Our Man In Tehran Sparknotes

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The Iranian Islamic Revolution took place during 1979. The people of Iran under the influence of Ayatollah Khomeini came together to enforce Islamic laws in Iran and dethrone the Shah. Many countries participated in the revolution including Canada and America. America created a bad reputation for themselves when they favoured the Shah, whom Iran was against. This encouraged several Iranian students to oppose America by holding the people in their embassy hostage**(rephrase). Out of those hostages, six had managed to escape from Iran by the help of a Canadian ambassador who risked his life in taking them in. Ken Taylor, the Canadian ambassador, was a hero to America due to his courageous effort to rescue several Americans from the U.S embassy …show more content…

There were many news articles and stories written talking about the hostage crisis. Many people were inspired by Ken Taylor’s heroic work in Iran, and created books, documentaries, and movies on his story. "Our Man in Tehran" is a book written by Robert wright that contains all the details on the hostage crisis and Ken Taylor's involvement in Iran. The book included the specific details on what he had done to accomplish his goals, his personality, and even the positive comments people had about him. This quote from the book exhibits Ken Taylor’s charisma, “He was a very skilled and well-regarded diplomat. No one with those qualities would have gone to a situation like Tehran.” (Wright 5) A documentary was also created based on that book which highlighted Ken Taylor’s role in Iran and how he had resolved the hostage crisis. It aired in 2013 and won five screen awards; best documentary, best direction in documentary, best photography, best picture editing, and best sound (Wikipedia “Our Man in Tehran”). These awards portray the Canadian hero in a positive light. Another form of media that recognizes the hardships of the Canadian ambassador was the Oscar award winning film, Argo. The film was created by famous celebrity Ben Affleck and talks about Iran and the hostage crisis; however, Ken Taylor’s role in the movie was not significant and gave less credit, but through criticism and comments made showed that people still believed that Ken Taylor deserved much more credit than what he was given. Former president Jimmy Carter was one of the many people who addressed and corrected Ken’s characterization in the movie by saying, “The main hero, in my opinion, was Ken Taylor, who was the Canadian Ambassador who orchestrated the entire process” (“Ken Taylor Daily

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