Iranian Hostage Crisis
Carlos Ponce
Summary
On November 4, 1979, a group of Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking more than 60 American hostages. The immediate cause of this action was President Jimmy Carter’s decision to allow Iran’s deposed Shah, a pro-Western autocrat who had been expelled from his country some months before, to come to the United States for cancer treatment.
The students set their hostages free on January 21, 1981, 444 days after the crisis began and just hours after President Ronald Reagan delivered his inaugural address. Many historians believe that hostage crisis cost Jimmy Carter a second term as president.
Caption #1
this man is protesting of the crisis in Washington D.C. with a sign saying "Deport all Iranians"
Caption #2
this is one of the hostage, Barry Rosen.
Caption #3
a person,who is protesting on Washington D.C is leaning against the police during a demonstration of the Iranians.
Caption #4
After the Iranian hostage crisis, the walls of the former U.S. embassy in Tehran were covered in mostly anti-American murals.
Term #1
Hostage is a person seized or held as security for the fulfillment of a condition.
in this crisis more than 60 Americans were hold as hostages
Term #2
The most terrifying night for the hostages came on February 5, 1980, when guards in black ski masks roused the 52 hostages from their sleep and led them blindfolded to other rooms. They were searched after being ordered to strip themselves until they were bare, and to keep their hands up.
Term #3
two hostages are thought to have attempted suicide. Steve Lauterbach became despondent, broke a water glass and slashed his wrists after being locked in a dark basement room of the chancery with his hand tightly bound and aching badly. He was found by guards, rushed to the hospital and patched up.Jerry Miele, an introverted CIA communicator technician, smashed his head into the corner of a door, knocking himself unconscious and cutting a deep gash from which blood poured.
Term #4
After months of negotiations the United States had agreed to release several billion dollars in Iranian gold and bank assets, frozen in American banks just after the seizure of the embassy. The government of Iran, now involved in a war with neighboring Iraq, was desperate for money and therefore seemed willing to release the hostages. The Iranians refused to communicate directly with the president, or any other American, so Algeria had agreed to act as an intermediary.