Word: pakistans
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...wave of Muslim fanaticism and anti-American violence that swept far beyond Iran. In Saudi Arabia, possessor of the world's greatest reserves of oil and American dollars, a band of extreme religious zealots seized the Sacred Mosque in Mecca, the holiest shrine in all Islam (see WORLD). In Pakistan, a mob enraged by radio reports claiming that the U.S. had inspired the attack on the Mecca mosque stormed and set fire to the U.S. embassy. They left the modernistic, 30-acre compound a gutted ruin. Two Americans were killed; 90 others were rescued after seven hours of horror...
Khomeini's reaction to the embassy attack in Pakistan was "great joy" and a call for all Muslims to join in an uprising against Western influence...
Hearing of the violence, President Carter got on the telephone to President Mohammed Zia ul-Haq and told him that Pakistan was responsible for the Americans' safety. Zia, who seized power in a coup 2½ years ago and whose regime has been facing stiff resistance, said he had been doing what he could, but he proved reluctant to use real force against the crowd...
There were also large demonstrations in Karachi, and the American cultural centers in Lahore and Rawalpindi were burned and gutted. The next day Washington ordered all "nonessential embassy personnel" and dependents evacuated from Pakistan. Thereupon some 400 Americans, mostly wives and children of U.S. personnel, flew home...
...Steve Crowley, 19, a Long Islander who served in Pakistan about three months, had been assigned to roof duty, and a rioter had shot him in the side of the head. They got him down and brought him to an anteroom of the vault. A nurse hovered over him, fitting an oxygen mask. He lay in a pool of blood. I hadn't been scared at first, but now I was as I stood there looking at this young dying Marine...