Americans Held Hostage.

On Inauguration Day 1981, a nightmare ended for 52 U.S. citizens in Iran

For more than a year, they lived with a knife at the throat. Half a world away from home, they wondered if they would ever return.

This week marks the 20th anniversary of the end of their ordeal. On January 20, 1981, 52 U.S. citizens were released after being held hostage for 444 days by revolutionaries in Iran. Employees in the U.S. embassy there, they had been captured in an attack that shattered the rules of diplomacy. At home, their fate had become a national obsession, affecting a presidential election and raising urgent questions: What could be done about their plight? And was it partly America's own fault?

For five hundred years, oil-rich Iran had been ruled by powerful kings called Shahs. After World War II, the U.S. had supported the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, as an ally against Communism. When he was overthrown in 1953, a coup secretly backed by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) helped him regain his throne.

For the next 25 years, the Shah spent billions of dollars trying to modernize Iran and buying weapons, while most Iranians lived in poverty. Hundreds of political opponents were tortured or killed by the Shah's secret police. Most Iranians practice Islam, a religion whose teachings clash with Western ways, and many resented the Shah's modernization.

In January 1979, a revolution forced the Shah to flee the country. The revolt was led by followers of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (ko-MAY-nee), an exiled Islamic religious leader. (Ayatollah, a title of respect, means "sign of God.") Khomeini returned to lead a revolutionary government based on Islamic fundamentalism. He despised the U.S., which he called "the Great Satan."

Later that year, Democratic President Jimmy Carter let the exiled Shah enter the U.S. for cancer treatment. The action enraged Iranians, who wanted the Shah to stand trial in Iran.

On November 4, young Islamic militants stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran's capital. They captured 66 people, including military personnel, government officials, and staffers. They blind-folded them and held them prisoner. Iran's government declared:

Today's move by a group of our compatriots is a natural reaction to the U.S. government's indifference to the hurt feelings of the Iranian people about the presence of the deposed Shah, who is in the United States under the pretext of illness.

In the next weeks, some hostages were beaten, put in solitary confinement, and denied showers for days. One was told falsely--that his mother had died. Another later recalled:

It was like living in a tomb. You didn't hear the outside world. You didn't know what was going on at all. You were completely cut off....

One night, a group of masked men rounded up the hostages and shoved them into a windowless storeroom. Hostage Richard Queen recalled:

They pushed us against the wall, kicked our feet apart.... Then all I heard was the metallic clicking of weapons ... I knew that was it. My last moment.

The hostages weren't killed, but they never knew what the next moment might bring. Meanwhile, night after night, TV news reports showed crowds of Iranians shaking their fists, burning American flags, and chanting, "Death to America!"

Americans were outraged and humiliated. They also felt frustrated, because their country seemed helpless to do anything about the hostages' fate. But when Iran announced it would withdraw billions of dollars in assets from American banks, Carter acted swiftly to freeze those assets.

In mid-November, the militants released 13 hostages. But another 53 remained, held in different buildings in the embassy compound. They passed the time reading, exercising, and doing puzzles. They played cards so much they literally wore the marks off them.

Americans never forgot the hostages. They tied yellow ribbons around tree trunks as symbols of remembrance. U.S. officials tried to negotiate the hostages' release, but progress was slow.

In secret, Carter and his advisers devised a daring rescue. On April 24, 1980, eight U.S. helicopters and six planes flew to an airstrip in the Iranian desert. The plan was to land the helicopters in the embassy, free the hostages, and fly them to the planes. But three choppers malfunctioned. Another, its pilot blinded by a sandstorm, crashed into a plane, igniting a fire that killed eight U.S. servicemen.

America was shocked and saddened. One dismayed Army officer said:

Dammit, the operation never took place. The bus broke down on the way to the game. What we're left with is nothing ...

The Iranians rejoiced at the Great Satan's humiliation. To prevent a future rescue, they scattered the hostages among different cities. On July 20, they released one hostage who was ill.

As the crisis went on, Carter campaigned for re-election. But many voters blamed him for the hostages' fate. In November, a year after the embassy takeover, he lost to former Governor Ronald Reagan of California.

In January 1981, Iran finally agreed to let the hostages go in return for $8 billion in frozen Iranian assets. Perhaps hoping to humiliate Carter, the militants delayed their release until the day of Reagan's inauguration, January 20. Minutes after Reagan was sworn in, a jet carrying the hostages was allowed to take off from Tehran for a U.S. Army base in Germany. Carter, now a private citizen, flew to greet the hostages, embracing each one and declaring, "All Americans consider them true heroes."

After the Iran hostage crisis, diplomats around the world felt a little less safe. Americans were adamant that the hostage-taking had been unjustifiable. But some questioned whether the CIA should back coups in foreign lands.

FOCUS: The 20th Anniversary of the Iran-Hostage Drama

TEACHING OBJECTIVES

To help students understand one of the most bizarre episodes in modern American history--the seizure of 52 U.S. diplomats and their staffs by Iran in 1979.

Discussion Questions:

* Should the U.S. reestablish diplomatic relations with Iran?

* Centuries of tradition and a 1961 UN conference have recognized diplomats immunity from arrest while representing their nations abroad. But as the Iran case shows, there is no remedy if a country violates that code. What might countries do---short of war--if they are confronted by a repeat of the Iran-hostage case?

CLASSROOM STRATEGIES

Debate: Debate these questions:

* Did the U.S. provoke the hostage crisis by allowing Shah Reza Pahlavi to enter this country for medical treatment?

* Should the U.S. have used military force to punish Iran after the embassy hostages were released?

* Should the U.S. now regard the hostage taking as ancient history and seek friendly relations with Iran?

Risk Analysis: Ask students to suppose that they had served on President Jimmy Carter's staff during the hostage crisis. Their job is to write at least a half-dozen questions they would raise at a meeting at which the decision was being made about whether to go forward with the rescue attempt. Have each student read his or her questions to the class. Might a President approve such a mission, even if the odds of success were low?

Critical Thinking I: Tell students that before Shah Reza Pahlavi's ouster, President Jimmy Carter, during a visit to Iran, publicly praised the Shah as a man beloved by the Iranian people. What information in the article suggests why the U.S. was so blind to opposition to the Shah? (Example: He was an anti-Communist ally who spent billions of dollars on U.S. arms.)

Critical Thinking II: Last year, the U.S. eased its trade ban with Iran. New rules allow the importation of Iranian carpets, caviar, and pistachio nuts. Assign half the class to write an argument supporting this easing of trade restrictions and half to write an argument opposing it.