Part 5, Chapter 34 Summary

Before dawn on November 4, 1979, the U.S. State Department began to receive a stream of increasingly urgent messages from Tehran: "We're going down." A mob had surrounded the embassy, forcing its way inside and threatening to kill Americans. After the skeleton staff of 63 was paraded out and blindfolded, they let 13 of the hostages go. The "students" had seized the embassy to protest Carter's reluctant decision, on October 23, to admit the Shah to the U.S. for medical attention unavailable in Mexico. Bazargan suspected a plot, and young militants, remembering Mossadegh's CIA-engineered downfall, took steps to prevent a repeat. For 444 days, "Americans in Captivity" filled the media. Carter realized, "they have us by the balls." The situation worsened as Islamic fundamentalists rioted in Mecca and al-Hasa, threatening the U.S.'s only remaining regional ally, the Saudis. At that point, the Soviet...