Hostage Situation
The Capture
On November 4, 1976, the US Embassy building in Teheran, Iran was captured by about 500 or so radical students who referred to themselves as Imam’s Disciples. These students were enraged over the US governments involvement with the medical conditions of there last shah’s health. The former shah over Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi was diagnosed with cancer. Once this was publicly known he asked for the US to help. He asked to be allowed into the country for medical treatment. The US President, Jimmy Carter, was unsure of how to respond, but once Pahlavi’s illness worsened Carter stepped in. This caused a lot of trouble for any Americans in Iran. Some radical Iranians responded by taking 66 Americans hostage at the US embassy in Iran. The radical Iranian students demanded that until the shah was brought back to Iran for trial they wouldn’t release any hostages. They also felt that the US owed them a few billion dollars that they claimed was taken from them. On November 17 the Iranians announced that female, African American, and non-U.S.-citizen hostages would be released, because women and minorities already suffered "the oppression of American society, so now 53 hostages remained captured. After Iran had released 17 women, African American, and non-U.S.-citizen hostages one white male became Severely ill, and was also released from captivity. For the next 444 days, the 52 American citizens were held hostage in three places. First was the American Embassy in Teheran, second was the Iran Foreign Ministry building, and the third and final place the hostages were kept at the Teymour Bakhtiari mansion. [1]
