Hostage Crisis Resolved
University Daily Kansan, January 19, 1981 Page 7
Reagan transition now easier
WASHINGTON (UPI) - Freedom for U.S.
gift to Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter could say Ronald Reagan.
With just one full day left in his presidency, Carter finally removed the most persistent thorn from the side of his administration and eliminated the worst diplomatic problem facing Reagan. It cannot help but make the new president's job easier.
Although the hostage situation cannot entirely be blamed for Carter's loss in November, it cast a long shadow over his presidency for a full year before Americans voted him out of office.
Unable to do anything about the situation for fear of retribution against the hostages, Carter had to pay the political price—becoming the whipping boy for voter frustration.
The seizure of the hostages took the sheen off Carter's accomplishments in other international areas—the Camp David Middle East accords and human rights.
The hostages kept Carter from campaigning in the primaries and kept him close to the White House. The group was determined to kill them.
Had Carter been unable to win the freedom of the hostages before leaving office, the situation would have bevelled Reagan as it did his predecessor.
Reagan almost certainly would have had to reexamine terms of the agreement proposed by Carter. He would have been under strong pressure from some conservatives not to make it with the Iranians that made it appear ransom was being paid for release of the hostages.
It would take the new administration weeks or months just to bring the negotiations back to fruition.
And during that period other foreign policy initiatives, especially the start of renegotiation of the SALT II Treaty, would be on the back burner. Reagan can back in fallout of national euphoria accompanying the hostages' welcome home.
Reagan's inauguration comes at a time when many Americans feel the nation's problems at home and abroad are beyond a president's control.
During the hostage crisis many local demonstrations were staged by KU's Iranian students. But Iranians were not the only ones from the Mideast protesting. Many Mideast controversies were the subject of protests by Islamic students, including the alleged lack of human rights in Syria. A group of students marched along Jayhawk Boulevard last October "No Easter, no West, Islam is the back."
Aborted rescue attempt leaves U.S. scarred
By United Press International
As weeks of U.S.-Iranian charges and countercharges passed and Americans wondered whether the hostages would ever be freed, President Carter and his team of special advisers decided a rescue attempt was practical and necessary.
Last spring the Carter administration had taken a low-key approach to the hostage crisis. Then came April 24 and a daring rescue attempt—and eight deaths.
President-elect Reagan
After practice attempts at the top-secret "area 51" in the Nevada desert and aboard the nuclear carrier Nimitz in the Indian Ocean, an elite antiretrist force was declared ready. The military said the plan had an excellent chance for success.
C1-138 Hercules transport planes flew from Egypt, made a rest stop on the Gulf of Oman, then a rendezvous in the desert near Tabas, 200 km away. The plane were there to rescue eight HH-53 helicopters.
The helicopters, carrying 90 men who had trained at Fort Bragg, N.C., took off from the Nimitz on a 500-mile flight, mostly across desert, to the refueling point.
From there, the helicopters, each capable of carrying 55 passengers, were to fly to a mountain hideout near Tehran and the rescuers would drive the next day to Tehran in trucks and other vehicles, attacking the embassy with automatic weapons and using incapacitating gas if necessary. They hoped the hostages presumably their Iranian agents and helpers would then be picked up by helicopters and taken
Carter gave the go-ahead for the daring rescue mission on April 24.
One developed trouble with its gyros while flying through a sandstorm or dust cloud. Pilots do not know which. A second came down on enemy territory short of the rendezvous point for the crew. The crew was rescued by its buddy aircraft. A third chopper developed hydraulic problems.
But the mission was aborted because of the failure of three hellcotters.
to a new rendezvous with the C-130s outside Tebran for a flight to freedom.
Because the mission planners thought they needed a minimum of six helicopters to carry out the rescue plan, the commander on the ground in the Daht-E-Kavar desert, Col. Charles Beckwith, a tough, ex-Vietnam special forces commander, recommended the mission be aborted. Washington agreed and radioed the ground forces to call off the mission.
Then, one of the remaining helicopters smashed from an altitude of 15 feet into a parked C-130 transport. The transport plane burst into flames and eight Americans died.
Iran again denounced the United States—“the great Satan”) and the hostages, except for three officials held in the Iranian foreign ministry, two of whom were killed by assassery and hidden in various cities throughout Iran.
The next morning, President Carter told a disgusted and saddened nation how the mission hit.
WASHINGTON (UPD)—President Carter won praise from Capitol Hill today for patience and perseverance" in ending the hostage crisis that haunted his presidency until its closure hours.
Crisis' end earns Carter much praise
"Beautiful result," said Sean. Paul Laxat, R-1,
one of Ronald Reagan's closest allies in
RCA.
"I think that the president, (Deputy Secretary of State) Warren Christopher, the whole team over there, deserves an awful lot of commendation," Laxalt said on NBC's "Today" telecast. "They really hung in there these last several vexing days."
Shortly after the rescue attempt, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance resigned in a policy dispute with Carter. Vance fell the rescue was too rainy and lost all lives of the hostages and would not support it.
"We have waited a long time and it has been a frustrating experience for all Americans," said Senate Democratic Leader Robert Byrd, D-Wa. "President Carter is to be commended for his patience, perseverance in working for the return of the Americans held prisoner in Iran."
A key Senate Republican even predicted history will judge the Democratic President more favorably because of his success in resolving the 14-month crisis.
"I think it would have been a tragedy if he had left office without it being resolved—a personal tragedy and a national tragedy," said Sen. Robert Dole, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The laudatory comments, coming on the eve of Carter's departure from office and Reagan's resignation, were a strong endorsement.
"I think if he had not resolved the hostage issue, it would have been the single greatest symbol of American failure. Having resolved it, Mr. Griffin gratified." Percy said in a telephone interview.
Edmund Muskie, the senior U.S. Senator from Maine, was named to succeed Vance.
Ask whether it improves the perception of Carter's residence. he reniled: "Yes, it does."
Rep. Clement J. Zablocki, D-Wis., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, will be able show that the president's firmness and williness are valued, the firmness and williness. The nation owes him its collective thanks."
Percy, asked by NBC if any American money was involved in the deal, said, "Not one cent of money other than what Iran owned, was entitled to undisputed."
Zabiocki release of the hostages, imminent in the aftermath of Carter's own announcement of a settlement, "is cause for rejoicing not only because of the Americans and the entire international community."
Sen. Charles Mathias, R-Md., said the announcement "lifts an enormous restraint off our policy in that area and it's going to give us a freedom of action" in policy toward Iran.
Of Carter, he said, "He did what had to be done and really what could be done."
Dollars the key to ending crisis
WASHINGTON—The agreement to end the hostage ordeal is a straight dollars-for-people deal: Iran frees the $2 American captives and the United States releases Iranian assets.
But U.S. officials insist Iran is not getting "a dime of American money."
"The basic exchange is we're getting back what they took from us and giving back to them what we took from them, as a result," State spokesman John Tratner said Sunday.
Vice President Walter F. Mondale, interviewed Sunday on ABC's "Issues and Answers," denied the deal amounts to the United States' paying ransom.
"We are not paying a dime of American money for the return of these hostages, he said." The iranians are not receiving anything that is being delivered, and they have frozen, that we will be returning to them."
Besides returning Iran's gold and dollars held in American banks since shortly after the hostages were taken Nov. 4, 1979, 12 major American banks also reportedly agreed to drop lawsuits seeking repayment of money they contend Iran owes them.
Iron retreated from its estimate of $14 billion in frozen assets, which the Carter administration insisted totaled about $9.5 billion. Mondale said Sunday the final figure is about $8 billion.
Of that, Iran would get about $5.2 billion immediately.
Late last week, the Carter administration readied $2.2 billion for delivery to an escrow account that could be turned over to Iran when the hostages are released.
More than $3 billion now held in European branches of American banks also would be released. Iran would use about $1 billion in Iranian deposits in those banks to repay in full the loans obtained by the government of the late former shah.
The Washington Post said Sunday an additional $2 billion would be placed in an escrow account and used to pay off the remaining loans by American banks to Iranian institutional borrowers, such as development banks, and Iranian companies.
Perhaps the most significant concession by Iran involves its demand for the return of the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's wealth. Of the $24 billion that Iran demanded last month be represented in the crow account, $13 billion represented the assets Iran promised the shah had in the United States.
That would have required an appropriation by Congress because there is no legal way for the U.S. government to attach the shah's money. Moreover, the Carter administration's own estimate of the shah's wealth was only a small fraction of Iran's future.
Long Weekend
From page 1
Iran eventually accepted the American argument that Iran's right to any such properties must be determined within the American court system.
At 9:45 p.m., 10-hour meeting between bankers and legal experts ends and State Department announces a "final proposal" sent off to Algiers to be transmitted to Tehran.
US. final proposal arrives about midnight, Washington time.
At 6 a.m. it is announced Iranians had responded with series of specific questions. Radio Tehran carries interview with Iranian minister and also gives in positive terms of agreement nearly concluded.
Powell tells news briefing he is not aware "of anything that's happened that would have changed the relative mix of optimism and pessimism that existed day."
Saturday afternoon;
Sunday morning;
On Saturday afternoon it is learned Iranian Parliament will hold unusual session at 11:30 p.m. EST. There were reports it might ratify.
At 10:52 a.m. EST, NABAVI, in statement relayed by Iranian news agency PARS, says agreement reached at 10 a.m. EST, but U.S. agrees "few wrinkles" remaining to be lioned out.
At 9:30 a.m., Reagan, leaving Blair House
at the street from White House for services
at National Presbyterian Church, tells reporters
that his plantans) deliver the hosts, TI
sign anything."
At 1: 24, deputy press secretary Rex Granum pressured skiffs from the State Department and called officials.
Sundav afternoon:
Carter returns at 12:43 p.m., by met vise President Mondale, Treasury Secretary Miller, Attorney General Civiettle and Culter, who has White House Counsel. They go the oval office.
At noon Powell says "we don't have any confirmation of an agreement." Two minutes later he says Carter returning early from Camp David.
At 2:40, Muskie says still too early for timetable on release of hostages.
Forty minutes later, deputy treasury secretary Robert Carwell brings agreement for
Carter to initial that, when flashed to London, the scrawl on the escrow account holding part of Iran's france.
Shortly before 4, meeting in oval office breaks up. Carter in touch with Christopher by telephone during meeting to iron out few remaining wrinkles.
After meeting, Carter telephones hostage families and families of eight men killed in aborted rescue mission in April, telling them long ordeal drawing to end.
At 17:00 p.m., Carter goes to State Department for ceremonies honoring Secretary of State Edmund Muskie and Christopher, tells crowd he is hopeful and asks their prayers.
At 9 p.m., explaining the delay, a White House side says U.S. guarding against "one chance in a lifetime" was necessary.
At 11:15 p.m., White House official announces
new appointments to Tehran and awaits only
initiation by him.
Monday morning:
At 2:30, "we're waiting to hear from the Iranians," White House official says.
At 1:48 a.m. UFT reports two Algerian Boeing
aircraft carrying three people on a way to
Tebran, carrying busses but no passengers.
At 2:53, Algeria's state radio says Iran has agreed on the agreement and the documents being floated by Iran.
At 3:35, Christopher signs documents for the United States.
At 4:58, Carter—his face somber—makes brief nationally broadcast announcement that agreement has been reached. White House sources say he is preparing to fly to West Germany; he is also expected to attend and will be back in Washington by noon Tuesday to turn the presidency over to Reagan.
At 4:15, Carter, his wife Rosalyn, and top aides Powell, Jordan and Carunc uncork champagne for "a brief period of thanksgiving—restrained and tasteful."
On the ove last April of a trip to Iran by three clergymen, Norman Forne
the clergymen, the Rev Jack Brouker, a Methodist minister from KU's
clergymen, the Rev Jack Brucker, a Methodist minister from KU's
Exeumenical Christian Ministries, Linda Burdell, a member of Forer's Committee for American-Iranian Crisis Resolution is also pictured. Forer led two delegations to Iran, December 1979 and February 1980.