Long before President Bush placed Iran within his “Axis of Evil,” the two countries, Iran and United States, had a contentious, if not hostile, relationship. In the 1950s, the U.S. supported a coup in Iran to overthrow a democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh and install a more friendly figure, the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Although in a lot of ways he modernized the country, the Shah did not endear himself to the people; by 1979 he was forced to flee the country, travelling to the U.S. ostensibly to seek treatment. The Iranians, incensed by American interference in their government, raided a U.S. embassy, capturing more than 60 of the staff as hostages.

On this day, November 12, in 1979, in response to Iranian taking of terrorists, just days after the raid, President Jimmy Carter acted to ban oil imports from Iran and froze $8 billion of Iranian assets in the United States.

Carter hoped, vainly, that economic pressure would persuade the Iranians to release the hostages. Thirteen were in fact released, all female or African-American, but the majority would be held for 444 days. Early on, Carter authorized a secret rescue effort, involving a group of helicopters along with C-130 cargo planes, but the mission was badly mismanaged: helicopters broke down in the raging sandstorms outside of Tehran, and one helicopter that did take off slammed into a C-130, destroying both. The resulting chaos, when discovered, was a propaganda victory for Tehran and a black eye for Washington.