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The invasion of the U.S. embassy in November of 1979 was an emotional act of both terrorism and rebellion, where Iranian revolutionaries acted as a revolutionary party against an entire nation. Students in Iran stormed the United States embassy, taking “more than 60 American hostages” (PBS.com) Carter spoke of his trouble leading a nation that was being held hostage, saying he spent “long nights thinking of… steps he could take to gain (the hostages’) freedom without sacrificing the honour and security of our nation” (Slavicek, 73) All of America stood still on November 4, 1979, when Iranian students, desperate for political change, swarmed the United States embassy in Tehran, Iran, taking over 50 men hostage and changing the world’s definition of terrorism.

The crisis started with Operation TP-Ajax, and it’s success lead to a nationwide suffering in Iran. In the early 1970s, the C.I.A and British M.I. discovered that the leader of Iran planned to nationalize the country's oil, and the nations teamed up to “overthrow Mossadegh and replace him with a leader who would be more receptive to western interests” (History.com). However, “Shah turned out to be a brutal, arbitrary, dictator,” who caused the “Iranian economy to suffer” by buying millions of dollars of unnecessary American weaponry. America’s selfish desire to save it’s oil industry caused an evil man to rise to power. People started to rebel due to unjust lifestyles, and more Iranians supported the exiled Khomeini as they rallied for freedom. While the western coup set the precedent used countless times in the future, it inspired the native people to fight against their new dictator. The people of Iran wanted no association with Pahlavi, and were angered when they rece...

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...to overthrow Mossadegh, would be used many times during the cold war, like the “1954 government takeover in Guatemala, and the failed intervention in Cuba in 1961” (History.com). Additionally the new definition of terrorism, “the use of violent acts to frighten the people in an area as a way of trying to achieve a political goal,” was started on November 4, 1979. The infiltration of the embassy was done by a group of Muslim students, acting as a quasi-third party to the Iran-American affairs. This third party held people of another nation hostage to achieve political goals, the first act in our decade-long war against terrorism. Since that day, roughly 35 years ago, we have made greater steps against terrorists and their goals against America. The Iran Hostage Crisis shows a nation how important it’s citizens are, and the world how dangerous terrorism can be.

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