ha hah ha - the americans sent in the troops to get them out - had nothing to do with diplomacy ..
Operation Eagle Claw, known as Operation Tabas (Persian: عملیات طبس) in Iran, was a United States Armed Forces operation ordered by U.S. President Jimmy Carter to attempt to end the Iran hostage crisis by rescuing 52 embassy staff held captive at the Embassy of the United States, Tehran on 24 April 1980...
have a good read of the following - and let it sink in ..
Its failure, and the humiliating public debacle that ensued, damaged U.S. prestige worldwide..
.....although it had been planned since shortly after the US embassy in Iran was seized last November by Islamic militants. They have held 53 US citizens hostage there ever since. The dramatic attempt to free the hostages began yesterday when six Hercules C130 transport planes set off to rendezvous with a group of nine helicopters at a remote desert airstrip, south-east of Tehran. But the mission ran into trouble almost as soon as it had started. From farce to tragedy
Two helicopters went down with engine trouble, and a third was diverted to help. Then another helicopter was damaged as it landed on the airstrip, leaving only five workable helicopters. The mission had become impossible. President Carter ordered the operation to abort. It was then that the farce became a tragedy. As the aircraft took off again, another helicopter crashed into one of the C130 aircraft and burst into flames. Eight soldiers died, and another four men suffered burns. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/25/newsid_2503000/2503899.stm
from another link on how he hostage crisis was finally resolved - ie through diplomacy
In November 1980, Carter lost the presidential election to Republican Ronald Reagan. Soon after, with the assistance of Algerian intermediaries, successful negotiations began between the United States and Iran. On the day of Reagan’s inauguration, the United States freed almost $8 billion in frozen Iranian assets ..
mmmm looks like Iran also got $8bn of their own money back..
much has been made about the money that Obama gave the Iranians - indeed it was nothing more than their own money that the americans had previously nicked from them
