Faculty Book Review--Spring 2007
Mark
Bowden's
Guests
of the Ayatollah
By Richard Beattie
Before there was Saddam
Hussein, Osama bin Laden, Al Quada, or the Taliban, there was
Ruholla Khomeini and the Muslim Students Following the Imam’s Line.
In November of 1979, the Muslim Students Following the Imam’s Line
occupied the United States embassy in the Iranian capital of Tehran,
and held its U.S. occupants hostage. What was initially intended to
be a brief demonstration of anti-Americanism turned into an ordeal
that lasted more than a year. For 444 days, 52 Americans were
detained in and around the embassy grounds despite American
diplomatic, as well as military, efforts to secure their release.
What became known as The Iranian Hostage Crisis is the subject of Mark Bowden’s recently released book, Guests Of The Ayatollah; The First Battle In America’s War With Militant Islam. Bowden is a former reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, now works as a correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, and is the author of several books including Bringing The Heat and Black Hawk Down (which was nominated for the National Book Award, and inspired the subsequent feature film). Bowden is a journalist, not an historian, and his work reads like journalism for the most part, albeit it very good journalism. Today’s journalist is as much a reporter of events as a commentator on those events, and in fact, we have come to expect commentary as well as the “story”. But what makes for good commentary often makes for bad journalism, and it is to Mark Bowden’s credit that he is able to do both to equal effect. Guests Of The Ayatollah; The First Battle In America’s War With Militant Islam is a well researched, highly detailed account of the lives of all participants in the Iranian Hostage Crisis during the months of captivity, from November 1979 to January 1980.
Bowden may not be an historian, but there is no telling the story of the hostage crisis without historical context, and Bowden is clear that many chickens came home to roost in 1979 Tehran. The 20th century has seen two significant Iranian Revolutions. Most Americans are aware of the one in the 1970’s, fewer are aware of the one in the 1950’s. Both attempted to rid Iran of western influence and the autocratic tendencies of the Pahlavi family, serving as Shahs. The United States was instrumental in augmenting the position of Reza Pahlavi in the 1950’s and endorsing his unpopular policies in Iran from 1941 to 1979, when Pahlavi was forced out of Iran for the last time by a coalition of liberal and Shi’a forces in 1979.
The United States provided sanctuary for the deposed Shah, raising the ire of many in Iran who demanded his return to be tried for committing crimes against his own people. Those who have followed the trial of Saddam Hussein now know such trials can have serious consequences, and consequently, the United States and its President, James E. Carter, refused to return the Shah. The embassy was taken in November of 1979, ostensibly in an attempt to hold U.S. hostages until that time the Shah was returned. A demand rendered moot when Raza Pahlavi left the U.S. for Panama, and then Egypt (where he died in July of 1980).
Following a fairly typical 20th century pattern of revolution, the Iranian Revolution of 1979 involved complicated, and often conflicting groups within a shaky coalition which would collapse after the initial objective of removing the Shah was accomplished. What started as a liberal or “democratic” revolution for the deposition of a tyrant became increasingly dominated by the Shi’a mullahs who wielded tremendous influence in Iran. The highest religious authority at the time, was the Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini (public enemy #1 for Americans of my generation). There are many players in Bowden’s book, and we get to know each of them pretty intimately, but one of the interesting facets of development in the book is that one doesn’t get a very clear picture of Khomeini’s view of the hostage crisis. The Muslim Students Following the Imam’s Line occupy the U.S. Embassy in his name, but he is not informed of the operation before it is implemented, and initially speaks out against it, only sanctioning the taking of the embassy after it is a successful fait’ d’acompli. Throughout the lengthy negotiating process, Khomeini remains an enigmatic, almost sphinx like figure.
One of the other central characters in the book is, of course, President James E. Carter. It is one of several tragedies of his administration that the Hostage Crisis came to almost define his presidency. Long suffering, patient, and perhaps overly cautious, Carter maintained a belief in diplomacy and reason in addressing the Hostage Crisis. These admirable qualities actually made him appear weak and indecisive in dealing with the vicissitudes of the Iranian government. The fact of the matter is that there was little Iranian “government” to deal with, which made negotiating a frustrating and ultimately futile process. A rescue attempt, fraught with logistical obstacles, turned into embarrassing failure and another misfortunate tragedy, and the very same critics of Carter who had called him weak and ineffectual then grilled him for being overly impulsive and taking foolish risks with American lives.
The significance of Guests Of The Ayatollah; The First Battle In America’s War With Militant Islam, lies in its subtext, in the fact that we can take the Iranian Hostage Crisis out of the 1970’s and place it squarely in the third millennium. Mark Bowden knows why this episode is important, not merely as an historical study, but as a harbinger. He rarely editorializes in the book, but when he does, he does it well, and to great effect: “The taking of the embassy in Tehran was a crime…Anyone who believes in the importance of diplomacy as an alternative to war ought to regard that failure (the failure to achieve an international diplomatic resolution of the crisis) as significant, and those who see the UN as an answer to the world’s conflicts ought to take note.”
America’s current war on terrorism, and in part, on Islamic fundamentalism, faces a similar Catch-22. How does a nation deal with governments and individuals through diplomatic organizations and structures when the very people one is dealing with don’t recognize the authority or legitimacy of said organizations? When, in fact, those organizations are perceived as symptomatic of what they may be fighting against. The Iranian Hostage Crisis was a retaliation against the loss of tradition, and American diplomats in Tehran bore the brunt of that retaliation. A symbolic gesture aimed at the Great Satan. There are many who claim that Iran’s position in the world was forever tarnished by the 1979 embassy takeover, and that it has retarded their progress for the last twenty-five years. Chickens come home to roost…we call it history. No nation, like no individual, can exist devoid of it’s past. It is part of the fabric of what we become, always. On the very first page of Bowden’s Guests Of The Ayatollah; The First Battle In America’s War With Militant Islam, there is a photograph of Jerry Miele, a CIA Communications officer, blindfolded, and being led through the embassy compound, put on display before an angrily triumphant Iranian crowd. The man on Miele’s right is believed by many to be Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the current President of Iran. So you tell me. Where do we go from here?