Humpday History Highlight
By Wyatt Earp | January 20, 2010
January 20, 1981 – Iran Hostage Crisis Ends
Yet another victory for Ronaldus Magnus:
Minutes after Ronald Reagan’s inauguration as the 40th president of the United States, the 52 U.S. captives held at the U.S. embassy in Teheran, Iran, are released, ending the 444-day Iran Hostage Crisis.
On November 4, 1979, the crisis began when militant Iranian students, outraged that the U.S. government had allowed the ousted shah of Iran to travel to New York City for medical treatment, seized the U.S. embassy in Teheran. The Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran’s political and religious leader, took over the hostage situation, refusing all appeals to release the hostages, even after the U.N. Security Council demanded an end to the crisis in an unanimous vote.
President Jimmy Carter was unable to diplomatically resolve the crisis, and on April 24, 1980, he ordered a disastrous rescue mission in which eight U.S. military personnel were killed and no hostages rescued. In November 1980, Carter lost the presidential election to Republican Ronald Reagan. Soon after, with the assistance of Algerian intermediaries, successful negotiations began between the United States and Iran. On the day of Reagan’s inauguration, the United States freed almost $8 billion in frozen Iranian assets, and the hostages were released after 444 days.
The short version is this: The Iranians thought Reagan was a crazy old coot with an itchy nuke trigger finger, so they wet their pants after the inauguration and freed the hostages. Bam!
Topics: HHH | 11 Comments »
Wow….what an un-nuanced cowboy. I bet he’d fit right in with today’s racist, homophobic teabaggers.
/channeling Olberman
//needs to take a shower with a Brillo pad all of a sudden
Interestingly, the same thing happened in 1952 when Ike took over. All of a sudden there was an armistice. I guess it is like the line in the movie Alien when they are debating what to do with the monsters. The marine says “let’s nuke em”.
Kapow! I miss having a president with mondo stones.
Fenway_Nation – There are always remnants left after a channeling. *shudder*
Ralph – Nukes: Nature’s perfect weapon.
RT – Haven’t had one with stones that big since.
We NEED someone like him today that WILL stand up and won’t play PC crap…
I remember that day. I was in fifth grade and we watched the inauguration in math class. Really! In a public school!
I,m surprised that there hasn’t been aninstance of hostage taking since Bam was coronated. That would be the iceing on the cake…
Old NFO – We need a Reagan or a Teddy Roosevelt.
GroovyVic – I remember watching the Challenger launch in school. Terrible day.
JimB – Just Somali pirates, but they take someone every damned day.
Every now and then some leftist will say to me, “Reagan had a deal with the Ayotollah to not release them until he was elected”.
That makes me laugh each time.
You know, cuz all of America’s enemies were happy when Ronnie Raygun was elected.
Embarked in USS Ranger CV61, in ATKRON One Four Five on station in the Northern Arabian Sea on that very date. Be it known, Carrier Air Wing Two was loaded and ready for any operation that would have been ordered.
Basically, we were more than ready to kill Iranians. That was it in a nutshell.
We refer to that deployment as the Jimmie Carter Hostage Crisis Cruise.
Idea. Carpet Bomb all those Mideast capitals of states who use terrorism as a tool of international relations. Or, as Cromwell stated so eloquently………..Kill them all and let God sort them out.
Yes, Veeshir, I remember . Afterward the deal was referred to as “Iran- Contra”. And nobody really got in serious trouble because of it!