Video Description

On 20 January 1981, Ronald Reagan was sworn in as the 40th President of the United States. Minutes later, 53 American hostages were released from Iran after spending 444 days in captivity. Taken hostage in November 1979 when student revolutionaries stormed the US embassy in Tehran, the captives found themselves caught in the middle of an unprecedented international crisis. While the initial reason given by the revolutionaries was the American decision to admit Iran's exiled Shah to the US for medical treatment (and the US refusal to hand the Shah over to Iran's new revolutionary regime), the broader cause was a deep-seated antipathy towards the United States among Iran's revolutionaries. As the primary economic and military supporter of the increasingly-dictatorial Shah for nearly three decades, the United States had come to be associated with his crimes more than any other nation. Presented here is a compilation of news footage spanning the period of November 1978 to January 1981, covering the Iranian Revolution, the beginning of the hostage crisis, the disastrous American attempt to rescue the hostages in the spring of 1980, and the eventual resolution of the crisis through negotiation in January 1981. It includes interviews with key historical players including the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi; Iran's revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini; and former US president Richard Nixon. Featured reports cover the crisis as it was seen from Iran, the USA, and the wider world. Taken together, they present a fascinating insight into the first major crisis in relations between the United States and Revolutionary Iran. 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:43 PART I - REVOLUTION 00:24:59 PART II - HOSTAGE 00:34:34 PART III - RESCUE 00:55:26 PART IV - STALEMATE 01:01:46 PART V - BREAKTHROUGH #Iran #USA #IranianRevolution #IranHostageCrisis #USEmbassy #AmericanHistory #Revolution #Hostage #Hostages #IranHostageCrisis #ShahOfIran #Shah #MohammadRezaPahlavi #Pahlavi #1979 #1980 #1981 #Inauguration #InaugurationDay #JimmyCarter #RonaldReagan #POTUS #Tehran #ColdWar #Captive To search the ITN Archive collection on Getty Images, follow the link below: https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/footage/itn 🎥 Subscribe to our YouTube channel (tap the bell icon and stay up to date with all the latest ITN Archive videos!) - https://www.youtube.com/@ITNArchive 🎥 Follow us on Twitter - https://twitter.com/ITNArchive 🎥 Like us on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ITNArchiveITNP 🎥 Check out our TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@itnarchive1955