On April 24, 1980, an ill-fated military operation to rescue the 52 American hostages held in Tehran ends with eight U.S. servicemen dead and no hostages rescued.
With the Iran Hostage Crisis stretching into its sixth month and all diplomatic appeals to the Iranian government ending in failure, President Jimmy Carter ordered the military mission as a last ditch attempt to save the hostages. During the operation, three of eight helicopters failed, crippling the crucial airborne plans. The mission was then canceled at the staging area in Iran, but during the withdrawal one of the retreating helicopters collided with one of six C-130 transport planes, killing eight soldiers and injuring five. The next day, a somber Jimmy Carter gave a press conference in which he took full responsibility for the tragedy. The hostages were not released for another 270 days.
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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 the U.S. for medical treatment, seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran. The Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran’s political and religious leader, took over the hostage situation and agreed to release non-U.S. captives and female and minority Americans, citing these groups as among the people oppressed by the U.S. government. The remaining 52 captives remained at the mercy of the Ayatollah for the next 14 months.
President Carter was unable to diplomatically resolve the crisis, and the April 1980 hostage attempt ended in disaster. Three months later, the former shah died of cancer in Egypt, but the crisis continued. In November, Carter lost the presidential election to Republican Ronald Reagan, and soon after, with the assistance of Algerian intermediaries, successful negotiations began between the United States and Iran. On the day of Reagan’s inauguration, January 20, 1981, the United States freed almost $8 billion in frozen Iranian assets, and the 52 hostages were released after 444 days. The next day, Jimmy Carter flew to West Germany to greet the Americans on their way home.
Let us not forget that Reagan and Bush senior orchestrated a CIA movement to not release the hostages until after the election which was won by Reagan. These hostages most likely would have been released months earlier had the truth come out. Politics proves once again to be the evil web over all of us.
Jimmy Carter could f*** up a one-car funeral — just another example.
This fuckup aside and other fuckups considered, Carter was the best president of my lifetime. Of course that’s not really saying a lot, given the rest.
True, Zar. It’s kind of like saying that one turd is a nicer shade of brown than another one.
The hostages werent released until after the election because those helicopters were shot down.
Carter gave the Iranians an ultimatum “squel to the press and we blow you up”
Notice that Carter didn’t use his WH experience to rack up millions like all the others who followed him (wait till you see how Obummer rakes it in).
Given the nature of the Deep State (and H.W. Bush’s involvement), it would not at all surprise me to learn that these “accidents” that ultimately led to the failure of the mission were not accidents at all. One’s hatred for Carter or love for Reagan (or visa versa) should not undermine the truth that our government is beyond evil, and that the REAL government has nothing to do with the puppet that is elevated to be its front man.
What is amazing is that all this military equipment landed in a country (Iran) without them(the Iranians) even knowing it.
What if the C-130s had unloaded an atomic weapon and just left it to explode? No one would have ever known where it came from.
Iran was a clusterfuck right after the revolution. The officer corps remained loyal to the shah so they were immediately exiled or killed. There was probably nobody even manning their air search radars at the time. This is exactly the reason Saddam Hussein invaded…he saw a golden opportunity to take advantage of the chaos there.
I was too young to really understand global geopolitics at that time but my father swears to this day that Carter was a weak leader and Ronnie being a true patriot cowboy scared the bejesus out of the Ayatollah so he immediately released the hostages upon his inauguration. Me thinks the truth lies somewhere in-between.
Your father was right. As the Romans said “It is better to be feared than loved”.
Carter created the DOEd as a reward to the teachers unions that supported him. The decline of American education, all levels, accelerated as the bureaucracy enforced socialist doctrines as a condition of employment. His handling of the economy can be only described as “incompetent”, while his charisma measured in negative numbers. His bumbling led to the “loss” of both the Panama Canal and Iran, while his weakness inspired opportunists around the globe. Nuclear engineer, huh? Should have stayed in the silent service, would have done less damage there.
History will not be kind to any President, but Carter will burn in infamy when he is evaluated down the years.
My cousin was one of the men injured in the failed Iran Hostage rescue. He was horribly burned. I remember he had pins in his burnt hands, but I don’t know what they were for. I was only a year or two out of high school when this happened.
His name was Jody Beyers. His mother and my mother were sisters. His mother is dead now and Jody himself died about a year and a half or two years ago. Our families were very close but since Jody was in the military, I only got to see him during three of his visits home to see his mother. I don’t recall seeing him when I was younger. But the first time I remember seeing him was after he got out of the hospital following this rescue attempt.
According to his brother, Jody retired from the military. He was last stationed in Florida. Apparently, he was part of the team that flew out to meet any incoming threats from the ocean off of the southeastern and gulf coasts.
I know my aunt and Jody and his family were invited to the White House to meet the president and the president honored the survivors for their service. This was after Reagan became president. I guess it took that long for the injured to recover enough to go the White House.