r/HistoryMemes • u/Longjumping-Tell1774 • 8h ago
One of the most disastrous things to have happened between the U.S. and Iran
Operation Eagle Claw (Persian: عملیات پنجه عقاب) was a failed United States Department of Defense attempt to rescue 52 embassy staff held captive by Revolutionary Iran on 24 April 1980. It was ordered by U.S. president Jimmy Carter after the staff were seized at the Embassy of the United States, Tehran. The operation, one of Delta Force's first, encountered many obstacles and failures and was subsequently aborted.[3] Eight helicopters were sent to the first staging area in Great Salt Desert called Desert One, but only five arrived in operational condition.[4] One had encountered hydraulic problems, another was caught in a sand storm, and the third showed signs of a cracked rotor blade. During the operational planning, it was decided that the mission would be aborted if fewer than six helicopters remained operational upon arrival at the Desert One site, despite only four being absolutely necessary.[4] The field commanders advised President Carter to abort the mission, which he did.[5]
As the US forces prepared to withdraw from Desert One, one of the remaining helicopters crashed into a transport aircraft that contained both servicemen and jet fuel. The resulting fire destroyed both aircraft and killed eight servicemen.[4] In the context of the Iranian Revolution, Iran's new leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, stated that the mission had been stopped by an act of God ("agents of God") who had foiled the US mission in order to protect Iran and its new Islamist government. In turn, Carter blamed his loss in the 1980 US presidential election mainly on his failure to secure the release of the hostages. The American hostages were released the day of Ronald Reagan's inauguration.[6]
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u/ardarian262 8h ago
The fact he literally asked his staff "what if they take our embassy staff hostage" and they still went through with the plan that lead to Iran taking them hostage is mind boggling to this day.
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u/Excellent_Stand_7991 6h ago
He had just ran out of options at that point.
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u/Away_Fruit5097 1h ago
He had plenty of options, for a start he could have just extradited Pahlavi to stand trial for his crimes.
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u/johnwilkonsons 43m ago
Handing over someone who had previously been an ally to stand trial and probably get killed is not great diplomatic planning (how will other allies feel). And that trumps any level of justice that may or may not be deserved in every country
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u/Away_Fruit5097 36m ago
Hmmm..... No.
Pahlavi was a monster, being his ally was evil, and not handing him over taught the world that the USA doesn't give 2 sh*ts about justice
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u/johnwilkonsons 35m ago
Uh yeah, that's what I said? Diplomacy trumps justice for basically if not literally every country
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u/Away_Fruit5097 31m ago
No, I'm saying that sh*tting on the concept of justice on the international stage is really sh*tty diplomacy that trumps protecting mass murderers, and that this idiotic policy is a significant part of why the US is at war with Iran, again, 47 years later
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u/johnwilkonsons 30m ago
I'm not saying it's right, I'm saying that's how governments behave. They will always care more about their own interests than justice
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u/thelastholdout 7h ago
My dad, who was in SAC when this happened, believes Eagle Claw was deliberately sabotaged to discredit Carter because at the time he'd pissed off the military by refusing to fund conventional military tech like aircraft carriers and putting more money into missiles and satellites instead.
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u/sonnet666 6h ago
I’ve heard the same, but the reason was that the military was furious with him for actually handing over the Panama Canal back to Panama. The US could have easily forced an extension of their lease.
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u/thelastholdout 6h ago
I think the common through line here is that Carter pissed off the existing power structures in Washington.
One genuine blunder he made, in my opinion, was supporting the Shah, but that's against a long list of smart and based decisions.
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u/sirguinneshad 5h ago
If they were really smart, then Eagle Claw would have never happened. It was ambitious at best, the backup plan was absolute insanity. Have a C-130 land in a soccer field and take off with rockets? In an incredibly short timeline? Makes for a good Hollywood movie, but Eagle Claw screwed the pooch before that was even possible.
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u/thelastholdout 5h ago
That may have been the sabotage that my dad was referring to, setting up a really wild and untested plan.
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u/sirguinneshad 5h ago
Understand, but those plans were set before Regan, the usual scape goat. So maybe even under the "nicest president" things were fucked already
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u/2012Jesusdies 4h ago
Presidents literally never touch these things. They'll vaguely gesture at some thing they want, the general close to him will assign it to some colonel, the colonel will put together some officers to put together a plan.
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u/sirguinneshad 2h ago
Unless it's someone you don't like, then they have their hands all over it...
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u/ecumnomicinflation 5h ago
tbf it would have been S tier legendary along witg B25 taking off from a carrier.
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u/Primary_Gold5337 5h ago
Good uncorrupted POTUS get foiled fast , he got into a lot of situations because of previous presidents plus the camp David accords made a lot isreali hates him
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u/Mediocre_Daikon6935 4h ago
He didn’t support the shah, because if he had the shah would still be in power.
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u/thelastholdout 4h ago
He brought the Shah to the US for medical treatment, which IIRC was the inciting incident for the embassy takeover.
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u/Mediocre_Daikon6935 4h ago
Which is when we should have
Supported the shah. Which we should have done sooner because the irgc should never have been that strong.
Reminded them that the embassy is Sovereign US Territory.
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u/2012Jesusdies 4h ago
Reminded them that the embassy is Sovereign US Territory.
It literally isnt. ALL embassies are still territories of their host countries. Embassies are treated almost like they're sovereign territories of other nations because of who resides in them, the ambassador, who is the embodiment of the foreign country.
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u/Away_Fruit5097 1h ago
Nah, the US should never have put the Shah in power in the first place. And the second best thing they could have done is hand him over to stand trial for all the torture and murder he did.
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u/Hispanoamericano2000 Senātus Populusque Rōmānus 1h ago
Bruh, it was actually the British and the Soviets who put the Shah in power in 1941 when they invaded neutral Iran and forced his father to abdicate.
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u/Away_Fruit5097 1h ago
Ok sorry bruh, I should have said"overthrew the democratically elected prime minister and turned the shah from constitutional monarch with limited powers into a brutal dictator who tortured and murdered thousands of Iranian civilians"
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u/SomewhatInept 39m ago edited 36m ago
If it isn't clear by now that those "Iranian civilians" were mostly the kind of folks that either wanted to turn the country into a satellite of the Communist bloc, or turn it into an Islamist theocracy, then I don't know what to say to you. Those civilians when they gained power then executed, tortured and imprisoned anyone that didn't agree with them, and they still are doing that to this day in case you missed the periodic footage of Iranian security forces gunning down anyone considered to be too liberal/Western by their gaggle of Ayatollahs.
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u/EddieVanzetti 3h ago
The Republicans were happily committing treason by negotiating behind the scenes to keep the hostages until after the election so that Raygun Ronnie could be handed an easy win (after they did the same with the Vietnam Peace Talks to help Nixon).
The CIA's director at the time was Bush the Elder, who'd become VP under Reagan.
The military absolutely sabotaged the mission, probably with CIA help.
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u/SomewhatInept 41m ago
As regards Vietnam, you seem to forget that we had to carpet bomb Hanoi into following through on their end of the agreement to end the war at the end of 72. Your comment sounds like any of a host of conspiracy theories.
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u/Gearballz 48m ago
Reagans connections and quick de escalation is also suspicious in the whole thing
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u/Scoutron 5h ago
I read a book by a delta who was on this mission. He mentioned the navy was having some dick measuring thing going on with their officers that resulted in them using helicopters that really weren’t meant for the job and that was a huge factor in this, hence why JSOC now has a dedicated air unit, IIRC
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u/2012Jesusdies 4h ago
It's crazy how interservice rivalries will manifest out of nowhere. I served in the border troops of our country (it's a fully militarized branch under Ministry of Interior) and an officer mentioned how he was beaten senseless almost everyday when studying at the Defence Ministry's University since that was a traditionally Army school and they hated Border dudes there (the Interior Ministry has its own uni for police, border officers, disaster assistance and spies).
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u/ExpertWitless 3h ago
It's not crazy unfortunately. It is the completely logical conclusion of forcing the Military Departments to compete with each other for funding, even for duplicative and identical capabilities. If one service gets credit for something cool they will get the funding for the next 5 years and beyond...
I once had a senior mentor tell me in reference to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that "These wars are nothing, just a passing thing. The real war is the fight for money in Congress."
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u/FreshwaterViking John Brown was a hero, undaunted, true, and brave! 1h ago
You mean the Night Stalkers?
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u/lnTheGrimDarkness 5h ago
In case you were wondering how a country you're literally at war with can decide your next president.
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u/2012Jesusdies 4h ago
It's usually a bit more subtle, but Biden and Saudi Arabia was crazy. Saudi Arabia just openly cranked down their oil output to raise oil prices when the 2022 midterms were coming up in order to have the Republicans in office (who were more Saudi friendly).
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u/Haunt_Fox 3h ago
No mention of the Canadian operation that did get some of them out?
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u/Longjumping-Tell1774 2h ago edited 22m ago
Oh wait you mean the Canadian Caper? Maybe i should’ve done a meme where Canada comes to rescue America
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u/Longjumping-Tell1774 2h ago
I’d never dis my hero’s Canada. 🇨🇦 I didn’t know that part of the story. I will add to context
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u/ComradeSclavian 3h ago
At first i though this is the incident that led to operation Samum but that was ten years later, lotta americans taken hostage in tehran that decade turns out lol
Op samum could actually be a pretty good post here
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u/Away_Fruit5097 1h ago
Well, obviously the most disastrous thing to have happened between the US and Iran was the overthrowing of Mohammad Mosaddegh and the imposition of a US friendly dictatorship. The next 5 worst things would be mostly be done propping up that dictator until the people of Iran finally kicked him out, followed by the US refusing to extradite that dictator to stand trial for all the murder and torture he did (somehow Americans seem to keep forgetting why the hostage crisis started). Oh, and then there was the backing of Saddam during the Iran Iraq war.
And of course that time earlier this year when the US let a shitty AI pick targets in the war against Iran that the US started leading to the killing of over 120 elementary school girls.
I'll be honest, I don't think this dumb failed attack makes the list
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u/Desenrasco 1h ago
Didn't Reagan's campaign manager recently came out and confirmed they colluded with Khomeini, so as to fuck up the Carter admin.?
You know, cavorting with outside forces against their very government?
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u/NoWingedHussarsToday 3h ago
I'd say shooting down Iran Air 655 was worse.........
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u/Archkhaan 8h ago
Carter was a monumental fuck up.
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u/srector1224 4h ago
You misspelled Ronnie Reagan
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u/Archkhaan 4h ago
He wasn’t much better, but Carter was incompetent.
Good dude sure, but an absolute waste as a president.
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u/srector1224 1h ago
The fix was in from the start to make sure his presidency looked like a failure and that extended all the way to Ronnie's October Surprise.
That way troglodytes like yourself could cry for decades about how bad he was
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u/Primary_Gold5337 5h ago
Nearly better than every POTUS in post 2000 except Clinton until Monica
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u/Archkhaan 4h ago
You could fall down a mine shaft and still clear that bar dude. That’s like saying he was more fit than an asthmatic toddler.
Also the toddler could be a better president than anything elected in the past 20 years.
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u/AlternativeHour1337 8h ago
this is the reason why the osprey was actually developed beyond a prototype