Bonus Ep! Kharg Island, Carter, Khomeini, and 'Eagle Claw'

Summary

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History As It Happens

BONUS EP! Kharg Island, Carter, Khomeini, and 'Eagle Claw'

Host: Martin Di Caro
Guest: Jeremy Suri, historian and professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas
Release Date: April 1, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this special bonus episode, Martin Di Caro explores how the dramatic events of the 1979-1981 Iran Hostage Crisis echo in contemporary geopolitics, particularly through the lens of attempted military interventions like Operation Eagle Claw and the geostrategic importance of Kharg Island. The conversation, featuring historian Jeremy Suri, connects past crises with current headlines, including recent decisions by President Donald Trump regarding U.S. actions in the Persian Gulf. The discussion highlights the continuity and evolution of U.S.-Iran dynamics, the roots of the hostage crisis, and how history’s lessons—sometimes forgotten—shape present-day policy.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

The 1979-1980 Iran Hostage Crisis: Setting the Stage

• Origins:

  • The Iranian Revolution ousts the Shah; revolutionary uncertainty reigns.
  • Hostility toward the U.S. is fueled by its history of involvement in Iranian affairs.
  • Iranian students storm the U.S. Embassy in Tehran (November 1979), taking 52 hostages.
  • The act is motivated by distrust and fear that the U.S. might try to reinstate the Shah or subvert the revolution.

• Media Impact:

  • The hostage crisis is broadcast on U.S. television nightly, deeply affecting American public opinion and political memory.
  • Ted Koppel's “Nightline” emerges as a nightly update show because of the crisis.
    • Jeremy Suri [04:34]: “It’s actually my first political set of memories as a young child watching what was this new show that this person we hadn’t seen before, Ted Koppel, was anchoring every night where we would get another story.”

Roles, Motives, and Tensions

• Student Radicalism & The Embassy Takeover:

  • Students act independently of Khomeini’s government but find tacit approval post hoc.
  • Their explicit demand: the extradition of the Shah from the U.S.
    • Jeremy Suri [05:08]: “The students paraded the hostages in front of the cameras. They demanded that the United States turn the Shah of Iran over. He was then in the United States convalescing.”
    • Host & Suri [05:19 - 05:32]: The U.S. allowing the Shah entry is the “precipitating factor… but the deeper issue was that the students didn’t want any American presence in Tehran.”

• Diplomatic Complications:

  • Most Americans left Iran, but a small group remained to keep communication channels open with the new regime.
    • Jeremy Suri [05:52]: “The ones who were there were there for a very good reason. We wanted to have some mechanism for talking to the new regime.”
  • Importance of embassies during regime change is underscored; tradition states such embassies should be protected.

U.S. Response & Operation Eagle Claw

• Political & Military Calculus:

  • President Carter faces immense pressure; tries both diplomatic and military solutions.
  • Eagle Claw: A daring U.S. rescue mission in April 1980 ends in disaster due to equipment failure and the tragic death of 8 U.S. servicemen.
    • President Carter [00:59]: “We were all convinced that if and when the rescue operation had been commenced that it had an excellent chance of success.”

• Alternative Considerations:

  • The Carter administration considered invading Kharg Island, a vital Iranian oil export hub, as leverage.
    • Host [01:08]: “President Carter and his national security team considered invading Kharg Island…A speck of land that was and is critically important to Iran’s oil exports.”

Kharg Island and Modern Parallels (2026)

• Recurrent Flashpoints:

  • Kharg Island remains geostrategically significant.
  • Host draws a direct line between Carter's 1980 deliberations and President Trump’s apparent consideration of similar strategies in 2026.

• President Trump’s Statements:

  • Contradictory and shifting U.S. goals regarding Iran, regime change, nuclear containment, and intervention tactics.
    • Donald Trump [02:07]:
      • “I had one goal. They will have no nuclear weapon and that goal has been attained. They will not have nuclear weapons.”
      • On military engagement: “We’ll leave because there’s no reason for us to do this...That’ll be for France. That’ll be for whoever is using the Strait.”
  • Host notes the confusion and unpredictability in the current administration’s public explanations.
    • Host [03:01]: “By the time you listen to this podcast, who knows what will be happening? The president has contradicted himself countless times and his cabinet secretaries offer different reasons for attacking Iran day after day.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the emotional power of nightly broadcasts:

  • Jeremy Suri [04:34]: “It’s actually my first political set of memories as a young child watching what was this new show that this person we hadn’t seen before, Ted Koppel, was anchoring every night where we would get another story.”

• On the precipitating cause of the hostage crisis:

  • Jeremy Suri [05:32]: “That was the precipitating factor. I think the deeper issue was that the students didn’t want any American presence in Tehran...”

• On embassies during revolutions:

  • Jeremy Suri [05:52]: “We wanted to have some mechanism for talking to the new regime…even in a revolution you protect embassy grounds.”

• On the uncertain, sometimes contradictory, political situation in 2026:

  • Host [03:01]: “The president has contradicted himself countless times and his cabinet secretaries offer different reasons for attacking Iran day after day.”

• President Carter on the rescue operation:

  • Jimmy Carter [00:59]: “We were all convinced that if and when the rescue operation had been commenced that it had an excellent chance of success.”

• President Trump’s definition of success:

  • Donald Trump [02:58]: “I had one goal. They will have no nuclear weapon and that goal has been attained.”

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Important Timestamps

• 00:19-01:08 — News recaps of the hostage situation and Carter’s decision-making
• 01:08-02:07 — Kharg Island’s importance and contemporary echoes in Trump’s 2026 policy
• 02:07-03:01 — President Trump’s contradictory public statements about Iran
• 04:05-05:42 — Jeremy Suri’s “encyclopedia” history of the hostage crisis and the students’ motives
• 05:52-06:15 — The role of the embassy and diplomatic traditions in revolutionary situations

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Conclusion

This episode offers a brisk yet rich exploration of the Iran Hostage Crisis, drawing connections between past and present U.S.-Iran confrontations. Anchored by Jeremy Suri’s insights and the host’s timely references to contemporary events, the conversation highlights recurring patterns: the strategic importance of Persian Gulf geography, the unpredictability of crisis management, and how domestic politics and historical memory influence real-time decisions. The episode’s tone blends clarity with a touch of world-weariness—acknowledging both the gravity and the recurrence of such dilemmas in American foreign policy.

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Transcript

[Podcast Host]

This is a bonus episode of history as it happens. It's April 1, 2026. In the spring of 1980, President Jimmy Carter and more than 50Americans held hostage in Iran were in a major bind trying to find a way out of a crisis that had begun six months earlier.

[News Reporter]

Iranian students continue to hold more than 50 hostages at the American Embassy in Tehran this morning, brought on by an anti American speech by the Ayatollah Khomeini. They stormed the embassy, fought the marine guards for three hours, overpowered them and took dozens of American hostages.

[President Jimmy Carter]

We must never lose sight of our basic goals in this crisis. The safety of our fellow citizens and the protection of the long term interests of the United States.

[News Reporter]

74th day of captivity for 50Americans in Iran. US effort to rescue the hostages in Iran was aborted by President Carter after an equipment failure forced a change in plans. Eight Americans were killed when two U.S. aircraft.

[President Jimmy Carter]

We were all convinced that if and when the rescue operation had been commenced that it had an excellent chance of success.

[Podcast Host]

After the fiasco of Operation eagle claw in April 1980, it would take another 270 days to free the hostages. Right up to the end of Carter's presidency. Before greenlighting the doomed rescue operation, President Carter and his national security team continued considered invading Kharg island to pressure Iran's new revolutionary leaders to let go the hostages. Kharg Island, 20 miles off Iran's northern coast in the Persian Gulf. A speck of land that was and is critically important to Iran's oil exports. Today, 46 years later, President Donald Trump is said to be considering sending in US ground troops to seize either Kharg island or other small islands near the Strait of Hormuz in a bid to force open the strait to shipping again. Iran having more or less closed it after the US and Israel started bombing on February 28th. Although as I speak into this microphone, the President may be changing his mind again, saying the US should be out of this war in two or three weeks.

[Donald Trump]

I think with two or three weeks, if it is, we'll leave because there's no reason for us to do this. Look, probably the strait, a guy can take a mine, drop it in the water and say, oh, it's unsafe. It's not like you're taking out an army or you're taking out a country or you, they can drop it or you can take a machine gun from the shore and shoot a little few bullets on a ship or maybe an over the shoulder missile, small missiles, that's not for us. That'll be for France. That'll be for whoever is using the strain. But I think when we leave, probably that's all cleared up. Today I heard tremendous numbers of ships were sailing through. We're negotiating with them right now. They've been again, we have had regime change. Now, regime change was not one of the things I had as a goal. I had one goal. They will have no nuclear weapon and that goal has been attained. They will not have nuclear weapons.

[Podcast Host]

I mean, who knows? By the time you listen to this podcast, who knows what will be happening? The president has contradicted himself countless times and his cabinet secretaries offer different reasons for attacking Iran day after day. Whatever happens, this is another case where current events open a window to our past. Jeremy Suri teaches history at the LBJ School of Public affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of the Impossible Presidency and co host of this Is Democracy podcast. Jeremy Suri, welcome back.

[Jeremy Suri]

Good to be with you.

[Podcast Host]

Martin Carter, Khomeini, Carg island and Eagle Claw. Is there enough alliteration in there for

[Jeremy Suri]

you and enough failed operations for one discussion?

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, depressing. So let's just briefly do the hostage crisis origins here. I want you to give us the encyclopedia entry version. You know, if I were to look up and do a one paragraph on this. It is November 1979, and students, Iranian students who had been outside the US embassy besiege it.

[Jeremy Suri]

So the revolution has already happened. The Shah has already fled. The military has already bas, basically stayed neutral and gone along with Khomeini's revolution. And the new government is forming under Khomeini. But the students are not happy that the United States is still present. They see the US Embassy as a danger for more covert activities. They don't trust that the US Embassy will not try to overthrow this government that is emerging. And so the students, without consulting the Khomeini government, storm the US embassy and take 52 diplomatic service personnel from the United States hostage. And they are then held hostage in the embassy for 444 days. And this is on television every single night. It's actually my first political set of memories as a young child watching what was this new show that this person we hadn't seen before, Ted Koppel, was anchoring every night where we would get another story.

[News Reporter]

It is a new broadcast in the sense that it is permanent and will continue after the Iran crisis is over

[Jeremy Suri]

about the American hostages. The students paraded the hostages in front of the cameras. They demanded that the United States turn the shah Iran over. He was then in the United States convalescing.

[Podcast Host]

That was the trigger, right? He went, the US let him in.

[News Reporter]

After 30 days of unsuccessfully trying to get the American hostages out of Tehran, the government of the United States is now trying to get the deposed Shah of Iran out of this country.

[Jeremy Suri]

That was the precipitating factor. I think the deeper issue was that the students didn't want any American presence in Tehran and they knew that that embassy had been used as a headquarters for covert activities in the past.

[Podcast Host]

There were a lot of Americans in Iran at this time and almost all of them got out. So why, why were this few dozen still there at this point?

[Jeremy Suri]

The ones who were there were there for a very good reason. We wanted to have some mechanism for talking to the new regime. That's the role of an embassy. And the tradition is going back to the 15th century that you even in a revolution protect embassy grounds. Because as a new government, even hostile to the United States or hostile to whoever's embassy it is, you still want to communications with them.

[Podcast Host]

Sure.

[Jeremy Suri]

That was the presumption.

[Podcast Host]

Took a while for Carter to finally reach out to Khomeini though.

[President Jimmy Carter]

No, we have not communicated directly with Mr. Khomeini. Our views have been expressed publicly that he support stability and an end to bloodshed in Iran.

[Jeremy Suri]

That's not unusual either because there's uncertainty over the situation and it's also not always clear who to talk to and how to talk to them. The other reason why the American embassy was still there, why American personnel was still there, was the United States was still doing business with Iran. What we forget is that Iran was a major business partner for the United States, not just for oil activities, for all kinds of other activities in the 1970s. And so one of the things embassies do is they facilitate business activities which

[Podcast Host]

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