It raised some eyebrows when a veteran newsman said it on one of the television talk shows: That while the 9-1l-01 tragedies are considered by many to be the ignition for our long-term war with terrorism, the conflict actually started at least 25 years ago.
That is when the Shah of Iran fled his country for asylum and medical treatment in the United States. It is also when a throng of "students" took a number of Americans hostage in the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Was the die cast then for what we are facing now? There is more than passing evidence that at least the mental framework was established then. Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini made it quite clear at one point what might lie ahead.
In 1979, many efforts were made to free the Americans held in the Iranian capital. By then it was obvious that while some "students" had been involved in their seizure, the kidnapping came about with the blessing and support of the Islamic government. They demanded that the exiled shah be returned.
Efforts were being made to have American clergymen get access to the embassy to conduct Christmas services for the imprisoned. At the same time, two Kansas University faculty members, Norman Forer and Clarence Dillingham, went on a controversial private trip to Iran in an effort to negotiate with Khomeini and his people to get the Americans freed. They were unsuccessful.
In the meantime, Iranian students on the KU campus were undergoing background checks to see if any were in the country illegally or under false pretenses. Some were pro-Khomeini, others in favor of the shah, and there were some local clashes between the two factions. Public sentiment was definitely anti-Iranian and the students here had to be careful of their outward demeanor. Fortunately, there were no incidents of violence.
Ultimately, the U.S. clerics were allowed to conduct the Christmas services in Tehran. The Rev. William Sloan Coffin reported the official count of those being held at 43. He said they seemed in reasonably good spirits, said their food and medical care had been tolerable and that they were relieved the prisoners no longer had to spend a lot of time with their hands bound. It was an emotional, tearful time but it did not lead to any new freedom.
Meanwhile, the grim, unrelenting Khomeini appeared regularly and spoke often to keep his "students" motivated. At one point, he called the conflict a struggle between Islam and paganism" and said an unofficial state of war already existed, which in effect it may have, and has ever since.
It was Khomeini who formally labeled America "The Great Satan" and set the stage for ongoing resentment and action against America and its people. The troubling hostage situation and the resulting action and rhetoric may have set a foundation for what has happened in the years since: Growing hatred, resentment and jealousy about America and what it has and what it can do, and bitterness about the real and imagined wrongs and slights that the Islamic world has discerned as valid.
The more historians and analysts look at the overall picture, the more they are inclined to consider the 1979 Iranian hostage incidents were the fuse for the menacing powder keg we must deal with today.
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