Causes Of The Iranian Hostage Crisis

On November 4th 1979, the United States Embassy located in Tehran, Iran was attacked by a brutal mob, almost three thousand members in total. These armed men, including radicalized Muslim engineering and medical students, after a quick siege, captured sixty-six American men and women. Against their will, military and embassy personnel were taken and placed under the control of Iranian militants. Hostilities had been growing between Iran and the United States for many decades as Iranians became increasingly opposed to America’s political, economic and cultural interference in their country. The spark that ignited the Iranian Hostage Crisis occurred when Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, was allowed to come to the United States to receive cancer treatment in New York City. After the students found out about this, they wanted to force the extraction of the Shah from the United States; they decided to demonstrate outside the embassy which led to the capture of sixty- six

The ordeal lasted for four hundred and forty four days, while some were released; fifty two Americans remained in Iran as captives. United States president, Jimmy Carter, decided to restrict trading with Iran, considering he terminated oil imports from Iran on November 12, 1979. This was an extremely tense situation; therefore, President Jimmy Carter wanted to do his best to get the hostages back with very little violence. American citizens were irate with President Carter, claiming he didn’t do enough to get the hostages back faster. On the day President Reagan took office, January 20, 1980, all the hostages were released. The Iranians knew President Reagan would use strong force and persuasion, unlike President Carter who efforts were unsuccessful. With stronger leadership from President Carter, the Iran Hostage Crisis could have been