Iranian Hostage Crisis
Novermber 1979 - January 1981
Taelor Dickerson & Miranda Wukasch
a poster americans put up for hostages
protester protesting aranians
hostages coming home
summary
The Iranians didn't like the Shah of Iran so they kicked him out. The shah was sickened with a cancer, so the United States allowed him in the country for treatment. The Iranians then got very upset. On November 4, 1979 an angry mob of Iranian revolutionaries overthrew the U.S. embassy and took 52 hostages. Since the president, Jimmy Carter refused to return the Shah for trial along with billions of dollars they claimed he had stolen from the Iranian people. The Iranians decided to keep the hostages for 444 days.
Carter took a risk to send troops on a rescue mission (OP Eagle Claw). they failed horribly. the hostages were released minutes after Ronald Reagan's inauguration.
hostage
a person seized or held as security for the fulfillment of a condition.
POW/MIA flag
The POW/MIA flag is an American flag designed as a symbol of citizen concern about US military personnel taken as prisoners of war (POWs) or listed as missing in action (MIA).
operation eagle claw
(or Operation Evening Light or Operation Rice Bowl) was an American military operation ordered by U.S. President Jimmy Carter to attempt to end the Iran hostage crisis by rescuing 52 Americans held captive at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on 24 April 1980. Its failure, and the humiliating public debacle that ensued, damaged American prestige worldwide. Carter and many experts concluded that the failure to free the hostages played a major role in Ronald Reagan's victory in the 1980 U.S. presidential election.