Iranian Hostage Crisis

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On December 31, 1977, The United States president was in Tehran, the capital of Iran, speaking to their leader. During the stay, he called Iran “an Island of Stability”. Less than two years later, on November 4, 1979, the US embassy in Tehran was stormed by Iranian Students and all United Citizens were taken hostage. Four-hundred forty-four days later, on January 20, 1981, the hostages were finally released. Every single one of those days, the world was watching.
This political cartoon was released on January 24, 1980, which was 81 days into the hostage crisis. The cartoon uses Uncle Same to represent the United States. In it the Uncle Sam is looking confidant and proud, fully believing that the United States is the most powerful country. Meanwhile, the Ayatollah Khomeini is wrapping a rope around the legs of Uncle Sam. The Ayatollah is much smaller to represent how the USA is much stronger than Iran. The rope around the legs symbolizes how Iran is tying up and stopping the United States. The cartoon overall shows how the strong and proud nation of the United States is being successfully stopped by a much weaker Iran, and is doing nothing about it.
In order to understand the tensions, one must look back. For thousands of years the people of Iran had a Shah as an absolute ruler. In order to secure access to Iranian oil fields during the second World War, the United States Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as Shah of Iran as a puppet of the United States. This lasted until 1951 when Mohammed Mosaddeq became an extremely popular Iranian Prime Minister. He made it his goal to nationalize the Iranian oil industry away from British. To combat this, the newly set up CIA secretly organized a coup to remove the Prime Minister from o...

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... the world the United States has very limited control. The Iranian Hostage Crisis has not yet been forgotten, and the lasting affects will continue to be seen.

Works Cited

Glad, Betty. "Personality, Political and Group Process Variables in Foreign Policy Decision-
Making: Jimmy Carter's Handling of the Iranian Hostage." International Political Science Review / Revue Internationale De Science Politique 10.1, Case Studies in Psychopolitics/
L'analyse Psychopolitique: études De Cas (1989): 35-61. JSTOR. Web. 11 May 2014.

Larson, David L. "The American Response to the Iranian Hostage Crisis: 444 Days of Decision."
International Social Science Review 57.4 (1982): 195-209. JSTOR. Web. 11 May 2014.

Valtman, Edmund S. "We're the Most Powerful Nation in the World; January 24, 1980 :: AAEC
Editorial Cartoons." AAEC Editorial Cartoons. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2014.

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