Word: beene
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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If the trouble had been correctly anticipated, the U.S. might have closed its embassy. But the Administration reasoned that the risk of maintaining its embassy was worth it. The situation seemed to be in flux, and the Administration felt a U.S. presence in Tehran would act as a moderating force...
Once the Administration decided to stay in Iran, it made little sense to try moving the embassy to more defensible quarters. As Carter said last week: "An embassy is not a fortress. There are no embassies anywhere in the world that can long withstand the attack of a mob, if...
The Administration's emergency plans certainly can be criticized on one point: with the demonstrators roaming outside the walls, U.S. personnel should have been able to destroy all documents. The Marine guards held off the mob long enough to enable officials to shred important classified files and smash encoding...
In sum, the Administration can be criticized for failing to anticipate the extent of the trouble that would arise, but its actions since the fall of the Shah seem generally to have been prudent and reasonable.
There is also ample historical precedent, sadly enough, for the Iranian students' assault on the U.S. embassy in Tehran. Though the inviolability of the diplomatic envoy has been a principle practiced since the Middle Ages, embassies and representatives of governments have frequently been targets for protest. In 1829 a...