Word: raids
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...fact, the sands had barely settled in Iran's Dasht-e-Kavir desert before Carter took to the road. On Sunday he slipped away from the White House to an undisclosed location to meet with 150 of the commandos who participated in the raid. Afterward, the President made sure that Americans learned of the visit by emotionally describing to Democratic congressional leaders how Colonel Charlie Beckwith, commander of the assault force, had apologized for the failure. The teary-eyed President embraced Beckwith and replied: "You have nothing to apologize for. I thank...
...journey. It evidently did nothing to hurt him in the Texas primary, which he swept five days later. Senator Edward Kennedy, who spent a minimum of time campaigning in Texas, avoided any direct criticism of the hostage rescue attempt, though he tried to get political mileage out of the raid by visiting the wounded commandos in San Antonio. But Kennedy was less reticent about Carter's return to active campaigning. Said he: "We have had a failed military intrusion into Iran. [Carter] has lost five of the last seven primaries [and state caucuses] and now he is willing...
...ceremony honored five of the eight servicemen who died two weeks ago in Iran's Dasht-e-Kavir desert during the aborted raid to rescue the Americans held hostage in Tehran. Some 5,000 people gathered at Hurlburt in memory of the five air commandos who had been stationed there. One by one, the lost men were eulogized. Said Lieut. Colonel Calvin Chasteen about his comrade, Captain Richard L. Bakke, a 33-year-old navigator: "He looked forward with enthusiasm and anticipation to this last opportunity to serve, not for the glory it offered but for the deep satisfaction...
Meanwhile, investigations were begun by Congress and the Pentagon into what happened during the rescue and why it failed. Carter firmly defended his decision to make the attempt. He reaffirmed his confidence in the Pentagon's plan for the raid as "a fine operation that everyone believed had a good chance for success." And, he argued, using one of the year's more improbable euphemisms, "there is a deeper failure than that of incomplete success, and that is the failure to attempt a worthy effort, a failure...
Nonetheless, a worldwide debate was raging over the raid. A Pentagon whose planes had not even been detected while flying into Iran, much less shot at, now was barraged by bombs of criticism. Some were hurled wildly by armchair strategists, others by more knowledgeable experts...