Hostage Barry Rosen, age 34
The
Iran hostage crisis was a
diplomatic crisis between
Iran and the
United States where 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981, after a group of
Islamist students and militants took over the American Embassy in support of the
Iranian Revolution.
The episode reached a climax when, after failed attempts to negotiate a release, the United States military attempted a rescue operation,
Operation Eagle Claw, on April 24, 1980, which resulted in a failed mission, the destruction of two aircraft and the deaths of eight American servicemen and one Iranian civilian. It ended with the signing of the
Algiers Accords in
Algeria on January 19, 1981. The hostages were formally released into United States custody the following day, just minutes after the new American president
Ronald Reagan was sworn in.
The crisis has been described as an entanglement of "vengeance and mutual incomprehension".
In Iran, the hostage taking was widely seen as a blow against the U.S, and its influence in Iran, its perceived attempts to undermine the Iranian Revolution, and its long-standing support of the
Shah of Iran, recently overthrown by the revolution. The Shah had been restored to power in a 1953
coup organized by the
CIA at the American Embassy against a democratically-elected nationalist Iranian government,
and had recently been allowed into the United States for medical treatment. In the United States, the hostage-taking was seen as an outrage violating a centuries-old principle of international law granting
diplomats immunity from arrest and diplomatic compounds are considered
inviolable.
The crisis has also been described as the "pivotal episode" in the history of
Iran – United States relations.
In the U.S., some political analysts believe the crisis was a major reason for
U.S. President Jimmy Carter's defeat in the November 1980
presidential election.
In Iran, the crisis strengthened the prestige of the
Ayatollah Khomeini and the political power of those who supported theocracy and opposed any normalization of relations with the West.
The crisis also marked the beginning of U.S. legal action, or economic
sanctions against Iran, that further weakened economic ties between Iran and the United States.