[Part of Constituting America’s 90 Day Study - Days that Shaped America]
The long tragic road to the September 11, 2001 terror attacks began with President Jimmy Carter, and his administration’s, involvement in the Iranian Revolution, and their fundamentally weak response to the Iranian Hostage Crisis.
The Iranian
Hostage Crisis was the most visible act of the Iranian Revolution. Starting on November 4, 1979, and lasting for
444 days, 52 Americans were imprisoned in brutal conditions. The world watched as the Carter
Administration repeatedly failed to free the hostages, both through bumbling
diplomacy and the rescue attempt fiasco.
The
result was the crippling of U.S. influence throughout the Middle East and the spawning
of radical Islamic movements that terrorize the world to this day.
Islam’s
three major sects, Sunni, Shiite, and Sufi, all harbor the seeds of violence
and hatred. In 1881 a Sufi mystic
ignited the Mahdi Revolt in the Sudan leading to eighteen years of death and
misery throughout the upper Nile. During
World War II, the Sunni Grand Mufti of Jerusalem befriended Hitler and helped
Heinrich Himmler form Islamic Stormtrooper units to kill Jews in the Balkans.
After
World War II, Islam secularized as mainstream leaders embraced Western economic
interests to tap their vast oil and gas reserves. Activists became embroiled in the Middle
East’s Cold War chess board, aiding U.S. or Soviet interests.
The
Iranian Revolution changed that. Through
the success of the Iranian Revolution, Islamic extremists of all sects embraced
the words of Shiite Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini:
“If the form of
government willed by Islam were to come into being, none of the governments now
existing in the world would be able to resist it; they would all capitulate.”
Islamic
dominance became an end in and of itself.
This
did not have to happen at all.
Iran
has been a pivotal regional player for 2,500 years. The Persian Empire was the bane of ancient
Greece. As the Greek Empire withered,
Persia, later Iran, remained a political, economic, and cultural force. This is
why their 1979 Revolution and subsequent confrontation with the U.S. inspired
radicals throughout the Islamic world to become the Taliban, ISIS and other
terrorists of today.
Iran’s
modern history began as part of the East-West conflict following World War
II. The Soviets heavily influenced and
manipulated Iran’s first elected government.
On August 19, 1953, British and America intelligence toppled that
government and returned Shah Modammad Reza to power.
“The
Shah” as he became know globally, was reform minded. He launched his “White Revolution” to build a
modern, pro-West, pro-capitalist Iran in 1963.
The Shah’s “Revolution” built the region’s largest middle class, and broke
centuries of tradition by enfranchising women.
It was opposed by many traditional powers, including fundamentalist
Islamic leaders like the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Khomeini’s agitation for violent opposition to
the Shah’s reforms led to his arrest and exile.
Throughout his reign,
the Shah was vexed by radical Islamic and communist agitation. His secret
police brutally suppressed fringe dissidents.
This balancing act between western reforms and control worked well, with
a trend towards more reforms as the Shah aged.
The Shah enjoyed warm relationships with American Presidents of both
parties and was rewarded with lavish military aid.
That was to change in
1977.
From the beginning, the
Carter Administration expressed disdain for the Shah. President Carter pressed for the release of
political prisoners. The Shah complied, allowing many radicals the freedom to
openly oppose him.
Not satisfied with the
pace or breadth of the Shah’s human rights reforms, Carter envoys began a
dialogue with the Ayatollah Khomeini, first at his home in Iraq
and more intensely when he moved to a Paris suburb.
Indications
that the U.S. was souring on the Shah emboldened dissidents across the
political spectrum to confront the regime.
Demonstrations, riots, and general strikes began to destabilize the Shah
and his government. In response, the
Shah accelerated reforms. This was
viewed as weakness by the opposition.
The
Western media, especially the BBC, began to promote the Ayatollah as a moderate
alternative to the Shah’s “brutal regime”. The Ayatollah assured U.S.
intelligence operatives and State Department officials that he would only be the
“figure head” for a western parliamentary system.
During the fall of 1978, strikes and demonstrations paralyzed the country. The
Carter Administration, led by Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and U.S. Ambassador
to Iran William Sullivan, coalesced around abandoning the Shah and helping
install Khomeini, who they viewed as a “moderate clergyman” who would be Iran’s
“Ghandi-like” spiritual leader.
Time and political
capital were running out. On January 16, 1979, The Shah, after arranging for an
interim government, resigned and went into exile.
The balance of power now
remained with the Iranian Military.
While the Shah was
preparing for his departure, General Robert Huyser, Deputy Commander of NATO
and his top aides, arrived in Iran. They
were there to neutralize the military leaders.
Using ties of friendship, promises of aid, and assurance of safety, Huyser
and his team convinced the Iranian commanders to allow the transitional
government to finalize arrangements for Khomeini becoming part of the new
government. Many of these Iranian
military leaders, and their families, were slaughtered as Khomeini and his
Islamic Republican Guard toppled the transitional government and seized power
during the Spring of 1979. “It was a most
despicable act of treachery, for which I will always be ashamed” admitted one
NATO general years later.
While
Iran was collapsing, so were America’s intelligence capabilities.
One of
President Carter’s earliest appointments was placing Admiral Stansfield Turner
in charge of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Turner immediately eviscerated the Agency’s
human intelligence and clandestine units.
He felt they had gone “rogue” during the Nixon-Ford era. He also thought electronic surveillance and
satellites could do as good a job.
Turner’s
actions led to “one of the most consequential strategic surprises that the United States
has experienced since the CIA was established in 1947” – missing the real
intent of the Iranian Revolution, and anticipating the Embassy Takeover and
Hostage Crisis.
The radicalization of
Iran occurred at lightning speed. Khomeini
and his lieutenants remade Iran’s government and society into a totalitarian
fundamentalist Islamic state. Anyone who
opposed their Islamic Revolution were driven into exile, imprisoned, or killed.
Khomeini’s earlier
assurances of moderation and working with the West vanished. Radicalized mobs turned their attention to eradicating all
vestiges of the West. This included the
U.S. Embassy.
The first attack on
the U.S. Embassy occurred on the morning of February 14, 1979. Coincidently, this was the same day that Adolph
Dubs, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, was kidnapped and fatally shot by
Muslim extremists in Kabul. In Tehran,
Ambassador Sullivan surrendered the U.S. Embassy and was able to resolve the
occupation within hours through negotiations with the Iranian Foreign Minister.
Despite this attack,
and the bloodshed in Kabul, nothing was done to either close the Tehran
Embassy, reduce personnel, or strengthen its defenses. During the takeover, Embassy personnel failed
to burn sensitive document as their furnaces malfunctioned. They installed cheaper paper shredders. During the 444-day occupation, rug weavers
were employed to reconstruct the sensitive shredded documents, creating global
embarrassment of America.
Starting in September
1979, radical students began planning a more extensive assault on the
Embassy. This included daily
demonstrations outside the U.S. Embassy to trigger an Embassy security
response. This allowed organizers to
assess the size and capabilities of the Embassy security forces.
On
November 4, 1979, one of the demonstrations erupted into an all-out conflict by
the Embassy’s Visa processing public entrance. The assault leaders deployed
approximately 500 students. Female
students hid metal cutters under their robes, which were used to breach the
Embassy gates.
Khomeini was in a meeting
outside of Tehran and did not have prior knowledge of the takeover. He immediately issued a statement of support,
declaring it “the second revolution” and the U.S. Embassy an “America spy den
in Tehran”.
What followed was an
unending ordeal of terror and depravation for the 66 hostages, who through
various releases, were reduced to a core of 52.
The 2012 film “Argo” chronicled the audacious escape of six Americans
who had been outside the U.S. Embassy at the time of the takeover.
ABC News began a nightly
update on the hostage drama. This became
“Nightline”. During the 1980
Presidential campaign, it served as a nightly reminder of the ineffectiveness
of President Carter.
On April 24, 1980, trying
to break out of this chronic crisis, Carter initiated an ill-conceived, and poorly
executed, rescue mission called Operation Eagle Claw. It ended with crashed helicopters and eight
dead soldiers at the staging area outside of the Iranian Capital, designated
Desert One. Another attempt was made
through diplomacy as part of a hoped for “October Surprise”, but the Iranians cancelled
the deal just as planes were being mustered at Andrews Air Force Base.
Carter paid the price
for his Iranian duplicity. On November 4, 1980, Ronald Reagan obliterated Carter
in the worst defeat suffered by an incumbent President since Herbert Hoover in
1932.
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