History 474B

Devine

Spring 2010

Study Questions for David Farber, Taken Hostage

Chapter 1

1. Why do different groups – American and Iranian – see the beginning of the hostage crisis as occurring at different moments?

2. Why did the Iranian hostage crisis reflect and further erode the national mood in the United States? What were some of the factors that contributed to this grim national mood in the late 1970s?

3. Why was the United States’ role in the world uncertain during the 1970s?

4. What economic issues were troubling Americans during the 1970s? What had caused the economic uncertainty?

5. Why were Americans, who – from a comparative perspective to the rest of the world – were fairly well off, still worried about their economic future?

6. How did the oil crisis affect the American economy and the national mood? How did Americans respond to the energy crisis?

7. What solutions did President Carter offer to deal with the energy crisis? Why did his leadership prove ineffective?

Chapter 2

1. Why did many Iranians dislike the American government? Why was it easy for them to blame the United States for all of Iran’s troubles – real and imagined?

2. Why was U.S. foreign policy under attack from both the Right and the Left in the 1970s? How did President Carter propose to change U.S. foreign policy?

3. Who were Zbigniew Brzezinski and Cyrus Vance? What were their ideas on foreign policy? How did their ideas differ from each other and from those of President Carter?

4. How did the Cold War shape U.S. policy toward Iran? What role did oil play in U.S.-Iranian relations? How were the British involved?

5. Why did the U.S. end up supporting a coup against Muhammad Mossadegh? Why did many Iranians support the overthrow of Mossadegh as well?

6. How did American anticommunism affect U.S. policy toward Iran in the 1950s and 1960s? How did the Shah take advantage of his ally’s anticommunism?

7. What was “the White Revolution”? Why did Ayatollah Khomeini and others oppose it?

8. How did the American military immunity agreement (p. 65) work to Khomeini’s benefit?

9. How did the Shah benefit from the Nixon Doctrine (p,69)? In the long run, why was the Nixon-Kissinger policy toward Iran problematic?

Chapter 3

1. As he took office in 1977, what were some of the major characteristics of Jimmy Carter’s foreign policy? How did he differ in his approach from Nixon and Kissinger? In what ways were his basic assumptions similar to his predecessors?

2. As late as 1978, most Americans knew nearly nothing about Iran or the situation in that country. How did this differ from the Iranians’ knowledge and perception of the U.S.?

3. What factors help explain why the Shah’s regime had become so weak by the 1970s?

4. Why did young, well-educated people like Massoumeh Ebtekar (p. 87) reject the values of the West and support the Islamic Revolution in Iran?

5. Why was the Shah incapable of dealing with the growing revolution in his country? Why were U.S. pleas to “moderate” his regime unrealistic?

6. During the last days of his regime, what role did the Shah want the U.S. to play? Why wouldn’t the Carter administration play such a role?

7. Why did some U.S. officials believe that reaching out to Khomeini was the best option? What did President Carter think of this option?

Chapter 4

1. What was the response in the United States to the fall of the Shah’s regime? What did U.S. officials think about the “Islamic Revolution”? How about “average Americans”?

2. Why was Iran strategically (and financially) important to the United States?

3. Why was former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger critical of Carter’s Iran policy? Were his criticisms justified or misguided?

4. What problems, other than the situation in Iran, were on Jimmy Carter’s plate in 1979 that made his job more difficult? Were the problems of his own making? Were they due to circumstances beyond his control?

5. What were the arguments for and against allowing the Shah to settle in the United States?

6. How did religious devotion and willingness to believe conspiracies shape the ideas and actions of the Iranian students who seized the U.S. embassy?

Chapter 5

1. Why did the students storm the U.S. embassy? What did they hope to accomplish?

2. Why was it difficult for the Carter administration to negotiate with the Iranians during the first weeks of the hostage crisis?

3. Why did Khomeini support the taking of the hostages? How did this serve his own interests?

4. How did Carter handle the crisis in the early days? How did the American public respond?

5. How did the media present the crisis? What effect did this presentation have on public perceptions and attitudes?

6. How did the Iranians perceive the crisis? How did they use the media to disseminate their side of the story?

7. Most U.S. officials believed Khomeini was crazy. Farber argues that he was not. What do you think?

8. How did Carter react to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan?

9. Why did all of the Carter administration’s efforts to negotiate with the Iranians fail? What impact did the April 1980 rescue mission have on the crisis?

10. To what extent and to what degree does Carter deserve blame for his handling of the Hostage crisis?

11. How did the hostage crisis work to the advantage of the Reagan campaign?

Chapter 6 (Epilogue)

1. Why did Khomeini decide to release the hostages?

2. How did the Iran-Iraq war (p. 184) divert attention from the larger issue of emerging Islamic fundamentalism?

3. How did the debacle of the hostage crisis affect U.S. foreign policy in later years? In Lebanon, for example?

4. Carter saw his approach to foreign policy as fundamentally different than that of his predecessors. Iranians saw no such differences. Why does this matter?

5. What lesson does Farber believe the U.S. learned from the hostage crisis? What lessons didn’t the U.S. learn?