Guests of the Ayatollah: The First Battle in America's War With Militant Islam by mark bowden

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

Bowden did an excellent job of fleshing out characters' backgrounds and writing with descriptive detail, but when he's not covering a fast-paced subject, like he did in Black Hawk Down, the book plods along and feels dull.

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laikaezer

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

When the Iran hostage crisis kicked off in late 1979, I was all of 10 years old and utterly incapable of appreciating the historical context, the political/diplomatic/military maneuvers to bring the hostages back home, or the fallout from the extended scenario. This was very much the book I needed to read, at a time and place when I could better handle that firehose of information, in order to synthesize the wickedly complex events that played out.

In short, Bowden takes on the herculean task of synthesizing inputs from a wide variety of sources, including myriad news feeds from the international press and inputs from many of the hostages themselves. Through that integration of perspectives, the reader is taken on a journey that points out the wickedly complex political landscape that was (and, in many ways, still is) Iran. At the time, for example, US officials were crippled in finding an entity with whom to negotiate the hostages' release. The hostage takers themselves were a loosely structured network of college students. The Iranian government was provisional and toothless in the wake of the 1979 revolution. And the mullahs in the theocratic regime were often not plugged in to either of these other power centers, as they were working their own plays for dominance on Iran's political field.

Meanwhile, in describing the home front, Bowden ably maps out challenges in America's political landscape. Not only were American diplomats and politicians facing challenges in getting traction with the hostages' release, but they were routinely bombarded with inputs and commentary from the American press denigrating the lack of progress. Moreover, the public faced any number of challenges trying to synthesize the myriad inputs in real time, especially in the absence of actual on-the-ground context from the various competing power centers in Iran. All in all, this crisis was, as one might now say, one extremely hot mess.

In any event, I highly recommend making the time to take this journey with Bowden to help shine a nuanced light into the corners of a major historical event that is very worthy of this level of detail. It certainly opened my eyes to dimensions and subtleties of the problem I had never seen before.

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Boogiepop20

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

An intense retelling of the embassy staff taken hostage in Iran on November 4, 1979. While we learn more about some of the hostages than others, it was overall an educational look at the situation which caused a break in ties between the two countries still present today.

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cferdaus

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

I love history. I love politics. I love current events. There were two seminal events that influenced that love. The Iranian hostage crisis was one of those two events. During those 444 days I was glued to the TV watching every unfolding moment that related to the attempts to resolve the crisis and the upcoming 1980 election. Lately, I've been reminded that I view those incidents through the lens of a pre-teen and wanted to delve into a study to understand the context more.

On November 4, 1979, five college students that included Mahmoud Ahmadinejad planned and executed the siege of the US Embassy in Tehran citing US "crimes" in admitting the Shah into the US for medical treatment. Bowden, also author of Black Hawk Down provides excellent context on the US-Iranian relations twenty-five years prior to this incident, the factions competing for power within Iran at the time, details on the behind-the-scenes negotiations to release the hostages, mecahanisms the hostages employed to survive the ordeal, the role the press played, how American citizens developed ways individually and collectively to support the hostages, how this incident changed the trajectory of Iranian history, and how Iranians today view those 444 days.

Some of the things I learned:

1. Some of the students attended Berkeley at a time that student demonstrations were impacting the view Americans held on the Vietnam War. Returning home these students employed many of the same strategies, assuming American citizens would have a similar response "once they learned the truth about American involvement in Iran." Due to this misguided assumption the students allowed incredible access to the hostages by media and clergy. <

2. Even today we hear about Iranian misinterpretation of historical facts (i.e. Holocaust). It was amazing to see just how many other areas of history are skewed.

3. I was suprised to learn how many marines were on site and not allowed to defend the embassy.

4. Even though there is blatant bias (discussed more n a moment) on Bowden's part, I felt like I had a much better understanding of the severe missteps by Carter administration in the months leading up to November, the missteps in the decision making process during the crisis, and why the Shah's medical treatment in the US was such an issue. I'm not so sure I have a better understanding of the missteps in the rescue attempt, as Bowden seems to go against every other historian's view on this point.

5. How the Russian invasion of Afghanistan and the war with Iraq influenced the negotiations and release of the hostages.

Bowden's overt bias kept me from rating this a 5 star book. Actually I'd rather the bias be this evident because it is then easy to separate fact from opinion; however, I still cannot bring myself to give a wok on history 5 stars when the author tries to push an agenda.

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Soupisekaitrash

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

Extremely well done, straightforward story of the famous Iranian hostage crisis. As usual, Mark Bowden has compiled a ton of reseal and delivered a story both fascinating, easy to read and historically accurate. Highly recommended.

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Jolly_is_here

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

I would argue that this is Mark Bowden's greatest work. From a readability standpoint, it moves like a thriller. From a historical standpoint, it is exceptionally researched, offers fair assessments and commentary, and covers the scope of the crisis very well. This is a must read for anyone wanting to learn about the Iranian hostage crisis.

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mikudaisukii

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

Mark Bowden gives a riveting count of the Iranian hostage crisis, during which 66 Americans were taken hostage by Iranian students at the US Embassy in Tehran. This 700+ page book is certainly not short on detail, but Bowden’s writing style and focus on the stories of individuals makes for a relatively quick and entertaining read. I learned a lot about the history of Iranian-American relations while reading "Guests of the Ayatollah", though I must say that the author could have devoted more of the book to the significance of the CIA-led coup in 1953 that overthrew a democratically elected leader and installed the Shah as an autocrat. He does highlight this theme throughout the book but does not provide a thorough analysis of the coup itself and the ramifications that ultimately led to the hostage crisis and the current state of Iranian-American relations. I was also surprised that he only briefly mentioned the “Canadian Caper”, during which six diplomats who had evaded capture were able to escape Iran with the help of the Canadian Embassy (which inspired the film "Argo").

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Bowden does a very good job of telling the story from many different perspectives in all of his books, and "Guests of the Ayatollah" is no different.

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starlitville

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

Being in high school when this came down, flailling my typeing klass, I've been curious for years. Iran has been paying the price for this errant deed, both internally and externally, for thirty years now. The religious powerbrokers were able to solidify their hold on the populace by eleminating political enemies and keeping citizens in a fever of revolt and hate.

Many times there was a deal on the table only to have the conditions change once the US agreed. I believe Carter did the best he could and behaved honorably. Blatent militarism could have met with the hostages death, and the martyrdom of thousands. Time was the best course of action. If only the European nations had stood with us stronger a successful resolution might have come sooner.

Colonel Beckwith assumed all responsibility for the mission failures. He made the decision to abort based on being one less chopper (5) that the stated minimum. That was three less than what he started. One turned back to the carrier during the encounter with the dust cloud. ( We get those clouds here in Ariz. let me tell you they can get to be huge and blinding). The second lost it's back up hydralics the pilot grounded the craft. #3? While lifting of in the desert. In a cloud of it's own dust. The pilot became disoriented, came up and around, sliced into a C-130 airplane loaded with extra fuel, then straddled and sat down on the fuselage. Everything went up in flames. Eight men died. I'm just not gonna buy into the idea that the actuarial tables would have accounted for that level of loss. Only one loss could be attributed to reliability (mechanical) issues and the mission could have still gone on.

Carter, being a nuclear submarine captian, would have known the dangers of a civilian becoming involved with the inner workings of a military mission. Had he done so there would have been strong criticism for micromanaging.

One thing that struck me was Bowdens glossing over the possibility of interference from Reagan during the final days of the election. I've always suspected Ronny of dastardly deeds. Bowden said he couldnt find anything, but I would have liked to know more of his efforts.

It seems like Reagan gets credit for the hostage release. But they were released on inauguration day after Carter stepped down. The low class moment of that day was Reagan not deferring to Carter to make the announcement to the world.

After the bare bones story the best part for me was the epilog. The chapters that dealt with Iran society in 2005. Thirty years later we see the losses and ramifications of this event that quickly got out of hand. Iran had some legitimate complaints of the United States but international backlash from kidnapping diplomatic personnel and the strengthing of the Mullahs internally has crippled life on the street for the regular citizen.

All in all, a terrific book.

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Guests of the Ayatollah: The First Battle in America's War With Militant Islam

mark bowden

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