Brandon Goodge
AP United States History
February 18, 2013
Mr. Schluter
Annotated Bibliography The Iranian Hostage Crisis took place in Tehran, Iran in 1979 when a group of several hundred Islamic militant students broke into the United States Embassy. The Islamic students were only supposed to keep the Americans for a short period of time; however, they kept them for over one year. With Americans being held hostage, President Carter was left with no choice but to issue Operation Eagle Claw, a mission intended to rescue the hostages. The operation failed horribly in planning and execution. The mission had to be aborted because it had been determined that six helicopters had to make it to the rendezvous point. In fact, after aborting the mission, one of the five helicopters crashed into a fuel plane, causing even more lives and damage. This failed attempt by President Carter to save the hostages was seen by the American people as embarrassing. Also, it made the people think of Mr. Carter as weak. This failed mission also played a role in President Carter’s next election, where he lost to Ronald Reagan.
` My four primary sources consist of two online newspaper articles, one online encyclopedia source, and one letter. The first article comes from The New York Times and is about the poor planning of Operation Eagle Claw. The second New York Times article talks about the connection of the Hostage Crisis to the generally hostile relationship the U.S. has with