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Nearly 30 years prior to the  hostage crisis in Iran is where it all began. The American and British corporations had shared control over the majority of Iran's mass amounts of oil since its discovery. And America had no desire to give up its grip on the country's oil reserves. In 1951, a newly elected, nationalist prime minister Mohammad Mossadegh, wanted to nationalize the oil reserves of the nation. As a result, the American C.I.A. and British intelligence service devised a plan to force Mossadegh from power.

Mohammad Mossadegh

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The installation was known as Operation TP-Ajax. The American and British services installed a coup that successfully removed Mossadegh from power, and installed a pro-Western, anti-communist leader and government. The new leader's name was Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, and in exchange for millions of dollars in Western financing, returned 80% of Iran's oil reserves to America and Britain.

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To America, the coup was a huge success and inspired multiple other undercover operations such as the Bay of Pigs in Cuba. However, to Iranians the coup was an example of American intervention in internal affairs. The Shah's government was extremely dictatorial and brutal, and with his secret police, the Shah tortured and killed thousands of people. While the government was spending billions on American weapons; Iran's economy was suffering.

An Image of Mohammad Reza Shah

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By  the 1970s, many Iranians were fed up with Western involvement and the rising leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, seemed to promise a different rule than the past had held. The Ayatollah forced the Shah to get rid of his government and exiled the Shah to Egypt. Ayatollah replaced the Shah's government with a militant Islamic government. After his exile, the Shah turned to the U.S. Jimmy Carter, president at the time, had not defended his former ally due to fear of further hostilities in the Middle East. However, Jimmy Carter did allow for the former leader to enter the United States to receive help for an advanced form of leukemia. This caused the explosion of Anti-American feelings in Iran.

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On November 4, just after the Shah arrived in New York, a group of students in Iran destroyed the gates and scaled the walls of the American Embassy in Iran. They captured 66 hostages in the building at the time, most being diplomats and embassy employees. 13 hostages were later released by the Ayatollah, (mostly African Americans, women, and members of other countries) as he saw them as victims of American Society's oppression. Later, a 14th was released due to health issues leaving 52 hostages still in the compound.

The hostages blindfolded in front of cameras

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The fate of the hostages was always uncertain. Many feared for their life, and although they were never seriously harmed, they were subjected to many forms of terrifying treatment. The hostages were paraded around with blindfolds on and the events were televised. Hostages were not allowed to read or talk, and were rarely allowed to change clothes.

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In April 1980, President Carter began getting fed up with unsuccessful diplomacies. And he set in order a covert military operation to rescue the hostages in the embassy despite advisory against the action from his colleagues. On the day of the rescue , a severe sandstorm struck the area causing several helicopters to malfunction and the deaths of 8 American servicemen. The operation was aborted.

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The result of many failed diplomacies and the failed operation showed that President Carter was a weak leader. And with most of his time being focused on the hostage crisis he had no time to focus on re-election. As a result, the California governor, Ronald Reagan, took advantage of Carter's struggles and on the day of the election Reagan defeated Carter by a landslide. Just hours after giving his inaugural address, the remaining hostages in Iran were released, 444 days after their initial capture.

Ronald Reagan giving his Inauguration Speech

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I was really quite surprised about how much information there was on this topic. Nonetheless I really enjoyed doing this project. I have always heard about the event in history but never really understood it or even took the time to learn about it. I think that's the reason I chose to do this project, and I'm glad that I did choose to.

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Below is a link to my Works Cited.