Khomeini's Long Shadow: 30 Years After the Iran Hostage Crisis

In the fall of 1979, President Jimmy Carter gave the Shah permission to enter the United States in order to receive treatment for cancer.
Alain Mingam / Gamma

The American Hostages
Later the same year, U.S. President Jimmy Carter gave the Shah permission to enter the U.S. in order to receive treatment for cancer. This decision so angered the energized Iranian youth that they stormed the U.S. embassy and took several dozen staff members as hostages. The standoff was to last 444 days.

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