Guests of the Ayatollah: The First Battle in America’s War with Militant Islam

712 Pages·2006·119.99 MB·English

by  Mark Bowden

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g'UESTS
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OF THE
AYAT
THE FIRST BATTLE AMERICA'S
IN
WAR
WITH MILITANT ISLAM
MARK
BOWDEN
Author BLACK HAWK DOWN
of
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"[Mark Bowden is] a masL
narrative journalism."
—TheNew York TimesBookReview
On November 4, 1979, a group of radical
Islamist students stormed the U.S. embassy
in Tehran. Inspired by the revolutionary
Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini, they hoped
to stage a three-daysit-in protest of the American
decision to allow exiled Iranian leader Shah
Mohammed Reza to enter the United States for
medical treatment. But these modest, peaceful
aims were supplanted by something much more
severe and dangerous. The students took sixty-six
Americans hostage andkept the majority-of them
for 444 days in a prolonged conflict that riveted
the world.
The Iran hostage crisis was a watershed
moment in American history. It was America's
first showdown with Islamist fundamentalism, a
confrontation that has remained at the forefront
of American policy to this day. In Iran, following
the ouster of the shah, a provisional government
was established, and for a critical moment in the
modernage'sfirstIslamistrevolution, amoreopen
and democratic society seemed possible. But the
religious hardliners on the Revolutionary Council
used the hostage crisis as an opportunity to purge
moderates from the leadership ranks. They
altered the course of the revolution and set Iran
on the extreme path it follows to this day.
The Iran hostage crisis was also a dramatic
storythatcaptivated the American people. Com-
munities across the country launched yellow-
ribbon campaigns. —ABC began a new late-nig—ht
television program which became Nightline
recapping the latest events in the crisis and
counting up the days of captivity. The hostages'
families became celebrities, and the never-ending
criticism of the government's response crippled
Jimmy Carter's reelection campaign.
Guests of the Ayatollah tells this sweeping story-
through the eyes of the people who lived it, on
both sides of the crisis. Mark Bowden takes us
inside the hostages' cells, detailingthe A'lericans'
terror, confusion, boredom, and vr^ in the
face of absurd interrogations, mc ions.
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GUESTS
OF THE
AYATOLLAH
Digitized by the Internet Archive
2010
in
http://www.archive.org/details/guestsofayatollaOObowd