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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hello, everyone. And we have some unbelievably exciting news for you all.
Tom, if anything, you are underselling it because this is truly spectacular. On the 4th and 5th of July this year, we are going to be hosting the inaugural Rest is History Festival out of all places, Hampton Court Palace. And crucially, this is just for the people who mean most to us. That is the members of the Rest Is History Club.
Tom, am I right? You are so right, Dominic. So if you want to access tickets for the festival, then you will need to become a member of the Rest Is History Club, which is so easy to do. All you have to do is go to therestishistory.com and it's a matter of seconds.
OK, so remember, by becoming a member of the Restless History Club, you will be able to enter that much prized ballot for tickets to this thrilling festival. But of course, on top of that, you'll get all our episodes ad free. You will get early access to our epic series. You will get weekly bonus episodes. You will get access to our exciting new exclusive miniseries.
Most of all, you'll get an entree to our much-loved chat community and many more such exciting benefits.
So if you want guaranteed access to two tickets, you can join the very top tier of the club and become an Athelstan. You will also get the exclusive opportunity to upgrade to a VIP ticket, which includes a range of special perks, including, and this is so exciting, unlimited food,
and unlimited drink so go to therestishistory.com and sign up immediately it is going to be the most extraordinary weekend there'll be talks there will be thrilling special guests there will be historically themed music there'll be all kinds of treats there'll be all kinds of action there might even be some battles but above all it'll be a time for friendship
to get to know your fellow members and to get to know Tom and me in a very, very special place, Hampton Court Palace.
And I know that I speak for Dominic as well as for myself when I say we cannot wait to see you there. Like in the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate, we Muslim students, followers of Imam Khomeini, have occupied the Espionage Embassy of America in protest against the ploys of the imperialists and the Zionists.
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Chapter 2: What events led to the storming of the American Embassy in Iran?
This is the Tuileries. of the Iranian revolution. The den of spies, as they called it, the centre of counter-revolutionary intrigue. So the U.S. Embassy, to give people a sense of the place, because it's so important, it's a two-story brick building. It was finished in 1951. It's in this kind of wooded compound.
Americans used to say it looks just like a high school, and it kind of does when you look at photos of it. It looks like the high school in Stranger Things or something. Or The Simpsons. Or indeed The Simpsons, exactly. Or indeed any American TV series. So because of the relationship with the Shah, The U.S. Diplomatic Corps always knew the embassy might be a target.
And actually, they were first attacked on Christmas Eve 1978, before the Shah had even left. There was a crowd outside the compound, and they were repelled by U.S. Marine Guards with tear gas and by an Iranian army unit, then loyal to the Shah, which defended the U.S. embassy. Then after the Shah has gone and the Ayatollah has returned, there is a second attack on the 14th of February 1979.
So this is in the context of the sort of chaos in the streets, the street battles after Khomeini's return. And this was much more serious. So this time the attack was led by Islamic militants with automatic weapons. At the time, Ambassador William Sullivan, people may remember him. He's a Serbic. He has white bouffant hair. He's always arguing with the White House. he handled it really well.
He said to the Marines, hold your fire. Don't shoot back against these blokes. Retreat to the Chancery building, put down some tear gas, sort of retreat behind this cloud of tear gas. The attackers got through the gates, but Sullivan himself went to meet them and he kept them talking until intermediaries could arrive sent by Khomeini's Revolutionary Council.
And Khomeini's men actually had a massive row with the attackers, said, what are you doing? Why are you here? No one told you to break in. They cleared the compound. And this will surprise some people. Khomeini sent a group of clerics a couple of days later to see Sullivan and to say, we're dreadfully sorry that this happened.
If this happens again, you know, you have my personal assurance that I will help you. You know, let me know if this happens again. This is all from Sullivan's memoir, Mission to Iran, I think it's called. So the obvious question is, once this has happened a couple of times, why do the Americans not close the embassy?
I suppose it's so important, isn't it, Iran? I mean, it's the fulcrum of its position in the Middle East. Of course.
you're not going to run away, right? And especially if you've got the Ayatollah's personal guarantee that you'll be safe. And also, they want to keep talking to moderate elements. They want to swing the government, you know, away from extremism. They want to keep talking to them. Of course, the moderate elements.
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Chapter 3: How did the Iranian students justify the hostage-taking?
Thought you should send another ambassador because that will send a signal to the Iranian regime We accept you we will work with you We're gonna find a way through this but actually not sending an ambassador at all is a really bad sign.
It's a snub Yeah, it's seen as a bit of a snub Sullivan gets back to Washington the first thing he does when he gets back to Washington He says to Cyrus Vance who is the patrician kind of Ivy League boarding school educated Secretary of State Sullivan says to Cyrus Vance I'd like to see you because I'm actually really worried about our embassy.
He says there is one thing that you could do that would be bound to provoke an attack. And that would be if you ever allowed the Shah of Iran into the United States.
So that's his message. Whatever you do, don't allow the Shah of Iran into the United States. Whatever you do, whatever you do, do not do that.
So let's get on to the Shah. The Shah, remember, left in January, and the original plan was for him to go to this estate in Palm Springs that has been visited by Tom Holland, Walter Annenberg's estate. But the Shah has not done that.
He has hung around and dallied in North Africa with his pal President Sadat in Aswan in Egypt, and then he's gone to see another mate of his, King Hassan of Morocco in Marrakesh. The Shah is now a very sickly, gaunt, and miserable figure. He has seen the footage of Khamenei's return, and he was really shocked by it. He's gutted about what's happened to Iran. He can't believe it.
Of course, he was so out of touch, and he's really disappointed. Now, meanwhile, in Morocco, because, of course, the Islamic revolution has caught the world's imagination, and because the Ayatollahs have made it very clear they'd like to export the ideals of their revolution, King Hassan of Morocco thinks, I don't know that having the Shah here is a very good idea.
I mean, there are Islamist groups in Morocco. You know, I don't want them all kicking off because the Shah's here. So after a few weeks, he says to the Shah, I'd really like it if you moved on now. You know, you've kind of outstayed your welcome. Now, the Shah at this point, this would be the point for him to go to California. However, the Americans have now slightly changed their mind.
First of all, there are reports that the revolutionary committees in Iran have started arresting foreigners. But also the National Security Council says to Carter, if we admit the Shah, it would mean, and I quote, mass arrests of Americans in Tehran and almost certainly another attack on the embassy. Now, Jimmy Carter, people may recall, is an evangelical born-again Christian.
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Chapter 4: What were the immediate consequences of the embassy seizure?
And then there's an election in Britain. And Margaret Thatcher, big fan of the Shah, she also says no.
I mean, she's the Iron Lady. She's not going to be swayed by obligations to a sick king, is she? Well, do you know what?
She actually felt really bad about it. But she was told... Security on the Shah's estate, which is just outside London, will be a nightmare. We're not convinced. It'll be very difficult to protect this country estate from attackers. But also, we will put our own Britain's embassy in Tehran at risk. And they're right.
Because actually, I mean, we know that American diplomats are going to be taken hostage. British diplomats are not. And in a sense, bearing in mind the notoriety of Britain in the Iranian demonology, I mean, that is a dog that doesn't bark in the night, isn't it?
It is, although there are massive protests outside the British embassy, but it's not invaded.
And they changed the street name, don't they, from Winston Churchill Avenue to Bobby Sands Avenue. And Bobby Sands is an IRA hunger striker.
Exactly, they do. So the Shah can't go to Britain. He goes off to the Bahamas in the end, and he gets a house on the beach, and he spends his time praying and reading the newspapers, and he rings up foreign diplomats to reminisce about the good old days, about food from Maxim's of Paris and Dom Perignon champagne and stuff. Great days.
And then after that, he goes to Cuernavaca in Mexico, and both of these bolt holes have been arranged by two American pals of his. So specifically, his great chum, Henry Kissinger, and Kissinger's mate, David Rockefeller of oil family fame, who is the president of the Chase Manhattan Bank. So useful friends. Yeah, good contacts.
And Kissinger and Rockefeller take it upon themselves to be the Shah's great champions. And they think it's terrible that the United States has abandoned him. And all through 1979, Kissinger and Rockefeller are pestering the Carter administration to Allowing the Shah, you're letting America down. This is really poor. Come on. And does Carter respond to this in a tone of Christian obligation?
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Chapter 5: How did the U.S. government respond to the hostage crisis?
There are marches, but by Iranian standards, the streets feel reasonably calm. So maybe things are going to be all right. What he doesn't know is that at Tehran's University of Technology, there are students who have been plotting for weeks to attack the embassy. Now, there are different groups of students who kind of claim credit for this.
The name that comes up most often is a guy called Ibrahim Ashgazadeh, who later on actually ended up being a reformist Iranian politician and was actually arrested in the 2000s. Oh, so a moderate element. Moderate element, but not in 1979. He was an engineering student.
He was absolutely typical of the students who were very excited about Khomeini's return, see it as a chance for a new start, banishing the corruption and the frustrations. of the 70s. And he meets up with some friends of his at a cafe in Tehran one day in the autumn. And they say, we would love to kind of demonstrate our, you know, it's classic student stuff.
Let's make a stand, you know, let our voices be heard, all of this kind of thing. Strike at the imperialists. Strike at the imperialists. Why don't we break into the US embassy and from there proclaim our message to the world? Brilliant idea. They meet up with students from other Tehran colleges and they form this group with the catchy name Muslim Student Followers of the Imams Line. Love it.
And their plan is they will occupy the embassy for a few hours, maybe a few days, and they will broadcast the message that you read out. We don't like the Shah. We don't like America. We don't like imperialism. You know, huzzah, huzzah, end of story.
So it's a sit-in in exactly the way that sit-ins from 1968 onwards have operated in the West and presumably inspired by them.
Yes. That's the funny thing, isn't it, about the Iranian revolution, that in some ways it's You know, it was often described in the West as backward looking, as medieval, all this kind of thing. And yet it's very modern. And it's informed both by, you know, Shia tradition and also by the Ayatollah's radical vision. But also there's hints of the 1960s and 1968 in there too.
Yeah. And that's what people on the left in the West who are enthusiastic initially for the Iranian revolution are picking up on.
That's what they liked. Exactly. So now we come to the fateful day, Sunday, the 4th of November, 1979. It is exactly one year to go until the US presidential election. I mean, you could not make this up. So 365 days time, Jimmy Carter will face the American voters. And about dawn, 300 students gathered near the embassy.
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Chapter 6: What role did the Ayatollah play in the hostage situation?
They pretended they'd been working as Hollywood film scouts, checking out locations for a science fiction film called Argo. And the CIA went to the lengths of opening a Hollywood studio to make this film. They made posters. They ran ads in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter to create a cover story for them. And Mendez, in January 1980, flies into Iran with his forgery kit,
to basically get these guys out. It's such a good film. Yeah. Canadian Caper, it was called at the time. An amazing story. I mean, the fact that I'm telling the story, if you haven't seen the film, you can probably guess whether they get out or not, but it is still worth watching the film.
I mean, I've got to say, Tehran is an excellent place for thrillers. There's also a tremendous Israeli spy series called Tehran, Oh yeah, I remember you telling us about that, yeah. Mossad agent who goes undercover in Tehran. It's actually very kind of le carré, both sides are morally ambivalent. I really commend it.
And it's tense, particularly the first two episodes, it's incredibly tense in exactly the way that Argo is tense.
And tense, Tom, I would like to believe, in the same way that this episode is tense, no? Yeah, absolutely. Because 66 hostages have now been left in captivity. And Jimmy Carter now has a massive headache. So he's at Camp David, his sort of retreat. It's four o'clock in the morning and he gets the call from the State Department that the embassy has been taken and people have been taken hostage.
And he puts the phone down and he tries to get back to sleep, but he can't sleep for obvious reasons. He had specifically asked his advisers what they would do if this happened, and they had not given him a clear answer. And he must know, even at this stage, that if he can't find an answer, then he and his presidency are heading for the dustbin of history.
Not the dustbin of history.
Do you know what? It's a Ronald Reagan image. That's why I chose it.
Dominic, well, you said tension. Tension, we've got it. Come back after the break to find out if Jimmy Carter can get out of the bin. Hello and welcome back to The Rest Is History. We left you with the United States Embassy in the hands of student militants and some 66 American hostages from that embassy being held hostage. So, Dominic, what happens to these hostages?
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