The Iranian hostage crisis had an enormous influence on the presidential election of 1980. The secret contacts between the Reagan campaign and the Iranians affected lives and political events. Individuals within the government worked actively with members of the Reagan campaign to manipulate the outcome of the 1980 election. The organized group of individuals inside and outside the elected government of the United States set up an alternative and private foreign policy with Israel and Iran without the knowledge of the Carter administration. These secret contacts led to secret deals with the Iranians, and eventually led to the election of Ronald Regan as president of the United States.

On November 4, 1979, a mob of Iranian students took control of the United States Embassy in Tehran (Sick 15). The students had been planning the take over for weeks and knew everything they had to know about the embassy in order to get passed...