Iranian Hostage Crisis

Events following the forceful takeover of the American Embassy in Tehran, Iran, in November 1979, by a group of radical students. Sixty-six American citizens were captured during the takeover, and 52 of them were held hostage for more than a year.

Coming in the wake of the 1978 Islamic revolution that replaced Iran's ruler, Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi, with religious fundamentalist Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the hostage crisis was the most dramatic expression of the decidedly tense relations between the United States (which had supported the shah) and Iran's new rulers. Originally intended to last for only three days (according to one of the captors), the 444-day-long hostage situation deeply affected both the Iranian political scene (where a host of postrevolution figures were vying for power) and that of the United States (where President Jimmy Carter is said to have lost his 1980 reelection campaign in part because of his treatment of the crisis).

For many decades before the Islamic revolution, the United States and Iran had enjoyed a particularly close relationship. The shah of Iran provided the Americans with a steady supply of oil, receiving substantial economic and military aid in return. In 1963, Iran embarked on the White Revolution, which was designed to modernize the country rapidly. The shah's reforms, however, drew heavy criticism from conservative quarters, particularly from Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic clerics.

The shah responded to such criticism by authorizing the repression of dissenters by his heavy-handed secret police (known as SAVAK), alienating more and more of his citizens in the process. The 1970s in Iran were riddled with strikes and mass demonstrations, and finally, in September 1978, the shah imposed martial law on the country. Four months later, the shah was forced to flee Iran, never to return.

The shah's place at the helm of the state was taken by Ayatollah Khomeini, a Muslim cleric who had quickly returned from exile in France. On April 1, 1979, a national referendum established the Islamic Republic of Iran. Encouraged by their new leaders, thousands of anti-American demonstrators soon began to gather regularly in front of the U.S. embassy in Tehran. When the Iranians learned that an ailing Shah Pahlavi has been admitted to the United States for medical treatment, anger swept the nation, culminating in the seizure of the American embassy by approximately 400 student militants on November 4, 1979.

Negotiations

Sixty-six Americans were originally taken captive in the seizure of the embassy, and the captors demanded the extradition of the shah in exchange for their release. The U.S. government refused to comply with the Iranians' demand, and the hostage crisis began in earnest.

[Page 378]The prisoners were kept blindfolded and were threatened and interrogated by armed men on a daily basis. After a week of futile attempts to negotiate with the ayatollah and the militants, President Jimmy Carter banned all oil imports from Iran and froze $8 billion in Iranian financial assets in U.S. banks.

Looking to exploit the perceived atmosphere of discrimination and racism in the United States, the ayatollah ordered the release of 13 women and African American embassy personnel. Another hostage was released a few months later because of illness. The remaining 52 Americans, however, were kept hostage in Iran until the very end of the crisis.

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