'He saved our lives.' A former US hostage reflects on Carter's legacy
Consider This from NPR
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4.1 • 5.3K Ratings
🗓️ 9 January 2025
⏱️ 13 minutes
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Summary
On November 4th, 1979 Iranian college students took over the US Embassy in Tehran, and took 52 Americans hostage.
For the next 444 days, the Carter administration tried to secure the hostages' release. In April, 1980 they even commissioned a rescue mission that ended in failure.
While Carter was trying to end the hostage crisis, he was also campaigning for a second term. A year to the day after the Americans were taken hostage, Ronald Reagan beat Carter in a landslide.
The hostage crisis played a key role in Carter's defeat.
The Iranian Hostage crisis helped doom Jimmy Carter's presidency, but for some of the people he helped free, he was a hero.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Jimmy Carter's four years in the White House were largely defined by an event that took place |
| 0:05.0 | halfway through his term. The U.S. Embassy in Tehran has been invaded and occupied by Iranian students. |
| 0:10.5 | The Americans inside have been taken prisoner. And according to a student spokesman, |
| 0:14.6 | will be held as hostages until the deposed Shaw is returned from the United States, |
| 0:18.9 | where he's receiving medical treatment for cancer. |
| 0:21.4 | On November 4, 1979, Iranian college students took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. |
| 0:27.9 | They took 52 Americans hostage. |
| 0:30.7 | For the next 444 days, the Carter administration tried to secure the hostage's release. |
| 0:40.9 | In April of 1980, they even commissioned a rescue mission that ended in failure. There has been the startling new development in the Iran hostage crisis. |
| 0:46.8 | That U.S. attempt to launch a military rescue of the American hostages in Tehran has been, as you have now heard, several times, aborted. |
| 0:54.3 | There was no fighting. There was no combat. But to my deep regret, eight of the crewmen of the two |
| 1:02.2 | aircraft which collided were killed. And several other Americans were hurt in the accident. |
| 1:08.7 | While Carter was trying to end the hostage crisis, he was also campaigning for a second term. |
| 1:14.6 | A year to the day after the Americans were taken hostage, Ronald Reagan beat Carter in a landslide. |
| 1:21.5 | The time has come. You've seen the map. We've looked at the figures, and NBC News now makes its projection for the presidency. |
| 1:31.2 | Reagan is our projected winner, Ronald Wilson Reagan, of California, a sports announcer, a film actor, a governor of California. |
| 1:41.3 | The hostage crisis played a key role in Carter's defeat. But even after he lost |
| 1:46.2 | reelection, with the clock ticking on his presidency, Carter kept working to bring the 52 |
| 1:51.6 | Americans home, negotiating with the Iranians until they were just hours left in his presidency. |
| 1:57.9 | Those final moments narrated here by then White House press secretary Jody Powell |
| 2:02.3 | in an ABC news special on the hostage's release. At this point, the president had last been to sleep |
| 2:09.6 | about midnight, not that night, but the night before, Sunday night. So he had been up |
... |
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