Days of Rage (Page 3)

Both Harris and Farber conclude their books by detailing how the hostage crisis became the dominant point of contention in the 1980 presidential elections between Carter and his Republican opponent, Ronald Reagan. But Harris especially delves into the ways Reagan's campaign manager, the wily future head of the CIA, William Casey, fended off the possibility of Carter pulling an "October surprise" by negotiating the release of the hostages before the election.

At the time, the political and cultural divide in Iran between the increasingly powerless secular democrats and the ruling clerical elite was threatening to plunge the country into civil war. The presence of the hostages only made matters worse by sanctioning and isolating Iran to the point of effectively shutting down its economy. After the Shah succumbed to cancer in the summer of 1980, three months before the US elections, there seemed no reason to keep the Americans any longer. Still, desperate as the regime was to be rid of their "guests," the Iranians did not wish to appear to bow to American pressure. They wanted to be certain to get something in return for the release of the captives. And, as Harris contends, the Republicans were offering more than the Democrats.

The Crisis exposes the secret agreement Republicans made with Iran's clerical establishment--who were keen to see Carter suffer for what they viewed as his unwavering support of the Shah--not to release the hostages until after the election. Despite decades of denials, the attempts by Republicans to thwart Carter's "October surprise" has been confirmed by numerous high-ranking Iranian officials as well as by a number of the American hostages, one of whom recalls watching his captors stare at their watches, literally waiting for the exact moment of Reagan's swearing-in ceremony before shuffling him and his fellow captives onto the waiting planes.

As both Harris and Farber recognize, there are startling parallels between America's first encounter with Islamic militancy and the current flailing "war on terrorism." Yet neither fully appreciates the profound changes that have taken place in Iran since that fateful November morning.

The old American Embassy, long ago transformed into what Iranian authorities drolly refer to as "a museum of anti-imperialism," is now closed to the public. Only a select few are allowed inside the compound. Near the gates, where two teenage soldiers stand guard, smoking cigarettes and idly sipping tea, a sign reads, We Will Make America Face a Severe Defeat. Yet the massive, open courtyard where thousands once gathered regularly to celebrate the memory of that defeat is now a forgotten and deserted relic of a revolution long ago abandoned, particularly by those who most diligently fought for it.

Ibrahim Asgarzadeh, the founder of the Muslim Students Following the Line of the Imam and the instigator of the embassy takeover, currently heads the reformist Solidarity Party, whose platform calls for immediate rapprochement with the United States. Masoumeh Ebtekar, the woman who, as the principal liaison between the Muslim Students and the American press, was known simply as "Sister Mary," is vice president of environmental affairs, the highest ranking woman in the Iranian government, and an eloquent voice for throwing off the shackles of clerical rule in favor of democratic reform. Abbas Abdi, another prominent student leader during the hostage crisis, is serving multiple prison sentences for his fearless anticlerical work as editor of the reformist newspaper Salam.

For Americans, whose involvement in the Middle East is being questioned in a way it never has been before, the anniversary of the hostage crisis is an opportunity to reflect on the old and ongoing debate in the United States, between those who wish to re-engage with Iran and those who wish to further isolate and contain it. For most Iranians, however, and particularly for most of those who planned, took part in or supported the attack on the US Embassy, there is no debate. November 4 is an albatross slung around their necks, a bitter reminder of a revolution gone awry and a seemingly permanent obstacle that stands in the way of pursuing a rapprochement with the United States that nearly every Iranian--conservative or reformist--desperately desires.

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