Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
How media influence public opinions
Tehran hostage crisis
Perspective of the iran hostage crisis
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In January 1979, Iranians opposed to the Shah’s rule invaded the American embassy in Tehran and held a group of 52 American diplomats and other hostages for 444 days. The Shah left Iran and the victorious Ayatollah Khomeini returned that February. Of the approximately 90 people inside the embassy, 52 remained in captivity until the end of the crisis. The reputation of the Ayatollah Khomeini and the hostage taking was further enhanced with the failure of a hostage rescue attempt that cost lives. The Ayatollah Khomeini set forth several demands to be met prior to the release of the hostages. The US had options of their own; however, the risk to the hostages required the utmost consideration. In order to secure their freedom, outgoing President Jimmy Carter agreed to several demands, to include, releasing 8 billion dollars in frozen Iranian assets. Due to the ongoing negotiations on both sides, an agreement was reached and the hostages were freed. President Carter left the oval office on January 21, 1981 after Regan’s Inauguration and flew overseas to meet with the freed hostages.
The Iran Hostage Crisis of 1979
President Carter’s New Year’s 1979 toast to the Shah at a state dinner in Tehran, announcing that he was "an island of stability in one of the more troubled areas of the world”, set the tone of the stance the United States had with the Shah which indicated support (Wright, 2011, 2010). This led to The Iran Hostage Crisis that lasted 444 days, in which Carter allowed an ally, the ostracized Shah, to break away from Iran and fly to New York to receive medical care for his cancer. His flight from Iran allowed him to avoid the Iranian Revolution. As a result, militants invaded the US Embassy in Tehran, capturing 66...
... middle of paper ...
... Limited, Toronto.
Iran Hostage Crisis. (2010). Conservapedia. Retrieved July 28, 2011, from http://www.conservapedia.com/Iran_Hostage_Crisis
Iran hostage crisis. (2011). Wikipedia. Retrieved June 5, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_hostage_crisis
Wright, R. (2011,2010). Our man in Tehran: the true story behind the sectret mission to save six Americans during the Iran Hostage Crisis and the foreign ambassador who worked with the CIA to bring them home. Retrieved from http://mylibrary.wilmu.edu:2071/WebZ/FSPage?pagename=excerpt:sessionid=fsappl1-35...
Norton, J. J., & Collins, M. H. (1981). Reflections on the Iranian Hostage Settlement. American Bar Association Journal, 67, 428-433.
Rose, M. (1998). The Iranian Hostage Rescue Mission. In Risk-Taking in International Politics (pp. 45-75). Retrieved from http://www.press.umich.edu/pdf/0472108670-03.pdf
Taken Hostage by David Farber is book about the Iranian hostage crisis that occurred 1979-1981. Farber looks into the causes of the hostage crisis, both at home and abroad, relations between Iran and the United States, and what attempts were made in order to rescue the hostages. Farber wrote the book in order to give insight into an issue that is considered to be a huge blemish and embarrassment on America’s history. He looked at it from all perspectives and gave an objective overview of the conflict.
In the novel All The Shah’s Men we are introduced to Iran, and the many struggles and hardships associated with the history of this troubled country. The Iranian coup is discussed in depth throughout the novel, and whether the Untied States made the right decision to enter into Iran and provide assistance with the British. If I were to travel back to 1952 and take a position in the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) for the sole purpose of examining the American Foreign Intelligence, I would have to conclude that the United States should have examined their options more thoroughly, and decided not to intervene with Iran and Mossadegh. I have taken this position after great analysis, which is something that Eisenhower and his staff never did. By discussing the history of Iran, the Anglo-Iranian oil company, and Document NSC-68 I will try to prove once and for all that going through with the coup in Iran was a terrible mistake made by the United States.
For decades, U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East had depended on a friendly government in Iran. The newly appointed leader, the shah of Iran, began Westernizing the country and taking away power from the Ayatollah, powerful religious leaders. The United States poured millions of dollars into Iran’s economy and the shah’s armed forces, overlooking the rampant corruption in government and well-organized opposition. By early 1979, the Ayatollah had murdered the Shah and taken back power of the government. A group of students who took the American embassy hostage on November 4th, 1979, turned the embassy over to the religious leaders. Carter knew he must take action in order to regain the American embassy and the hostages, but with all of the military cutbacks, the rescue attempt was a complete failure and embarrassment. It took the United States 444 days to rescue the hostages. This was the final straw for many Americans, and enough to push them to the “right” side of the political spectrum, Republican.
David J. Scheffer, “U.S. Law and the Iran-Contra Affair”, The American Journal of International Law 81, no. 3 (July, 1987): 698, accessed May 20, 2014, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2202027.
Commentators whipped both Carter's arrangements to give up control of the Panama Canal and his reaction to Soviet animosity in Afghanistan by hauling out of the Olympics and completion the offer of wheat to the Russians. His acknowledgment of socialist China, which developed Nixon's China approach, and his arrangement of new arms control concurrences with the Soviets, were both condemned by moderates in the Republican Party. Yet, the most genuine emergency of Carter's administration included Iran. At the point when the Ayatollah Khomeini seized power there, the U.S. offered haven to the sickly Shah, irritated the new Iranian government, which then urged understudy aggressors to storm the American consulate and assume control fifty Americans prisoner. Carter's inadequate treatment of the tremendously broadcast prisoner emergency, and the shocking fizzled endeavor to protect them in 1980, destined his administration, despite the fact that he arranged their discharge instantly before leaving office.
The Tangled Relationship. New York: Foreign Policy Association, 1971. Flaherty, Tom. A. “What We Learned from the Bay of Pigs.” Reader’s Digest July 1963: 92-94.
The Iran-Contra Affair involved the United States, Iran, and Lebanon. The affair coincided with the Iranian hostage crisis, which promoted the United States’ actions in sending weapons to Iran. The Reagan administration decided to trade arms for hostages in hopes of successfully retrieving American hostages from Iran. Iran was at the time under the power of Ayatollah Khomeini, who had put his full support behind the hostage crisis and believed there was nothing that the United States could do to Iran. America’s only chance of rescuing the hostages was to put their support behind Iran in the Iran-Iraq War, which involved the shipment of weapons to Iran f...
His extreme effectiveness feeds from decision-making ability that turned the country away from the negative and instable foreign policy of Carter and back to support winning the Cold War and promoting the strength of the US. In the 1970s, because Carter allowed Communism to gain military and territorial advantages, and failed to impose American hegemon and his own power as President. Reagan took office in 1981, “he was determined to rebuild that power, regain for the United States the capability to wage war successfully against the Soviets, to act with impunity against Soviet Third World clients, and to regain its status as the world’s dominant military force.” Reagan handled the Iran hostage Crisis within the hour of assuming the Presidency. Simultaneously, doing what was necessary to free Americans, and to use his power as President to go outside the constitution and congress and secure funding for the Contras to overthrown the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and restore the nation to a pro-American government. Unlike Carter Reagan wanted to make it clear he only cared about protecting American security, and that human rights could be an after
One main cause of the Hostage crisis is the U.S dependency on foreign oil. The need for foreign oil has led leaders to make poor decisions in the past. The CIA intervention in Iran in the 50’s is a great example of this. The Government led and funded a revolution to get a ruler that favored the U.S more than the Prime Minister favored western nations (Kinzer, 11). The U.S and Brittan felt that if they overthrew the government that they could get more access to oil and therefore, move on to other nations with oil having gained oil in one country. This need for the oil in Iran was a prime example of a poor decision made by the two governments to get the oil that they wanted en=ven if it set up loose ties that would quickly break. The need for the foreign oil led to a complacent feeling of rights to the oil owned by the sovereign nation and decided to meddle with the politics in that nation to ge...
Reagan had said he would never deal with supporters of terrorists, which he considered Iran's leaders to be. But he and his advisers believed Iran could get the hostages released. Members of the Administration arranged for the CIA to secretly purchase arms from the Department of Defense. Private individuals bought the arms from the CIA and sold them to Iran in return for its promises of help in the hostage release. But the sales led to the release of only three hostages, and three more Americans were taken hostage during the same period.
November 4th, 1979 was a normal day for many people across the globe, however in Tehran, Iran a 444 day long journey had just begun for 60 plus Americans. Today this issue is better known as the Iranian Hostage Crisis. This plight started with the United States attempt to westernize Iran. Which resulted in severe backlash from Iran against the United States own citizens. This quickly became a crisis for the United States and a scurry to try and save American lives. Because of attempts to change Iran, the Iranians started to resent the United States for many reasons, which went beyond the 444 day long crisis. The crisis and the events that led up to it, still have lasting effects that create tensions between the two nations today. Through the
Peters, Winston. Debate. "Motion-Iranian Hostage Crisis-Fictional Representation of Role of New Zealand Diplomats." (12 March 2013). Hansard (debates). 13 Dec. 2013.
Maghen, Z. (2009, January). Eradicating the "Little Satan": Why Iran Should Be Taken at Its
Watson, Stephanie. "Iranian Hostage Crisis." Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence and Security. Ed. K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 2004. 158-60. U.S. History in Context. Web. 18 Apr. 2014.
Griffith, William E. “The Revial of Islamic Fundamentalism: the Case of Iran.” International Security. Volume 4, Issue 1, 1979, 132-138.