Consider This from NPR - 'He saved our lives.' A former US hostage reflects on Carter's legacy

Episode Date: January 9, 2025

Jimmy Carter's four years in the White House were largely defined by an event that took place halfway through his term. On November 4th, 1979 Iranian college students took over the US Embassy in Tehran, and took 52 Americans hostage.For the next 444 days, the Carter administration tried to secure the hostages' release. In April, 1980 they even commissioned a rescue mission that ended in failure. While Carter was trying to end the hostage crisis, he was also campaigning for a second term. A year to the day after the Americans were taken hostage, Ronald Reagan beat Carter in a landslide.The hostage crisis played a key role in Carter's defeat. The Iranian Hostage crisis helped doom Jimmy Carter's presidency, but for some of the people he helped free, he was a hero. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.orgEmail us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Jimmy Carter's four years in the White House were largely defined by an event that took place halfway through his term. The U.S. Embassy in Tehran has been invaded and occupied by Iranian students. The Americans inside have been taken prisoner, and according to a student spokesman, will be held as hostages until the deposed Shah is returned from the United States, where he's receiving medical treatment for cancer. On November 4, 1979, Iranian college students took over the U.S. embassy in Tehran. They took 52 Americans hostage. For the next 444 days, the Carter administration tried to secure the hostages release. In April of 1980, they even commissioned a rescue mission that ended in failure. There has been the startling new development in the Iran hostage crisis.

That U.S. attempt to launch a military rescue of the American hostages in Tehran has been, as you have now heard several times, aborted. There was no fighting. There was no combat. But to my deep regret, eight of the crewmen of the two aircraft which collided were killed, and several other Americans were hurt in the accident. While Carter was trying to end the hostage crisis, he was also campaigning for a second term. A year to the day after the Americans were taken hostage, Ronald Reagan beat Carter in a landslide.

The time has come. You've seen the map, we've looked at the figures, and NBC News now makes its projection for the presidency. Reagan is our projected winner, Ronald Wilson Reagan of California, a sports announcer, a film actor, a governor of California. The hostage crisis played a key role in Carter's defeat. But even after he lost re-election, with the clock ticking on his presidency, Carter kept working to bring the 52 Americans home, negotiating with the Iranians until there were just hours left in his presidency.

Those final moments narrated here by then White House Press Secretary Jody Powell in an ABC News special on the hostages' release. At this point, the president had last been asleep about midnight, not that night, but the night before, Sunday night. So he had been up virtually since Sunday morning with only about an hour's rest. Here was President Carter confirming the deal that he had struck. Right on, man. That's great. That's great.

Okay, now, the next step in. Now, the bank... Okay, so the Bank of England has certified the depository. But even though the deal was done before Reagan took the oath of office, the plane carrying the hostages sat on a runway in Iran until Reagan's inauguration. U.P.I. has just gone with a flash, which is in effect the highest, the most important notification of news that they can give.

The last time they did it was with the Kennedy assassination. It's two words. It says, hostages free. So Jimmy Carter was no longer president when the hostages were freed. Consider this, the Iranian hostage crisis helped doom Jimmy Carter's presidency. But for some of the people he helped free, he was a hero.

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Healthcare. Better and less expensive. Follow coverage of a changing country. Promises made, promises kept. We're going to keep our promise. On the NPR Politics Podcast. It's Consider This from NPR. Former President Jimmy Carter left Washington for the final time Thursday afternoon. Washington was never a comfortable place for the man from Plains, Georgia, and it's generally believed that Carter was a better former president than president.

One reason for that perception is the Iranian hostage crisis. For the last 444 days of Carter's presidency, 52 Americans were held prisoner at the U.S. Embassy in Iran, including Barry Rosen, who was then the press attache at the embassy. Welcome. Thank you. You have said that if it weren't for President Carter, you wouldn't be here today. What do you mean by that? Well, I sincerely believe that he saved our lives. I mean, he sacrificed his presidency

and worked assiduously for those 444 days to make our freedom the uppermost in his mind. Can you tell us more about that? What leads you to say that it was the most important thing to him? Well, I remember my wife Barbara meeting with President Carter during that time, and she showed photos of my young son Alexander, who was about three at that time, and Ariana, my daughter, was one.

And you could see the toll it was taking on him, and that he put that photograph in his suit pocket, and I knew for sure that he looked at that. He carried the photo of your children while you were in captivity being held hostage. Yes. And do you give any credence to the criticism that if he had handled it differently,

the crisis could have ended sooner, that you would not have had to have spent as many days being held hostage as you were? you would not have had to have spent as many days being held hostage as you were? After, after all these years, I felt that there was no other alternative. I mean, uh, yes, there could have been military action against Iran, but I think that might have, um, would have been taken out on us. And I think, um, it would have been, it would have been taken out on, on us. And, and I think, um, it would have been, it would have been in severe. We were treated terribly during the hostage crisis.

I was only outside for 15 minutes, only one time during the entire situation. And only outdoors once in 444 days for 15 minutes. Yes. I picked up a piece of grass that was in, on the ground, put it in my pocket. And, you know, that was, it brought me back to my days as a young boy with my father and going to baseball games. Those moments of freedom, those minutes were amazingly important for my survival.

Everything about the story of your captivity is extraordinary, not least of which is the events leading up to your release. President Carter personally negotiated many of the details of the release, including the unfreezing of billions in Iranian assets, but you and the other hostages were not freed until after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as president.

Your plane sat on the runway. What were those final moments like? Well, those final moments were unbelievably nerve wracking. We were put on a bus, blindfolded, taken, I suspect, to Marherabad airport at that time. It took over an hour. And, um, as I stepped off the bus, I saw in a distance, uh, a light person pointing toward me.

Your blindfolds were removed at this point? Yeah. Yes. Yes, they were. And then, uh, a phalanx of the student Milton's, uh, spat at me. And, uh, I, I then ran to the air Algiers plane that was taking us to Algeria on our first leg to the trip to Wiesbaden. I couldn't believe it.

I think that there's a photo of me getting on the plane. I think I was absolutely astonished. Yeah. It was so amazing to just see the people that I hadn't seen for all those all those months. We were never all together. We were always separated and one would never know from one day to the next if you were moved or whether a gun would be held to your head, whether you would be forced to sign some sort of statement of being a spy in a platter.

So you arrived in Wiesbaden in what was then West Germany and Jimmy Carter, newly a former president, was there to meet you. What do you remember about that first meeting? It was tense. And, um, he was with vice president Mondale and, uh, secretary of state muskie, but he had the courage I thought to come and see us knowing that many, many, many of us were very upset with him and couldn't understand the decisions that were made in terms of permitting the Shah into the United States.

I know those were the Cold War years and all of that, but the anger was present and. Were you personally angry? I was. I have to admit that. I just couldn't understand why all that time was spent. And we never, never really had a notion of what was going on during that entire time. The hostage takers gave us no information at all about anything.

And so the isolation was so severe. And now with more than 40 years of hindsight, do you still feel that anger or what are your feelings? No, I don't. do you still feel that anger or what are your feelings? No, I don't have that anger. You know, I have a better understanding of the situation that he faced and that he brought us back alive and anything could have happened during those 444 days and

I might not have seen my my wife Barbara and my two children Alexander, Ariana and and and my grandchildren now. So I credit him for taking the real pains of that situation and really trying to extricate us out of, I think, the first real big hostage situation, hostage crisis that America faced. Barry Rosen was one of 52 Americans held hostage in Iran from November 1979 until January 1981. Thank you for sharing some of your story with us. Thank you. This episode was produced by Elena Burnett

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