Do Americans Remember
Out in the real world, it may be 2026, but Matthew Henessey in the WSJ writes that in his house, it is still 1980. He forgives the pundits and prognosticators with no living memory of the Iran hostage crisis. They are young and have missed the first few seasons of “The Ayatollah Chronicles.” That shows.
Perhaps the world was bigger then. The Middle East more mysterious. The Media smaller. The discourse narrower.
One story at a time. Front page news. Daily conversation in the aisles of supermarkets and hardware stores. All focused on the 52 Americans being held at the U.S. embassy in Tehran.
How did those trees sprout yellow ribbons? And who prompted schoolchildren to write letters to hostages? Makeshift memorials crafted by Veterans organizations. Ted Kippel on TV, counting off the day. Eight U.S. troops (five airmen and three Marines) died in Operation Eagle Claw. The failed April 1980 rescue attempt.
The Nation prayed and held its breath. Mr. Henessey reminds readers how long fourteen and a half months is for any nation not to breathe.
Hostages returned in January 1981.
An estimated 200,000 people lined the route from Stewart Airport in Westchester County, N.Y., to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where the 52 spent their first night stateside after more than a year in captivity.
Wrote Kathy Sawyer in The Washington Post, “Americans by the millions, while aware of the returnees’ need for gentle handling, could not suppress an outburst of celebration at their safe homecoming.”
The entire episode was a national obsession, a psychological wound kept open for 444 days.
For that reason, writes Matthew Hessessey, he has no problem with what transpired this weekend. In fact, he writes, he “welcomes it.”
The mullahs who run Iran are murderous thugs. They kill women for showing their hair. They throw people in jail for dancing. They execute homosexuals. Death to America is their official foreign policy. They want Salman Rushdie’s head on a platter. The world is a better place without them.
