European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 26, 1981, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 8 the stars and stripes january 1981 444 Days it was a War there were no no but there were casualties by Charles Hanley associated press writer it was a War without a struggle neither lost nor a chapter of late 20thcentury history that May be a Mere footnote by the but the Iran hostage crisis transfixed two nations for 14 months and alarmed a and it left human casualties and enduring two Peoples were separated by a Dis Trust so profound it May last half a Hundred human beings imprisoned 14 months in the name of someone else Ide eight men dead in a Distant along the the struggle lost much of its fury and much of its the revolutionary crusade of waged in the dust and noise of Tehran gave Way to the Cool bargaining of to the bloodless dueling of lawyers and the Calm Click of calculators in the Backrooms of americans Learned much along the Way americans Learned much about about How deeply their country could be and about How Little they could know about a land Long linked in economic and political Friendship unreal the West has never understood my country we were merely a Savage and Barbaric land of no intrinsic whose importance Lay in political so wrote a despairing Mohammad Reza deposed Shah of in his a look at this period of Ter ror and trial before the echoes America was asleep that Early sunday in where the morning Sun Rose toward Ladell an of duty also stretched out in his quarters across the Street from the his Steve suddenly Shook him All hell had broken Loose at the embassy he screaming Young iranians across the hundreds of Young iranians swarmed Over the com pounds outer Walls and main past Clouds of tear screaming All the while Khomeini Carter trembles we had no recalled Westley one of the marines faced with the they just came right on the fighting Back with tear Gas dashed Down the hallways of the main embassy ordering everyone the few marines were simply Over the 300 to 400 iranians swept through the onto the Over the grounds of the 27acre rounding up secretaries and tying them up and herding them into Central Maples and Kirtley were found and taken to the Only a Lucky handful evaded slip Ping Down Side streets and into a reporter in new York telephoned the iranian foreign iranian Security forces try to Stop the he it was a peaceful a spokes Man silence at other end do you mean that the government of Iran condones what has happened silence at the other end of the Telephone the iranian embassy in Washington declared that the takeover reflected the Natu ral feeling of the iranian angered by president Carters decision to allow the de posed Shah into the for medical treat the Young militants holding the embassy had a single bold demand the Shah for the Carters decision was made two weeks but the crisis roots Lay in the 19th when Persia came under Western since then its often led by their moslem have risen up periodically against the in one they massacred an entire russian diplomatic russian influence replaced and in 1953 the new american superpower supplanted a declining the helped restore the Young Pahlavi to Power after a Short lived and american companies shouldered aside British in Iran s Oil the Shah depended on Washington for advice and financial and later for technical knowhow As he sought to use Oil revenues to transform Iran into a great a modern to the modern meant the Impact of Western mores on Iran the draining of Iran its Only real re source the harsh Rule and corruption of the Pahlavi and the elite these grievances United clergymen and others in a new the Shah fled his Home land and the revolutionaries achieved full Victory a month their Leader was an aged Ruhollah a revered Ayatollah of shiite the unwanted in the wan dered the but on after repeated urging by such influential figures As former Secretary of state Henry Carter allowed Pahlavi to Fly to new York for treatment of his Lymphatic cancer and other Iran new foreign Ibrahim told officials the iranian peo ple would react death to the Shah death to car Ter death to the hostages Rivers of jubilant thousands at a streamed to the captive embassy Day after Day in venting their hatred for the despised Exmon Arch and his Early in the the hostages were kept bound and sometimes in not allowed to they later told of mock solitary confinement and psychological the harshest treatment later eased in some they extradition rejected the Carter administration said it would never hand Over and would not negotiate under the gun with the Young men and women who held the the militants threatened to execute their captives if the attempted Mili tary action against they claimed they had uncovered evidence that the embassy was an espionage Den working to undermine the new if the United states decides to continue the the trial of the spied Here will said Sadegh the self confident Khomeini lieutenant who took Over As iranian foreign we Are not afraid of wrote hos Tage John a Marine just wish it was for a please return the Shah so we can get the hell out of in the first tries at peaceful per suasion by presidential envoy Ramsey Clark and by the Palestine liberation organization they were the first in a Parade of would be mediators that eventually included american clergy a Secretary general Kurt Waldheim and French Law the glowering Khomeini rebuffed a per Sonal representative from Pope John Paul questioning past papal concern about repression under the Khomeini later told his people this is a War Between the moslem and the Marchesin in the iranian students marched through City streets demanding the expulsion of the and american counter demonstrators fought Back with eggs and on Carter imposed a freeze on More than billion in Cash and Gold of the iranian government in the Oil Trade Between the two countries was the has other options available to the grimaced president on the other Side of the a six ship Navy task Force steamed toward the arabian sea off the defense department gave the godhead for preparations for a Rescue Young com Mandos began training somewhere in the Western american Frozen deposits seized at the same in the counting rooms of Europe and new Bankers quietly began moving iranian they declared outstanding Loans of the iranian government to be in and seized Frozen iranian it was the not the who held the key to the hos tages the iranian militants originally seized 98 66 of them but by 19 they had freed the non Ameri and on that Day and the next they released 13 americans five women and eight Williams and Roll ins were among for the Days of terror gave Way to weeks of on hostage William a 22yearold Marine appeared on film on american television and told his countrymen were not ready to hold out Here five Days the reason for holding the hostages Pahlavi left the for a Palm shaded panamanian re Ghotb Zadeh and other iranian leaders said they wanted to defuse the but the highly disciplined militants at the embassy insisted on the Exsah being handed Over by the puppet and by now the had become As much a target As Many observers believe the militants immediate goal in seizing the embassy was to bring Down Iran provisional prime Mehdi a westernized Liberal who angered Many revolutionaries by meeting the previous week with National Security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski in Bazargan did resign two Days after the embassy throughout the revolutionaries of one faction or another used it As a weapon against their political pouncing on any conciliatory moves As signs of soft Ness toward contradictory and vague iranian continued on Page 9