Penn State University - La Vie Yearbook (University Park, PA)

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On a gray Sunday morning, Nov. 4, Students invoking the name of Iranis Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini invaded the US. Embassy in Tehran, over- whelmed its Marine guards and took 62 Americans hostage. Their demand: sur- render the deposed Shah of Iran - then Undergoing cancer treatments in New York - for the release of the American hostages. Tuesday following the seige Prime Minister Bazargan resigned his power- ful position in Iran, reinforcing the pow- er of the ruling clergy; the government Was soon replaced by the Revolutionary Council. . After a week of retaliation and counter-threats between the United States and Iran, a first break came in the crisis: Khomeini ordered the release of five women and eight black men who were being held hostage, announcing that lilslam grants to women a special status, and blacks have spent ages under American pressure and tyranny? At the Safne time, a spokesman for the students said the hostages would be tried for espi- onagc in the Islamic Revolutionary Courts and llpunished in accordance Hostage Crisis with the severity of their crimes. In late April. President Carter decid- ed to take drastic action by ordering an Air Force rescue team to Tehran; the top secret operation failed dismally. A sand- storm caused a fatal crash at the desert staging site, some 250 miles outside of the capital city. The mission had to be aborted. and eight American lives were lost. On the 250th day of captivity for the remaining 53 hostages. one of them, Vice Consul Richard Queen, was unex- pectedly set free when he became seri- ously ill. Although by this point, the world was anxiously awaiting the release of all the hostages, their days in captiv- ity continued. False hopes rose again for the Ameri- cans in late July with the death of the Shah who succumbed to complications from lymphatic cancer. The stubborn Khomeini however, did not budge. After coming through nearly a year of tension and anticipation, Americans faced the approach of Election Day, and the 8 year anniversary of captivity. President Carter at last sat down to seri- ous talks with the Iranian parliament. InternationaUDecade a The assembly approved four demands set forth by Khomeini as conditions for release of the hostages: a US. pledge not to interfere in Iranian affairs, the return of the fortune of itthe cursed Shah? the unfreezing of Iranian assets in US. banks, and the cancellation of US. legal and financial claims against Iran. Negotiations continued right through the final days of Jimmy Carteris presi- dency, until the last details were ironed out with the help of Algerian diplomats. And on Jan. 27 -- Inauguration Day for Ronald Reagan - a plane carrying the 52 hostages to freedom lifted off from Tehran runway. After stopping for sev- eral days at a West German hospital, the freed Americans made their way back home. Arriving at West Point, NY. on Jan. 1981, the former hostages were warmly welcomed home by tearful rela- tives and exuberant well-wishers who waved American flags and cheered amidst a haze of yellow ribbons. The hostages were finally home, united with families, with friends, and with an entire nation in a spirit of celebration and re- newed hope. a Liz Chesny Khomeini Takes Charge In Early in January 1979, the 37-year reign of Mohammed Reza Pahlavi lthe Shah of Iranl was taken over in one of the greatest political upheavals of the post World War II era. The revolution was instigated by theologian named Ru- hollah Khomeini, who had attained the title of Ayatullah in the late seventies. Problems arose as early as 1963 when Iran was swept up in riots initiated by the powerful Islamic clergy against the Shahls White Revolution. This well- meaning reform abolished the feudal landlore-peasant system, breaking up properties administered by the Shiite clergy and reducing their income. The Shah supressed those disturbances with- out outside help, in part by aailing one of the activists, Khomeini. In 1964, Kho- meini was arrested and exiled e first to Turkey, and then to Iraq, where he con- tinued to preach against the Shah and promote his vision of Iran as an uIslamic republic. Iran The preaching seemed to have little effect, as the Shah set about building the most thoroughly Westernized nation in all of the Muslim world. By 1978 the Shah had alienated almost all factions of Iranian society. Westernized intellectu- als were infuriated by rampant corrup- tion and repression; workers and peas- ants by selective prosperity; merchants by Shah-supported business-men who monopolized bank credits. contracts and imports; the clergy and their pious Mus- lim followers by new gambling casinos, bars, and discoteques. By October 1978, a full-fledged revolution was inprogress. Khomeini came out of exile to leas the revolt and gather a substantial follow- ing. In January 1979, the Shah and his empress fled the country in exile, leaving Iran in the power of the clergy com- manded by the vengeful Ayatullah Kho- meini. - Liz Chesny lnternationaUDecade l7

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International IranlIraq War The long-simmering border conflict between Iran and Iraq flared into full- scale hostilities this past year. Last Oc- tober. United Nations President Mo- hammad ul-Hag Zia of Pakistan went on a peace-seeking mission to the fighting countries; his mission failed. General Zia found that Bagdad was satisfied with what it had already won. but Tehe- ran intended to continue struggling until it required what it had lost. But it seemed lraq's invasion of Iran had come to a stop along most sectors of the front. NATO analysts concluded the Iraqis. having inflicted serious but not crippling losses on the Iranian army, were content to sit tight and repel any counter offen- sive. And although Iran was given time to gather its forces in a counteroffensive, its capabilities were uncertain. The Iraqi Air Force scattered many of its Soviet-built planes to safety havens in neghboring Arab countries. The Iranian Air Force, its planes largely acquired from the United States. was restricted to hit-and-run strikes against political and psychological targets because it lacked a solid command structure. As of Decem- ber. military analysts believed the con- flict would probably sputter along incon- clusively. -Sherri Ross Exiled Shah Dies After spending the final 19 months of his life in exile fighting an exhausting battle against cancer. 60-year-old Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi died in Egypt early in August. Since fleeing Iran in 1979, one step ahead of Islamic revolutionaries, the shah and his wife, Empress Farah, had shuttled from country to country in search of sanctuary. Their final refuge in March 1980 was Cairo, where the cou- ple arrived at the invitation of Egyptian President Anwar Sadatt who reminded his people of the Shahls generous aid to Egypt during the October War of 1973. In Egypt the shah underwent emergency surgery from which he never fully recov- ered. Mourning over the shahls death was limited around the world, particularly in Iran, the country he had ruled for 37 years. Memories of SAVAK, the shahls secret police who were said to have ar- rested, tortured and murdered thou- sands of dissidents, lingered in the minds of many Iranians. President Sadat in- sisted on a full military funeral for the former monarch, despite the shahls re- quest for a simple service. Although sev- eral nations, including the United States, sent low-level representatives to the funeral, foreign leaders were mar- kedly absent. American commitments to the shah were a source of controversy throughout much of the rulers exile. Problems be- gan in December 1979 when the United States allowed the shah, already nine months in exile. to fly from his villa in Mexico to New York City for radiation and gallbladder surgery. This move prompted the seizure of the US. Embas- sy in Teheran and the taking of Ameri- can hostages. Tensions increased as the shah prolonged his stay in the United States at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, where he recovered from his sur- gery and waited sanctuary elsewhere. His next refuge turned out to be Con- tadora Island in Panama, where his health steadily deteriorated for three months. Partly for medical care, and partly out of fear for his personal safety, the shah finally accepted Sadatis long- standing invitation for asylum in Egypt, where he met his death. After the shahis death, no significant changes in the hostage situation arose. Iranian revolutionaries claimed that since the shahls death was predictable, it would not lead to the release of the 52 Americans still being held in Iran. The stalemate continued. -Jill Rippey OK International

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