Taken Hostage: The Iran Crisis of 1979 in US Media and Popular culture

Melani McAlister

Online Poster, Spring 2002

Muslim girl at July 4th parade

�Yellow ribbons as sign of support for hostages

America Held Hostage, Nov. 4, 1979

America Held Hostage, Feb. 14, 1980

Moral Geographies

“A set of silent ethical assertions” that mark connection and separation.

Michael Shapiro, “Moral Geographies and The Ethics of Post-Sovereignty," Public Culture 6:3, 1994.

US “National Interests”

Protecting “access” to oil

Keeping the Soviets out (until the 1990s)

Strong regional allies (Arab & non-Arab Iran)

Support for Israel

Religion: Holy Lands & emotional investment

US-Iran Relations Timeline

1953: US and British agents secretly help overthrow Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossedeq, who had nationalized Iran’s oil.

1964: Ayotollah Khomeini goes into exile.

1969: Nixon Doctrine: Focus on alliances rather than direct intervention: “Vietnamization.”

1970s: Shah is major US ally in the Middle East (along with Israel and Saudi Arabia).

SAVAAK – secret military police

1979: Shah abdicates. Khomeini in power.

November 79: Embassy take-over.

Jan. 1981: Hostages released

Time, Nov. 10, 1980

“Iranian Toilet Paper”

The “Iron Sheik” An Iranian American wrestler, who in the early 1970s played an Arab,then an Iranian in the 80s, then an Arab again

Anti-Iranian protestors, summer 1980

Iran hostage family members at a press conferenceAug. 10, 1980

Family members at a meeting, Aug. 11, 1980

Iranian hostage-takers hold a press conference

Iranian Protesters Burn US Flag outside US Embassy

May 6, 1980

Iranian leaders view the wreckageof Desert One