B (30:49)
Well, and this is the kind of operation, you know, that gave the Israelis in the 70s this sort of reputation for extraordinary kind of daring and military sort of prowess. A stunning feat. And Carter and his men think, well, if we could do the same, what a brilliant thing this would be for Carter and for the United States. So even though they can all see the risks, they're all very tempted by it. The one person is not tempted is Secretary of State Cyrus Vance. He says, this is an insane plan. Things are bound to go wrong and some of the hostages are bound to be killed. But Carter likes it, and he says, start work on reconnaissance. So that was on the 22nd of March. Let's move forward a couple of weeks. On the 7th of April, Carter broke off for the. I mean, it's amazing that he hadn't done this before. He broke off diplomatic links with Iran. On 9 April, Brzezinski, his national security advisor, sends him a note and says, in my view, a carefully planned and boldly executed rescue operation represents the only realistic prospect that the hostages, any of them, will be freed in the foreseeable future. And Brzezinski says, we've pursued a policy of restraint, very un American for the last few months, and it's got us a lot of understanding and sympathy, but nothing else, and it's time for us to act. So two days after that, Carter convenes his National Security Council. Now, crucially, Cyrus Vance, the one doubter, is away on holiday. He's had this long postponed holiday in Florida, which has finally gone on, and Carter has the meeting. Then when Vance is away and they all agree, let's go with this plan. Vance gets back a couple of days later, and he is horrified, and he's outraged. They've decided behind his back. And he says to Carter, if you do this, there will be huge reprisals against American teachers and businessmen still in Iran and indeed across the Muslim world. I think, by the way, he was probably right, that if they had carried this out, this would have happened. But nobody backs Vance up. There's a very embarrassing and excruciating meeting, and he's left kind of smoldering. So the next Evening is the 16th, which is the moment we open the episode with, this is Beckwith meeting Jimmy Carter. And Beckwith, you would think he would absolutely despise Carter as a wimp and a weed and stuff, but he clearly doesn't. From that account, he thinks Carter is great. He says in his memoirs, Carter was really calm, direct, forceful. He said, you know, no nonsense. And Carter said finally, okay, we'll do this. And Beckwith, in his memoirs, it says, I was full of wonderment. I was proud to be an American and to have a president do what he'd just done. And Carter gives him that last message. If. If this fails, it's on me, not on you. And, you know, we don't leave any of our dead behind. And Beckwith absolutely loves this. This is music to his ears. And that's just. The meeting breaks up. He says, unimprovably, he says, God bless you, Mr. President. So everybody's wiping away a manly tear. It's great. The only person who isn't, actually, I say, everybody, Cyrus Vance isn't the Secretary of State. He's absolutely furious. And a couple of days afterwards, Carter. This is perhaps the other side of Carter. Carter says, I've got a load of Methodists coming to the White House. I want someone to go and tell them that we're not going to do any military action. Could you do that, please? And Vance says, no, I'm not going to lie to you to learn a Methodist. And Carter's furious. This is the first time the Commander in Chief has been disobeyed by one of his subordinates. And then Vance gives him an envelope, and it's a handwritten note from his secretary of state, like a really important person, a handwritten note saying, I'm resigning. I'm out as soon as that mission finishes. I'm going to wait till after the mission, but then I'm gone, you know, A bad blow for the Carter administration. Anyway, we come to the big day. Thursday, 24th April. Carter and his aides are in the White House. They're pretending that it's just an ordinary day, but this is the day that's been chosen. And at 10:30 that morning, he gets a call from General Jones. It's night in Iran. The weather is clear, it's all go. The choppers have taken off from the Naimitz. Meanwhile, in Egypt, Charlie Beckwith's men, Delta Force, are lining up for their final inspection in their airbase hangar. And they're all dressed kind of in plain clothes. They're all wearing jeans and kind of flannel shirts and black jackets. They haven't shaved because they want to blend in on the streets of Tehran. They've written farewell letters to their wives and girlfriends if the worst happens. And now a scene that is so made for Hollywood. In the hangar, their ops officer, who's called Major Jerry Boykin, has put in a big sort of photo, a montage of all the hostages faces. These are the Americans that we are going to get out of Tehran. And Major Boykin gets out the Bible and he reads from the first book of Samuel. And David put his hand in a bag and took thence a stone and slung it and smote the Philistine in the forehead, so that the stone sunk into his forehead and he fell on his face to the earth. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a stone and a sling. And he finishes and they all bow their heads in prayer and then. And then one of them starts singing God Bless America and they all join in and the sound kind of echoes around the hangar. And it's actually, I mean, the reason I did this, I think, is that this is the last scene of the film the Deer Hunter, which had been released just over a year earlier and had been a massive hit at the Oscars. So, I mean, literally Hollywood, Literally Hollywood. And then they finish. The song dies away and it's time to go. Operation Eagle Claw is underway.
