Guests of the Ayatollah: The Iran Hostage Crisis: The First Battle in America's War with Militant Islam

The are few international events over the last fifty years that are remembered with as much infamy as the Iran Hostage Crisis of 1979-1980. I was fairly young at the time and wasn’t familiar with the intricacies, yet I distinctly remember the anger and sorrow of my fellow citizens. Before November 4, 1979, I would guess most Americans couldn’t find Iran on the map. Nor were they familiar with names such as the Ayatollah Khomeni, or the recently exiled Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.When this book was written 25 years after the crisis, my guess is many still didn’t know much of the details, which was the entire point of this book. This is an excellent read. It’s a long read at about 700 pages, but it never feels that way. Mark Bowden knows how to keep this story at a high enough level to where he never gets mired too low in the weeds with too much detail.The main focus is the hostages. The individuals that had the misfortune of simply working at the American Embassy in Tehran and were very familiar with the hostility of the residents of this country. When the tempers flared on that ignoble day and the compound was stormed by the radical students, the American workers at the embassy weren’t too concerned. They had all been through this before to some extent.Well, as the dots get connected, it soon becomes apparent that this is not a temporal event to exorcize political futility. This is the real deal. Soon the crisis is the headline on every newspaper and the leading story on every news network for months. Like most tragedies, the longer it goes on, the more the public forgets. No one expected the captives to be held hostage for a grueling 444 days, and after the first months pass, much of world forgets about the prisoners.There are a lot of names to keep track of within this book. I’m not sure how many of the 53 hostages that Bowden focuses on, he goes back and forth rather quickly, and I had trouble keeping track of every hostage, their backgrounds, their roles, their history, etc. Yet this really doesn’t take much away from the overall reading experience. When we read about the travails of each hostage, the “who” really isn’t as important as the “what”. Which brings me to the title of this book. Although I would never minimize the horror that these individuals endured, the author asserts that the hostages, for the most part, were treated better than one might imagine. In some instances one might be able to argue that they were “guests” as opposed to “hostages”. Some of the captors were much more friendly than others, and things such as Christmas parties and the ability to write letters home were part of the captivity. During the middle of the ordeal, Iran finds itself at war with neighboring Iraq, and the students even entertain the possibility of arming their captives to assist them in fighting the enemy. That’s not to say it was all sunshine and roses. There were plenty of times when the captives would be beaten or isolated, usually for insubordination and for insults hurled by the hostages themselves. And we can never kid ourselves into thinking that anytime someone is a “hostage”, that it could ever be acceptable or tolerable.One of the more unlikely elements of this tragedy is that Iran really didn’t have any kind of structural government in place, so the students who raided the embassy and started the whole event really didn’t have any authority to do so. Once the crisis started, you almost got the impression that the captors, and the country itself, really didn’t know what to do next. Their only demand was that the Shah be returned, but once that became obviously impossible, you could tell that this whole event was perpetrated by amateurs. Add the fact that the country was essentially run by the hardcore cleric Khomeni, there wasn’t really much that could be done other than wait for some sort of unknown future event to somehow unfold to change the situation.The author also spends good portions of the book describing the U.S. government under Jimmy Carter’s efforts to end the standoff, the planning and failure of the rescue attempt, and also the history of the relations between Iran and the United States. Sadly, what many Americans at the time failed to acknowledge was the fact that the United States wasn’t exactly squeakly clean when they orchestrated a coup in Iran back in 1953 that ousted leader Mohammed Mosaddegh that put the Shah back on the throne. Let’s just say that the motivation of the United States was a far cry from anything altruistic or philanthropic.The chapters are also nice and brief. Most chapters are about 10-15 pages long which helps with such a thick volume. This also allows us to never get bored and we can quickly jump from one part of the story to another. As someone who reads a lot of history, I wish many authors would learn such a method. The author also includes an epilogue that tells the reader “where are they now” 25 years after the conclusion of this horrific event.Overall this was a great account of an infamous time in the history of America. I’m sure there have been multiple books written about this event, but my guess is that this is probably the best one to give the reader a strong sense of the whole picture of everything and everyone involved.

In 1979 when the hostage crisis began I had just turned 12. I recall how this story dominated the nightly news headlines. My father worked for the US Department of State so our family probably followed this story a little more closely than most.(In fact our family has a very tangential connection to the story. My father was a Regional Security Officer. This means that he was in charge of security for all the agencies doing business under the auspices of the embassy. In late 1979 when the shah of Iran came to Panama, I was one of the first people to hear the news. I recall feeling thrilled that my father would trust me with such a big secret.I also recall vacationing in London in 1982. We were having lunch in the US Embassy cafeteria and I recognized former hostage Ricahrd Queen. Queen had been released early because he had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.)This book was quite interesting to read because it gave us an insider's view of the hostage crisis. Bowden interviewed all the living hostages as part of his research for this book. And for those hostages that were deceased he relied on interviews conducted for other books.For those of us watching at home, it wasn't immediately apparent some of the abuse being suffered by the hostages, but Bowden lays it all bare for the reader. In addition Bowden provides great detail about the living conditions and the various moves of the hostages, the amount of contact they had with each other and the sheer psychological strain they endured.I learned a lot. For instance, I hadn't known that three of the hostages (L. Bruce Laingen, the mission chief - I attended boarding school with his son; Victor Tomseth, the political chief; and Mike Howland, the assistant security chief) spent almost their entire captivity in the Foreign Ministry, separated from the other hostages.The nucleus of Iran's grievances against the United States date back to the CIA-sponsored coup in 1953, Operation Ajax, which deposed Mohammed Mossadeq from power and installed the shah with absolute authority. Gradually the shah's rule became more and more oppressive and behind it all Iranians saw the unseen hand of the United States.When Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran from exile, the shah fled the country and the Islamic Republic of Iran was born with Khomeini wielding ultimate authority.The United States maintained relations with Iran and tried to cultivate contacts with the new regime. I think Bowden shows that the Iranians were so blinded by the past wrongs committed by the United States that they were unable to see that in the Carter administration they would have had a partner willing to try and make up for those past wrongs.The proverbial straw that broke the camel's back was the US decision - disastrous in hindsight - to admit the shah into the US for medical treatment. The average Iranian learning of this decision assumed that the US was plotting a way to restore the shah to power.Another huge mistake was, having made the decision to admit the shah to the US, the embassy should have been evacuated, at least temporarily.The really unique (to me, at least) feature of the book is that Bowden also tells the story from the perspective of the hostage-takers. Here is where the book really excels because Bowden shows that, far from being a well-thought-out, well-orchestrated plot, it was a stunt staged by a group of Islamist students that really spiraled out of control. The students expected the occupation of the embassy to last three days and then they expected to go home. But there was such a groundswell of popular support that it actually toppled the provisional government (Iran was in the throes of the Islamist revolution sparked by the return of Ayatollah Khomeini) and turned the student group into a player in internal politics.It also had the unintended consequence of leaving the US no-one with whom to negotiate with for the hostages' release. At several different moments the US thought it had reached agreements with representatives of the provisional government only to have the rug pulled out from underneath them by Khomeini.In the course of his research into this book, Bowden traveled to Tehran and intereviewed as many of the hostage-takers as he could. Some of them have risen to prominence in the government while others have become disillusioned by the theocracy.Not surprisingly those who attained prominence in the regime stand by their actions as a legitimate course of action. These figures seem to not understand that any benefit attainted by Iran is more than outweighed by the harm of 25+ years as an international pariah.(An aside: it is apparently without irony that some of the hostage takers protested at US interference in Iran's internal affairs. What do these people think the Iranian government does in Iraq? Afghanistan? Syria? Lebanon?)With regard to the failed rescue attempt, I have read several books about the special forces community (including Charlie Beckwith's 'Delta Force') and was quite familiar with Operation Eagle Claw. So I didn't learn anything new there. Oh, I did learn that Charlie Beckwith was a jerk.All in all, though, this was quite a well-written and informative book about an important episode in our relations with the Middle East.

I want to state clearly, that this review isn't of the paperback edition which I purchased from Amazon. However, I have read the e-book on my Kindle.I must start off by saying that I seldom read works of non-fiction because the majority of them don't seem to pique my interest. I was very curious about this book due to a couple of reasons: 1) it is generally believed that Mark Bowden is one of the better writers of non-fiction around today 2) the film Argo had just been released which focusses on the 6 US Embassy workers who were spirited away from Teheran by the CIA. Alas, most of the other workers at the US Embassy weren't that fortunate and were held hostage for 444 days.Make no mistake, the size of this book might seem daunting at first, but trust me when I say, this indeed is a very well paced and very well written book. Mark Bowden's style keeps things moving along and prevents it from spiraling into tedium, which it very well could have in lesser hands. The events appear to be well-researched and if I am not mistaken the author has relied on many first-hand accounts of the hostages and what they experienced. The background of the Iranian Revolution is laid out quite clearly so as to better make the reader understand the circumstances leading up to the crisis. Like everything else in this world, this was the culmination of dueling ideologies. A lot of the writing though seems anecdotal and relies heavily on the accounts of the people who returned from the crisis. I cannot vouch for how true and accurate these accounts are or if there is any truth to the various anecdotes that appear throughout the book, since it would be impossible now to get the individuals on the Iranian side to present their version of the events and their experiences.To the novice, this book will shed light on the events that ruptured US-Iranian relations. The repercussions of the hostage crisis are still being felt by the international community and why Iran is, the way it is today.

Im Hinblick auf die aktuellen Tumulte rund um die wahrscheinlich manipulierten Wahlen im Iran, die durchaus das Potential hatten den Thron der herrschenden Mullahs zumindest zu beschädigen bin ich froh, daß die Lektüre dieser Schwarte noch nicht allzulange zurückliegt.Mark Bowden verbindet hier in der ihm eigenen Art und Weise fundierten Journalismus und Recherche mit einem angenehmen und spanndendem Erzählstil.Im Zuge des Kerngeschehens, dem Überfall auf das amerikanische Konsulat und der folgenden Geiselnahme des Botschaftspersonals, bekommt der Leser nebenher noch jüngere iranische Geschichte und Hintergründe zur endgültigen Machtübernahme der islamofaschistischen Mullahs unter Khomeini im Zuge der iranischen Revolution geliefert.Auch die Hintergründe zur gescheiterten Befreiungsaktion durch die damals noch in den Windeln befindliche SOF Delta sowie das Scheitern werden von Bowden dank seines profunden militärischen Backgrounds adequat ohne viel überflüssiges Klimbim behandelt.Abschliessend möchte ich noch zu dem Buch die generell sehr angenehme Zurückhaltung und differenzierte Betrachtungsweise des Autors zum Iran und dem Islam an sich erwähnen - wer also eine Kampfschrift gegen den Islam erwartet, der wird hier enttäuscht.

An interesting read. There are moments while reading which make you laugh and there are nail biting moments too. However the subtitleis misleading. The narration tries to project the hostage takers as a confused lot and not as militants.

He has a wonderful ability to weave a lot of research into a story that is hard to put down.

The exhaustive and exhausting account of the Iran hostage crisis of 1979-80 and Operation Eagle Claw, the abortive US rescue mission. Detailed, lucid and often gripping, author Bowden delivers on the goods. His character portraits are especially vivid, evoking the contradictions within people and investing them with a rich humanity. Terrorists, hostages and the US soldiers planning their audacious rescue are all superbly realised. The stand-out charcter is the unforgettable Colonel Charlie 'Charging' Beckwith - the impassioned, slightly crazed iconoclast who created and led Delta, the elite counter-terrorist unit. Funny, distrubing and moving in equal measure, Beckwith stands at the centre of what must now rank as the definitive account of 'Eagle Claw' and the debacle at 'Desert One'.While not quite scaling the heights of Bowden's classic 'Black Hawk Down', this is a masterful work - poignant, exhilarating and thought-provoking, with many important echoes with today's ongoing 'war on terror'.