Iran–United States Hostage Crisis | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

On 4 November 1979, a group of Iranian students occupied the U.S. embassy compound in Tehran and took U.S. diplomats hostage. This event was a major turning point in American-Iranian relations in the period following the Iranian Revolution earlier that year. The causes of the hostage crisis are rooted in the late 1970s political environment.

The Islamic Revolution had heralded the end of the monarchy in Iran. The shah had left the country at the urging of the prime minister, Shapour Bakhtiar (1935–1991). This paved the way for Ayatollah Khomeini (1900–1989) to return to Iran from his exile in France and establish the Islamic Republic. Anti-American sentiments were high, encouraged by Ayatollah Khomeini, who spoke of the United States as the Great Satan and fueled people's anger at foreign intervention in Iran.

Iranian history had been replete with foreign interference in national economic and political affairs, commencing with the Russians and British and then the Americans. However, the government of the prime minister Mehdi Bazargan (1907–1994) continued to maintain a working relationship with the United States, procuring military equipment and receiving U.S. intelligence reports concerning Soviet and Iraqi activities in Iran.

In a pivotal moment in October 1979, the United States allowed the shah to enter the country to receive medical treatment. This news was received skeptically and violently by the Iranian people. They believed the shah was trying to secure American support to regain power in Iran as he had done in 1953 in an American-engineered coup. Khomeini and hundreds of thousands of Iranians, who marched in Tehran on 1 November 1979, demanded the extradition of the shah. Unfortunately for Premier Bazargan, on that very day, he was meeting with the U.S. national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski in Algiers and was lambasted in the Iranian press for it.

Three days later, the U.S. embassy was occupied by young men who called themselves Students of the Imam Line, a reference to the ayatollah's ideas and policies. The students took sixty-six American diplomats as hostages. Bazargan tried to secure the release of the hostages, even pleading with Khomeini for his support, to no avail. Two days later, disillusioned with his powerlessness, Bazargan resigned. No one replaced him at that time. Elections were held in January 1980, and Abolhasan Bani-Sadr (b. 1931) was elected president.

Bani-Sadr also tried to resolve the hostage situation but found his efforts thwarted at every turn. In one instance, he contacted the United Nations to request that a commission be set up to investigate Iranian grievances, in return for the hostages being turned over to the Revolutionary Council as a first step toward their final release. On 23 February 1980, just one day before the UN commission was due to arrive, however, Ayatollah Khomeini vetoed this plan by proclaiming that only the majlis (parliament), which had yet to be elected, had the power to determine the fate of the hostages. In another instance, Bani-Sadr hoped to resolve the situation by arranging the extradition of the shah from Panama, where he had relocated after his medical treatment in the United States. However, these plans were soon foiled when the shah managed to flee to Egypt on 23 March 1980, thus avoiding extradition and dashing Bani-Sadr's hopes of ending the crisis.

Meanwhile, Washington was putting the pressure on Tehran as well. Financial restrictions were exerted on the country when President Jimmy Carter (b. 1924) froze all Iranian assets held in American banks (over $12 billion) on 14 November 1979, soon after the hostages were taken. Then, in April 1980, President Carter authorized a risky rescue attempt, which involved landing aircraft and troops in deserts near Tabas in eastern Iran. The ambitious covert operation failed when two of the helicopters developed mechanical difficulties, leading the commander to abort the mission. A helicopter and a transport aircraft collided, causing eight American service men to die. The political fallout of this disaster operation undoubtedly cost President Carter his reelection and intensified already strained ties with Tehran, which consequently delayed the release of hostages further.

Furthermore, this failed rescue mission resulted in a purge of the Iranian military, since some revolutionary leaders suspected that military officers might have helped the Americans escape radar detection as they entered Iranian air space. Bani-Sadr was, however, powerless to stop the military purging; his effectiveness was compromised at every turn. For instance, he was forced to accept the majlis's choice for prime minister, Mohammad Ali Rajai (1934–1981). Major political and personality differences prevented Bani-Sadr and Rajai from working as a team in resolving the crisis.

Through a diplomat in West Germany, the Rajai government let the United States know that it was now serious about negotiations to bring about the release of the hostages. One reason for this sudden shift in the hard-liners' attitude toward negotiations was the fact that Iran found itself in an imposed war with Iraq in September 1980.

Therefore, constructive negotiations began in earnest on 14 September 1980. However, the release of the hostages did not take place until 20 January 1981, which coincided with the inauguration of President Ronald Reagan (b. 1911) as president. Some believe the timing was no accident; Khomeini might not have wanted Carter to be credited with the release of the hostages. In return for the freedom of the hostages, the United States was to release the frozen Iranian funds held in American banks. Iran agreed to honor its loan commitments to the United States and to put $1 billion aside pending the resolution of claims made against Iran by U.S. companies, to be reviewed by the International Court of Justice.

Although the hostage crisis was settled peacefully, it served to strain Iranian relations with some other states. Some in Iran believed the settlement put Iran at a disadvantage financially and politically. In addition, it furthered antagonized the professional relations between Bani-Sadr and the Rajai government, since Bani-Sadr had been left out of the negotiations. Finally, this peaceful resolution did not, unfortunately, remove the tension and antagonism between the United States and Iran. These undercurrents have remained and are only recently ameliorating.

Bill, James A. (1988) The Eagle and the Lion: The Tragedy of American-Iranian Relations. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Kreisberg, Paul H., ed. (1985) American Hostages in Iran: The Conduct of a Crisis. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Milani, Mohsen M. (1994) The Making of Iran's Islamic Revolution: From Monarchy to the Islamic Republic. 2d ed. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Sick, Gary. (1985) All Fall Down: America's Tragic Encounter with Iran. New York: Random House.

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