Politics

American Politics

President Carter

While the hostage crisis was going on, in America a presidential race was underway.  The crisis in Iran greatly effected the presidential election in 1980.  At first President Carter had the support of the nation, everyone was behind him.  As the days went on the overwhelming support from his country began to dwindle.  Anyone that was on the outside thought that Carter wasn’t working to get the hostages back as much as he should. The truth is that it was a difficult situation to blindly jump into. Rosalynn Carter recalled. "I would go out and campaign and come back and say, 'Why don't you do something?' And he said, 'What would you want me to do?' I said, 'Mine the harbors.' He said, 'Okay, suppose I mine the harbors, and they decide to take one hostage out every day and kill him. What am I going to do then?' The United States, failure to resolve the crisis contributed to Ronald Reagan's defeat of Carter in the presidential election. After the election, with the assistance of Algerian intermediaries, successful negotiations began. On Jan. 20, 1981, the day of President Reagan's inauguration, the United States released almost $8 billion in Iranian assets and the hostages were freed after 444 days in Iranian detention. [1]

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