Nov. 4, 1979, was a day that forever changed relations between the U.S. and Iran.
Thirty-four years ago, a group of 500 Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took more than 50 Americans hostage, according to the U.S. State Department.
The event, later deemed the Iranian Hostage Crisis, resulted in 52 Americans being held hostage for 444 days, according to CNN.
The Iranian Hostage Crisis occurred after the Iranian Revolution of 1979, when Islamic fundamentalists overthrew the U.S.-supported Shah, according to the U.S. State Department.
This event, coupled with then-President Jimmy Carter’s decision to allow the Shah to receive cancer treatment in the U.S., helped fuel anti-American sentiment.
As a result of these events, some Iranians felt it necessary to storm the U.S. Embassy and take action against an already-unpopular U.S.
While the hostage event was easily the lowest point of relations between the U.S. and Iran, it’s absolutely necessary that both countries look forward and learn from this experience.
The Iran of 1979 is not the Iran of 2013.
To think Iran cannot learn from its past mistakes is foolish.
Following the recent election of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, it’s time to forge a lasting peace.
A failure to break through diplomatically could cost President Barack Obama an opportunity that previous U.S. presidents like Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan never had.
In order to understand the significance and the reasoning behind the Iranian Hostage Crisis, one must examine the degradation of U.S.-Iranian relations beginning in the 1950s.
Earlier this year, the U.S. finally acknowledged its role in deposing former Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq in a coup d’état.
The coup, which occurred on Aug. 19, 1953, was a result of a joint effort between the CIA, British intelligence operatives and the Iranian military, according to History.com.
Reasoning behind the coup included fears that Mossadeq had communist leanings and would eventually form an alliance with the Soviet Union, according to History.com.
As a result of the coup, Mohammed Reza Pahlevi, formally known as the Shah of Iran, took power and gave approximately 40 percent of Iran’s oil lands to the U.S.
While the U.S.-assisted Iranian coup should never be used as justification for taking Americans hostage, it’s easy to see why some Iranians despised the U.S.
The past 34 years of relations between the U.S. and Iran have been strained.
It comes as no shock that former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and former President George W. Bush didn’t get along.
Although no words can ever mend the emotional pain suffered by U.S. hostages, it’s crucial that both countries move on from the past and try to create a lasting peace.
After all, the window for change is closing.
Shane Newell is a junior journalism major and the opinions editor at the Daily 49er.