444 days hostage crisis
66 Americans held hostage at the US Embassy in Iran were released after 444 days, within hours of Reagan's inauguration.
Snapshot · Stuff You Should Know
Selects: Iran-Contra Affair: Shady in the 80s, Part 2
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Aug 8, 2026
Where this was said
Iran Context: The Revolution, Hostages, and Reagan's Bind
At 6:07 · chapter starts 3:40
Before diving into deals and missiles, Josh and Chuck establish why Iran mattered so much in this period. The 1979 Iranian Revolution transformed a relatively Westernized country overnight into an Islamic theocracy under Ayatollah Khomeini, and with it came deep hostility toward America. The US Embassy was stormed and 66 Americans held for 444 days — a humiliation that defined the Carter presidency. Chuck remembers as a 9-year-old hearing playground arguments about whether Carter or Reagan deserved credit for the release, which happened within hours of Reagan's inauguration and struck many as far too convenient to be coincidental. Reagan had campaigned loudly on never negotiating with terrorists, a longstanding American policy premised on the logic that negotiating incentivizes more kidnappings. But American hostages — taken by Lebanese terrorists backed by Iran — were being held throughout Reagan's presidency, creating a politically untenable situation Reagan needed to resolve without appearing to break his own vow.
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