Iranian Hostage Crisis By: Josh Dunham and Anna Moody

Iranian Hostage Crisis Overview

Background Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi was king of Iran Became a big ally for the west His rule provoked both religious leaders who feared losing their traditional authority and students and intellectuals seeking democratic reforms Iran already had a bad relationship with the US because we were allies with the Soviets and Britain during WWII They hated Shah’s father because he was the one that turned Iran over to the British and Soviets during WWII During WWII the Soviets and Britain occupied Iran by force There was a huge revolution that took place a couple years before the whole Iranian hostage crisis

The Causes Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavis was overthrown after an Iranian Revolution by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini Shah flees to the US and Carter gives Shah cancer treatments Made the Iranians mad because they wanted Shah to come back so they could put him on trial Then Ayatollah becomes the supreme leader

What happened November 4, 1979, 66 US citizens were seized by 500 Muslim students inside the US embassy in Tehran. All the woman and African American’s were set free and so the number decreases to 52 hostages. Ayatollah made a statement in support of the action against the American “den of spies.” Carter applied economic pressure by halting oil imports from Iran. The US security council passes a resolution calling for Iran to release the hostages. President Carter cuts diplomatic ties with Iran, announcing further sanctions and ordering all Iranian diplomats to leave the United States.

Canadian Caper During the seizure of the US Embassy 6 Americans walked out and hid before the embassy was destroyed. They hid for four days before returning to the Canadian Embassy in which the CIA is contacted and plans a secret mission known as the “Canadian Caper.”

Desert One After the Iranian’s showed no signs of releasing the hostages Jimmy Carter launched a high-risk operation called “desert One.” After one helicopter crashed into a c-130 transport plane due to a sandstorm, Jimmy Carter is forced to abort the mission. Eight servicemen were killed and 3 more injured.

How it ended The death of shah in Egypt and the invasion of Iran by Iraq made the Iranians more receptive to resolving the hostage crisis Because of all these failed attempts Ronald Reagan wins the next election and successful negotiations begin The day of Ronald Reagan’s inauguration the US released almost $8 billion in Iranian assets and the hostages were freed after 444 days in Iranian detention, the agreement gave Iran immunity from lawsuits arising from the incident

The Results All hostages made it home Reagan became president Our relationship with Iran was never the same In 2000, the hostages and their families tried to sue Iran but was unsuccessful because the US did not want to further anger the Iranians It solidified the control of Iran by a radical Islamic theocracy that is a sworn enemy of the United States. They have been named a state sponsor of terrorism by the U.S. State department since 01/19/84 because of their support of Islamic terror groups around the world.

Why is this important? To understand why are relationship with Iran is as it is today Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became president in 2005 because of the outcome of the Iranian Hostage Crisis

Sources https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/short-history/iraniancrises http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/15/world/meast/iran-hostage-crisis-fast-facts/ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/carter-hostage-crisis/ http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/Middleeastweb/factfile/Unique-facts-MiddleEast9.htm http://humn410groupc-jan11.wikispaces.com/Outcomes