Gordon Carrera

And we should say, at this point, things are getting tense in Iran.

I mean, a key factor, isn't it, that the Shah has been allowed into the U.S.,

to receive medical treatment because he's got cancer.

That decision by the Carter administration has ratcheted up the protests which are going on against the United States.

A few days before, a thousand demonstrators and more had marched around the embassy walls shouting, death to America, death to Jimmy Carter, had been scrawled on the walls.

This day, this Sunday that we're talking about, around 10 a.m.

that morning, you get a crowd, don't you, who are deciding that they're actually going to take action.

I think they're described as militant students.

I mean, most students are militants, I think.

But I think that has a slightly different meaning in 1979 Tehran.

Yes, and it is worth saying that because they will become, in a way, the visible face at the time of the hostages, those 52 of them who stay for so long blindfolded, paraded for cameras.

I think we should dive deeper into this story maybe another time and what's going on with it because it's also fascinating politics around it in Washington because it has a huge impact, I think, on the Jimmy Carter administration, these mock executions.

But as you say, these are not the hostages that you're looking for.

It's not about those hostages.

It's about six others, six other diplomats who are in a separate building.

And that fact that they're in a separate building on the other side of the embassy compound, the consular section, the bit that basically distributes visas for people who want to visit the United States, that means they have the opportunity to see what's happening in the main embassy

and escape, isn't it?

Where do you go?

In a chaotic city full of mobs out to get Americans, where do you go?

I mean, the obvious answer is you try and find friendly people who might shelter you.