Taken Hostage On November 4, 1979 a group of angered Iranian students flooded into the United States Embassy in Tehran, Iran. What was planned to be a purely symbolic sit-in quickly turned into a dramatic 444-day ordeal in which 52 American diplomats and citizens alike were held hostage until their release in January of 1981. David Farber’s “Taken Hostage: The Iran Hostage Crisis and America’s First Encounter with Radical Islam” delves into the history behind the United State’s first encounter with Islamic fundamentalists and initial brush with terrorism that would later play a large role in the present-day War on Terror. While Farber’s study displays many common themes, like the poor portrayal of President Carter and the large role the media
…show more content…
This “Cold War policy” would soon play a large role in the crisis between the United States and radical Islam. Rather than viewing the unfolding catastrophe as the United State’s first entanglement with radical Islam, Cold War policy shaped the response the United States had to the crisis by American policymakers viewing Iran through a Cold War paradigm, seeing “Soviet Red and not Islamic Green” as Farber states (Farber 5). As an initial containment strategy to stop the spread of communism, the United States government appointed the Shah of Iran in 1953. Tensions started rising as Iranians saw the United States as playing a large role in determining Iran’s future. Farber states “the Shah’s growing number of opponents believed that the United States continued to play a fundamental role in maintaining the Shah in power and in determining Iran’s destiny” (Farber 37). Soon enough, the United State’s Cold War policy began to fail. As political unrest in Iran morphed into outright revolution, the Shah of Iran was forced to flee and sought refuge in the United …show more content…
values. During the Spanish-American war, the United State’s interest in the annexation of Cuba after its revolution called into question the American values of democracy and self-determination. American values were called into question once again during World War I when the American people (and initially President Woodrow Wilson himself) strongly valued neutrality when it came to entering the war. However, when the interest of keeping the American people safe was called into question, President Wilson urged Congress to declare war immediately. Following the U.S. entry to war, legislature was passed violating one of the most fundamental United States values, free speech, in order to further the interests of uplifting the war effort by preventing spoken opposition. Again, during World War II, the United States betrayed its values of Civil Rights by interning thousands of Japanese-Americans again to keep the interest of American safety. The Cold War and the War on Terror are just two more examples in a long list of times the United Sates has conflicted its own values to peruse its interests. Rather than rewrite our values to reflect our actions, its time for the United States to stick to its values. Instead of holding onto values and then betraying them once contradictory interests come into play, the U.S. needs to align its values with its
This “Cold War policy” would soon play a large role in the crisis between the United States and radical Islam. Rather than viewing the unfolding catastrophe as the United State’s first entanglement with radical Islam, Cold War policy shaped the response the United States had to the crisis by American policymakers viewing Iran through a Cold War paradigm, seeing “Soviet Red and not Islamic Green” as Farber states (Farber 5). As an initial containment strategy to stop the spread of communism, the United States government appointed the Shah of Iran in 1953. Tensions started rising as Iranians saw the United States as playing a large role in determining Iran’s future. Farber states “the Shah’s growing number of opponents believed that the United States continued to play a fundamental role in maintaining the Shah in power and in determining Iran’s destiny” (Farber 37). Soon enough, the United State’s Cold War policy began to fail. As political unrest in Iran morphed into outright revolution, the Shah of Iran was forced to flee and sought refuge in the United …show more content…
values. During the Spanish-American war, the United State’s interest in the annexation of Cuba after its revolution called into question the American values of democracy and self-determination. American values were called into question once again during World War I when the American people (and initially President Woodrow Wilson himself) strongly valued neutrality when it came to entering the war. However, when the interest of keeping the American people safe was called into question, President Wilson urged Congress to declare war immediately. Following the U.S. entry to war, legislature was passed violating one of the most fundamental United States values, free speech, in order to further the interests of uplifting the war effort by preventing spoken opposition. Again, during World War II, the United States betrayed its values of Civil Rights by interning thousands of Japanese-Americans again to keep the interest of American safety. The Cold War and the War on Terror are just two more examples in a long list of times the United Sates has conflicted its own values to peruse its interests. Rather than rewrite our values to reflect our actions, its time for the United States to stick to its values. Instead of holding onto values and then betraying them once contradictory interests come into play, the U.S. needs to align its values with its