Iran hostages return home to a warm welcome after 444 days in captivity. [90], One, Michael Metrinko, was kept in solitary confinement for months. ", "Iran's pro-democracy protesters to Obama: With us or against us? [123] Iranian officials who favored release of the hostages, such as President Bani Sadr, were weakened. [101] Over the months, the numbness spread to his right side, and the dizziness worsened until he "was literally flat on his back, unable to move without growing dizzy and throwing up. [49] According to one embassy staff member, buses full of demonstrators began to appear outside the embassy shortly after the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line broke through the gates. [77] The final holding area, from November 1980 until their release, was the Teymur Bakhtiar mansion in Tehran, where the hostages were finally given tubs, showers, and hot and cold running water. Eight American servicemen were killed in the accident, and Operation Eagle Claw was aborted. Bruce Laingen, hostage and former charge d’affaires to the embassy in Iran on the operation: “While no day hurts more — than today and always — than the day when these brave men lost their lives in an attempt to reach us, no day makes us more proud as well, because of the way in which they stood for that cause of human freedom. The journalist Stephen Kinzer argues that the dramatic change in American–Iranian relations, from allies to enemies, helped embolden the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, and that the United States' anger with Iran led it to aid the Iraqis after the war turned against them. They encountered severe dust storms that disabled two of the helicopters, which were traveling in complete radio silence. Media related to Iran hostage crisis at Wikimedia Commons, This article is about the siege of the American embassy in Tehran. However, the hostage-taking was about more than the Shah’s medical care: it was a dramatic way for the student revolutionaries to declare a break with Iran’s past and an end to American interference in its affairs. By midsummer 1980, 52 hostages remained in the embassy compound. [17], By the 1950s Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was engaged in a power struggle with Iran's prime minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh, an immediate descendant of the preceding Qajar dynasty. Iran hostage crisis – In November 1979, 66 Americans were taken hostage after supporters of Iran's Islamic Revolution took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran. Another security requirement was that the helicopter pilots come from the same unit. Started by Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein in September 1980, the war was marked by ...read more, The Suez Crisis began on October 29, 1956, when Israeli armed forces pushed into Egypt toward the Suez Canal after Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918-70) nationalized the canal, a valuable waterway that controlled two-thirds of the oil used by Europe. However, he overstepped in trying to get a $50 million increase and the amount of revenue given to the Iranian government was reduced. 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Schatz, 31 – agriculture attaché, Joseph D. Stafford, 29 – consular officer, Kathleen F. Stafford, 28 – consular assistant, Sgt Ladell Maples, USMC, 23 – Marine Corps embassy guard, Sgt William Quarles, USMC, 23 – Marine Corps embassy guard, Sgt James Hughes, USAF, 30 – Air Force administrative manager, Lloyd Rollins, 40 – administrative officer, Capt Neal (Terry) Robinson, USAF, – Air Force military intelligence officer, MSgt Joseph Vincent, USAF, 42 – Air Force administrative manager, Sgt David Walker, USMC, 25 – Marine Corps embassy guard, Cpl Wesley Williams, USMC, 24 – Marine Corps embassy guard, Thomas L. Ahern, Jr. – narcotics control officer (later identified as CIA station chief), Clair Cortland Barnes, 35 – communications specialist, William E. Belk, 44 – communications and records officer, Robert O. Blucker, 54 – economics officer, William J. Daugherty, 33 – third secretary of U.S. mission (CIA officer, LCDR Robert Englemann, USN, 34 – Navy attaché, Sgt William Gallegos, USMC, 22 – Marine Corps guard, IS1 Duane L. Gillette, 24 – Navy communications and intelligence specialist. Four British missionaries, including Dr. Canon John Coleman; his wife, Audrey Coleman; and Jean Waddell; released in late 1981, This page was last edited on 7 May 2021, at 20:48. Meanwhile, while the hostages were never seriously injured, they were subjected to a rich variety of demeaning and terrifying treatment. His decision was humanitarian, not political; nevertheless, as one American later noted, it was like throwing “a burning branch into a bucket of kerosene.” Anti-American sentiment in Iran exploded. President Carter’s efforts to bring an end to the hostage crisis soon became one of his foremost priorities. Iran said Sunday it had reached a deal with the US to free four American hostages in exchange for the return of $7 billion in frozen assets — but … Due to depletion of the fund, by February 2019, only 17.8% of the legislated amount had been paid to the freed hostages and their direct families. Supporters of the takeover claimed that in 1953, the American Embassy had acted as a "den of spies" from which the coup was organized. [55] His initial response was to appeal for the release of the hostages on humanitarian grounds and to share his hopes for a strategic anti-communist alliance with the Ayatollah. There were 66 original captives: 63 taken at the embassy and three captured and held at the Foreign Ministry offices. Helicopter No. On Jan. 20, 1981, 52 American hostages were released by Iran after 444 days in captivity. [70] Many of these volumes are now available online.[71]. [33] The occupation of the embassy on November 4, 1979, was also intended as leverage to demand the return of the shah to stand trial in Iran in exchange for the hostages. Before release, these hostages were required by their captors to hold a press conference in which Kathy Gross and William Quarles praised the revolution's aims, but four further women and six African-Americans were released the following day. W hen the Iran Hostage Crisis ended on this day, Jan. 20, in 1981, 52 Americans were freed after being subjected to “acts of barbarism,” as President Carter phrased it, for 444 days. Theocratic Islamists, as well as leftist political groups like the socialist People's Mujahedin of Iran,[58] supported the taking of hostages as a counterattack against "American imperialism." The Iranian Hostage Crisis . In 2000 the hostages and their families tried unsuccessfully to sue Iran under the Antiterrorism Act of 1996. The duration of the hostages' captivity has also been attributed to internal Iranian revolutionary politics. Western media described the crisis as an "entanglement" of "vengeance and mutual incomprehension. "[5] U.S. president Jimmy Carter called the hostage-taking an act of "blackmail" and the hostages "victims of terrorism and anarchy". Fifty-two American diplomats and citizens were held hostage after a group of militarized Iranian college students belonging to the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line, who supported the Iranian Revolution, took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran[3][4] and seized hostages. Hostages in Iran Fly to Freedom After 444-Day Ordeal", "52 FORMER HOSTAGES START READAPTING IN U.S. AIR FORCE HOSPITAL IN GERMANY", "NEWBURGH, N.Y. FORMER HOSTAGES HOME FROM IRAN, FAMILIES JOIN THEM AT WEST POINT; PRESIDENT LEADS NATION IN THANKS", "HOSTAGES' PARADE SET A RECORD, DIDN'T IT? The next attempt to seize the American Embassy was planned for September 1979 by Ebrahim Asgharzadeh, a student at the time. Hostages in Iran Fly to Freedom After 444-Day Ordeal", "Iranian Hostages Released – 1981 Year in Review – Audio", "The Republican myth of Ronald Reagan and the Iran hostages, debunked", "Did Iran Delay Hostages Release To Ensure Reagan's Election? When the helicopters encountered two dust storms along the way to the refueling point, the second more severe than the first, the pilot of No. The Tehran hostages received $50 for each day in captivity after their release. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. The hostage-takers, declaring their solidarity with other "oppressed minorities" and "the special place of women in Islam," released one woman and two African Americanson November 19. One was a chemical engineering student from URI.[34]. The documents – including telegrams, correspondence, and reports from the U.S. State Department and CIA – were published in a series of books called Documents from the U.S. He was to be executed, but President Carter and Sullivan secured his release within six days. All State Department and CIA employees who were taken hostage received the State Department Award for Valor. What a difference 30 years makes", "Seeking Damages From Iran, Ex-Marine Must Battle Bush Administration, Too", "Judge Rules Iran Hostages Can't Receive Compensation", "Iranian group seeks British suicide bombers", "444 days in captivity as the world watched", "A First Tour Like No Other — Central Intelligence Agency", “Mainer recalls time as hostage in Iran 30 years ago”, "Jerry Plotkin, 62, Who Spent 444 Days as a Hostage in Iran", ‘Mohi Sobhani, 70; Held Hostage at U.S. Embassy in Iran in 1980’, Nassry Was Political Prisoner In Iran Red Cross Traces Path To Lost Relatives, "Around the World; Former Iranian Hostage To Get Early Discharge", "Former American hostages in Iran will receive compensation", "Americans in Iran hostage crisis to receive compensation – 36 years later", "Americans held in Iran waited decades for relief. On Jan. 20, 1981, Iran released 52 Americans who had been held hostage for 444 … Personnel Being Held in the Embassy Compound."[54]. By embracing the hostage-taking under the slogan "America can't do a thing," Khomeini rallied support and deflected criticism of his controversial theocratic constitution,[63] which was scheduled for a referendum vote in less than one month. [118] Deputy Secretary Warren Christopher, who attended the meeting in Vance's place, did not inform Vance. On the same day that students stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran, six American diplomats evaded capture by hiding in the home of Canadian diplomat John Sheardown. [125] One crashed during a demonstration at Eglin Air Force Base on October 29, 1980, when its braking rockets were fired too soon. The commander of the operation, Col. Charles Alvin Beckwith, recommended that the mission be aborted, and his recommendation was approved by President Carter.