Word: stilling
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Administration?and for President Carter personally?the seizure of the embassy was a nightmare. At its very worst, it could lead to the deaths of the Americans, and endanger the 300 or so other U.S. citizens still in Iran?all of whom were advised by the State Department to leave the country as expeditiously as possible. However the crisis ends, it seems likely to enhance the impression of American helplessness...
...government. Carter then designated former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and onetime State Department Iranian Expert William Miller as his personal envoys, both of whom knew Khomeini; the Ayatullah refused to see them. After that, the U.S. consented to try the good offices of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and still later it called on the U.K. for help...
...there is any issue Khomeini's government has seized upon, it is the Shah, whom they consider to be murderous. When the U.S. let him in, even for humanitarian reasons, it was almost predictable that there would be a tremendous reaction in Iran." In Bill's view, many Iranians still fear that the Shah might be attempting a comeback, with covert U.S. assistance. "To us that seems ridiculous," says Bill, "but we are dealing with Iranians and their perceptions of reality." Indeed the question of the Shah's admission to the U.S. is a contentious issue among Americans as well...
Even if a rescue force managed to land undetected at Mehrabad Airport, the chances of saving the hostages would still be slim to none. In contrast to the Entebbe situation, where the Israelis were being held at a relatively lightly guarded airport on the outskirts of Kampala, a city with a population of only some 350,000, the American hostages were in downtown Tehran. To get to the embassy, U.S. forces would have to fight their way through streets probably clogged deliberately by huge crowds called out by the Ayatullah Khomeini. Many Iranians would undoubtedly have weapons, including perhaps...
Outside the medical center, the crowd of demonstrators has become smaller and quieter since the seizure of the embassy; but the protesters-carrying signs calling for the Shah's death-are still there...