplomat. The terrorists wanted the Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran before the Iranian revolution, in exchange for the hostages. Pahlavi had a form of cancer and was admitted to the United States for treatment. The students hated Pahlavi’s regime and were big supporters of the Iranian Revolution. Carter would try and fail to execute a rescue operation to free the hostages in an operation called Operation Eagle Claw. There were hostages released throughout the situation, however, this was a very limited amount of the total. President Ronald Reagan eventually diffused the situation with the Algiers Accords, which freed the remaining 52 hostages and a joint Canadian-CIA operation freed the other six.
While the events of the crisis took place in the eighties, the issue truly was started in the early fifties. Due to the tensions and conflicts surrounding the oil situation between the U.S., Britain, and Iran. Iran had recently elected a new prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh. His ideas about nationalizing the oil industries did not suit the needs of the United States and therefore the CIA created a plan against the prime minister. An operation was set up in order to replace Mossadegh with another, one who would be friendlier to U.S. requests. Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was chosen, he was a member of the royal family of Iran. This coup was incredibly successful and was officially called Operation TP-AJAX. Shah was pro-U.S. and anti-communism, so this was a victory on two fronts for the United States, as it helped grow the anti-Soviet Union base (this was during the height of the Cold War) and an ally who can supply oil. However, the Iranian government suffered severely after the intervention of the United States. Under the Shah’s rule, Iran’s economy plummeted, and he turned out to be an incredibly cruel and ineffective dictator. This caused much of the Iranian population to blame the United States’ participation in causing this dystopian society. This would become the leading cause of the brutal and violent Iranian Revolution. Eventually, the people became tired of the government under Pahlavi’s rule and started rebellions. This lead to the overthrow of the Pahlavi’s rule and he would be replaced with Ayatollah Khomeini, a leading force in the revolution. He was a man of the people and his policies fell on the anti-American side. Pahlavi was exiled to Egypt at the end of the revolution, after a short time he was diagnosed with lymphoma and was admitted to the United States for further treatments. This cooperation between the Shah and the U.S. government facilitated the anti-American idealism that covered Iran.
These students who took over the U.S. embassy had very clear intentions, some ulterior and some overt. The students were followers of Iman’s line and were extreme proponents of the Iranian Revolution that had taken place. They were enraged that Pahlavi was admitted in the U.S. for cancer treatment and was not facing the charges for his crimes against the people of Iran. With this hostage situation, they hoped to have Pahlavi would be released into their custody so he could stand trial for all of his crimes in Iran. The ulterior motive of the takeover was to undermine the U.S. government, in a sense mock them. They not only wanted revenge against Pahlavi for the crimes he had committed but against the United States Government for putting him in power.
The successful overthrow of the Embassy in Iran was certainly not the first, in fact, two other attempts preceded it. The first attempt was on February 14, 1979, when a small group of Muslim extremists entered the embassy and took one man hostage, Kenneth Kraus, a U.S. Marine. This situation was short-lived in fact it only lasted about three hours, Ambassador William Sullivan along with help from Iranian Foreign Minister Ebrahim Yazdi was able to diffuse the problem. This, however, did not alter their motivations as there was a second attempt to capture the American Embassy in September of 1979. This attempt quickly became less of a violent attack and more of a reconnaissance mission. They had watched the marine security guards on the roof from a neighboring rooftop. The students were able to convince much of the local police to join the crusade as well as the Islamic Revolutionary Guards.
The takeover simply started as a protest on the street directly outside of the embassy, the embassy guards tried to brandish their weapons to break up the protest. This was, however, not successful as the protestors began to realize the guards weren’t allowed to fire their weapons. The students were then able to break down the gates and scale the walls of the embassy to start and take hostages so they would be able to have negotiation power with the United States. There was a total of 66 hostages taken and six others that had fled to the Canadian ambassador’s house. Soon, Washington was informed of the situation and for the next three days President Carter and his team attempted to free the hostages but were ultimately unsuccessful. In fact, no U.S. citizen or official was allowed to enter Iran at the time, even those with connections to high ranking Iranian officials. The hostage-takers themselves were getting nervous after just two days of no negotiation being made. On November 6, 1979, demands were placed down in return of the hostages’ safe return, the students required Pahlavi to be returned to Iran. Official demands were placed by Iran finance minister, Abolhasan Bani-Sadr on November 14, 1979 which stated that the hostages would be returned if the United States concludes all further interference in Iranian affairs, the return of Pahlavi to the Iranian government to stand trial, and to declare any and all of Pahlavi’s assets as stolen properties. The U.S. hesitantly responded to the request saying that Iran is free to charge Pahlavi with financial claims and said they would allow international investigating of human rights violations in the American court system. Later on, November 17, 1979, thirteen hostages were released which consisted of women and African Americans who the Iranian Prime Minister, Khomeini believed were least likely to be spies. Another hostage was released as he had become deathly ill bringing the number of hostages down to 52. Both countries tried to solve the issue with the help of the United Nations with little luck. The United States further reinforced its position on the issue by refusing to buy Iranian oil, leaving billions of dollars unused. The United States government did personally place an economic embargo on Iran fairly early, but they were able to convince some of its closest allies to do the same by May 1980. The issue was able to speed up with the death of the shah, one of the main reasons the hostages were taken in the first place.