Impact if the Iranian Hostage Crisis

• Impact of the Iranian Hostage Crisis

  January 1973- President Nixon signed the Paris Peace Accords- ended Vietnam War - public welcomed this American exit from Vietnam- there was a growing fear that the USA was losing its international primacy- problems in Iran seemed to confirm this
• Islamic fundamentalists led a successful revolution against the repressive Pro-American Shah of Iran


  1978
• Iranian militants stormed the US embassy in Tehran and took 60 Americans hostage in protest against Carter allowing the Shah to receive cancer treatment in the USA


  1979
• Carter's response to the hostage crisis

  1. Tried but failed to negotiate the hostages releases

  2. Sent helicopters on an unsuccessful rescue mission in 1980

  3. One helicopter broke down upon entering Iranian airspace

  4. Another one got lost in a sandstorm

  5. Third developed hydraulic issues

  6. Carter agreed to abort the mission

  7. Another helicopter crashed into a US transport aircraft

  8. Both burst into flames and eight Americans died and four were burned
• Carter diplomacy eventually won the releases of the hostages
• By the 1980 Presidential Election


  Carter was shown to be a poor leader who messed up everything
• By 1980 a poll revealed that only 18% Americans rated Carter 'a very strong leader'
• The Iranian Hostage Crisis

  Impacted the 1980 Presidential Election as Carter's inability to solve the nation's economic problems contributed to Carter's defeat to Conservative Republican Ronald Reagan
• In the 1980 election, 47% of registered voters stayed at home, many were poor/unemployed and would normally have voted Democrat but were disillusioned with politics and with the leadership of Jimmy Carter