1979 Iranian hostage crisis and what Carter realistically could do

[steve2470]

In 1979 I had tuned out from politics, so I'm ignorant of what realistic options Carter had during that hostage crisis. I understand a military attempt was made but failed. Did he handle it as well as possible ? This is a sincere question. From what I know, he did the best he could, and at least he didn't go crazy and nuke Tehran.

on edit: info below from PBS

Desert One

Finally, with the Iranians showing no signs of releasing the hostages, Carter decided to take a risk. On April 11, 1980 he approved a high-risk rescue operation, called "Desert One," that had been in the works for months. Though the odds were against its success, the president was devastated when he had to abort the mission due to three malfunctioning helicopters. When another helicopter crashed into a C-130 transport plane while taking off, eight servicemen were killed and three more were injured. The next morning, gleeful Iranians broadcast footage of the smoking remains of the rescue attempt, a stark symbol of American impotence.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carter/peopleevents/e_hostage.html

[Nutmegger]

1. Yes I'd like to know too.

Every time I encounter some RW nutjob, they have such hatred for Carter and his handling of the situation.

From what I know, he did everything he could.

Edit: To please the grammar nazi gods. :)

[bookman]

2. The biggest mistake..

..the "military" option.

He was talked into that. American people felt frustrated. Carter did want them back alive. Repugs cut a deal behind the Carter administrations back.

[BayCityProgressive]

3. perhaps the US shouldn't

have allowed the Shah into our country...

[Webster Green]

4. Some say that Poppy Bush had the rescue mission sabotaged..

Leading to the deaths of the servicemen. I believe that is true.

Typical traitorous BFEE stuff. Party before country everytime!

[mile18blister]

7. From what I remember

The mother of one of the hostages, in defiance of the US government, went to Tehran and briefly saw her son. Her visit delayed the rescue mission, which reportedly failed at least in part due to a freak sandstorm. This is really digging into my memories of watching "Nightline". It wouldn't surprise me if Poppy had a role in this, now I'll believe almost anything about him. In 1979, I would have never believed anyone in America would deliberately prolong the crisis. If there is one person who I could pick to make a complete deathbed confession, it would have to be Poppy.

[baldguy]

12. "deliberately prolong the crisis"

That's exactly what William Casey did on behalf of Reagan.

[independentpiney]

9. Some say?

No better coming from a DUer than Fox or Katie Couric.

[Webster Green]

13. Yeah, I know...It was kind of a tongue in cheek remark....OK?

Nevertheless, I don't doubt that it is true.

[juno jones]

5. I'm beginning

to suspect that Carter was intentionally kept out of the loop by the CIA, thus was unable to make important decisions properly. There is on old story about Carter asking Poppy for any info the intelligence companies had on UFO's. Poppy supposedly told Carter that the president was not cleared for that kind of secret. Even if the story is apocryphal, it illustrates what might well have been Poppy's attitude towards Carter and the democrats. Carter suffered from horrible and distorted intelligence supplied by Poppy and the CIA, the end result to make the democrats look incapable when it came to the military...

edit:sp.

[MnFats]

6. Reagan's people told Iran to do nothing until they were in office.

it's true.
Reaganites assured Iran they'd get a better deal if they did nothing until Reagan won election.
They did -- Reagan got to pummel Carter with the idea he was ineffectual handling the hostage crisis; Iran started to get arms secretly from u.s. not long after.
this is no conspiracy nut stuff....Reagan was that reckless and cynical, as he amply demonstrated through the remainder of his presidency.

[no_hypocrisy]

8. It started with the CIA either having information and sitting on it or not having

the information about Iranian society and its shifting sands. A lot of citzens were persecuted under the Shah, the ruler of OUR choice (thus, already resentment by having their democratically elected leader supplanted). Next, very members of the American Embassy spoke and understood Farsi, the language of Iranians, and thus cut off from the country they were in. Next, there was a backlash against the Shah and a simultaneous return to religious fundamentalism focused on an exile in Paris, Ayatollah Khomeini. When the Shah was forced out of his country, the U.S. was caught between loyalty to him and wanting to stabilize the situation. It chose the Shah. Khomeini returned to Iran in triumph and the Shah was now the exile. And the Shah became seriously ill and needed treatment. He chose to be treated in a New York hospital. That made the already agitated Iran go batshit as it was seen as offering him refuge from their call for his return for their desire for retribution.

And it was at this point the hostages were taken by "students" when the American Embassy was taken over.

Carter's first priority was their safety from harm, even if it meant waiting, waiting, waiting. He was hamstrung diplomatically as non-Persian/Arab countries could not or would not intervene on our behalf. He was on his own. The CIA, as we now know, had a dual loyalty to Carter (not that much) and to other authorities (represented by GHWB and later, Reagan). He could have stormed with the Marines, started a regional war involving other countries with Muslim populations with the potential of some, if not all of the hostages killed and/or harmed. And the world was watching, to see if the U.S., a superpower, would blink first. He did decide on Desert One. There is a debate whether it was ill-conceived and never would have succeeded or whether the elements of the region doomed it to failure in its execution.

Carter knew that doing everything he could which in turn could appear to look like he was not doing anything or enough, was the death of his political legitimacy and legacy. But he chose to do whatever it took to keep the hostages alive, no matter what. And he didn't have WH weekly briefings to remind the country of his self sacrifice. He took a lot of hits. I believe there was some diplomacy in secrecy with other countries but they were not persuasive in softening the new government in Iran.

It really boiled down to the definition of a "successful" resolution of the situation: getting the hostages out of Iran safe and alive, or proving to the world and Iran that no country messed with the U.S. and try to humiliate us. I think Carter did the right thing under the circumstances by getting the hostages out alive.

[Colobo]

10. So we can say, based on what has been said here

That Carter did handle the situation poorly, but mainly because of being surrounded by incompetence and political hacks?

[zbdent]

11. Anybody remember the USSR? They were poised to take over

the Middle East had Carter tried a real military type solution like W's ... remember, the USSR was not the bankrupted chaos that its former states are now that the only other "superpower" decided to overthrow a sovereign nation ...

[steve2470]

14. anyone else want to add to this ? nt

[Lydia Leftcoast]

15. Yes, according to CARTER HIMSELF (I heard him speak in the late 1980s)

he had consulted with people who were experts on Iranian culture, and they told him that the culture required people to respond to direct public challenges by doing the opposite. To acquiesce to a public demand meant that you had lost your "honor." Therefore, the culturally accepted way was to negotiate through intermediaries.

He said that his number one priority was to keep the hostages alive and well, so he went word through diplomatic back channels (via the ambassadors of several different countries) to tell the Iranians that he would bomb Tehran if any of the hostages were harmed. However, he couldn't release this information publicly.

Shortly after that, one of the hostages developed neurological symptoms, and the Iranians sent him home. He turned out to have multiple sclerosis, but the Iranians didn't want to risk his having something immediately fatal (a fast-growing tumor, an aneurysm, etc.) and dying in captivity.

Carter said it was extremely frustrating to have the media nipping at him all the time about "not doing anything" when he couldn't give the details publicly.

I fully believe that the Reaganites also worked behind the scenes to delay the release of the hostages. No way was the release date (the day of Reagan's inauguration) coincidental.

[Lisa]

16. I always thought it was unfair that Carter was blamed for everything

He could easily have put it on someone else (the military, the CIA) -- and from what I've seen in this thread, there would be a stronger case for claiming incompetence or malice afoot than, say, the situations that Bush has grasped at! Perhaps JC didn't want to undermine public confidence in those other institutions.

It bothered me that the hostages were released so quickly afterwards. At the time, I'd wondered if he had deliberately gone about a "good cop, bad cop" strategy (to save lives even if it made the Reaganites look strong) -- but I started to get really suspicious when I found out about Iran-Contra.

[Hippo_Tron]

17. He could've started dropping bombs on Tehran

Which is what Reagan attacked him for not doing. Carter was amazingly patient and diplomatic and the hostages were released without having to start a war because of his patience. Unfortunately patience and diplomacy don't win you an election.

In hindsight I would probably go back to 1980 and tell Carter to bomb Tehran simply to beat Reagan in the election. If Reagan hadn't been elected, the leaders of today's Republic Party would still be considered batshit crazy and George W Bush would be sitting on his ranch drinking his brains out.

Desert One failed because our special forces aren't nearly what they are today. Such a rescue mission would have a much greater chance of success if carried out now.