Guests of the Ayatollah by Mark Bowden

This is the story of the Iran hostage crisis which began in 1979. Before I read this book, I had no idea how much of an impact the crisis had on the US and Iran. Not merely shaping how each viewed the other, but even influencing politics inside those nations.

The book goes into great detail on certain aspects of the hostage-taking and follows some, but not all, of the hostages from beginning to end. Of the 52 hostages inside the embassy, only about 12 are mentioned more than once. This is not a drawback, of course. Bowden is using a representative sample as a complete account of every day of every hostage would be an incredibly long, boring, and ultimately unenlightening book. Moreso than in Black Hawk Down, this book covers the wider implications of the crisis, including Carter's response and the Ayatollah Khomeini's irrational and unpredictable behavior. Not only does he relate simply what the leaders and actors in the crisis did, but why they did it.

Bowden, it hardly needs to be said, writes excellently and this book tells a fascinating story. The story, of course, is true and would stand on its own regardless of who wrote it, but Bowden crafts a tight storyline. The book is just too thick and the plot too intricate to even summarize, but some of the more important reasons to read this book are the effects this crisis had on the Carter administration and the future of the Iranian government. Carter's moderate response to the crisis is what eventually led to his loss of reelection. The responses of the members of the Iranian government who opposed the takeover are what led to the supremacy of the Islamic hardliners and the continuing tyranny of what Bowden describes as the "mullah-ocracy". As a case in point, it should be noted that current President Ahmadinejad was one of the original planners of the takeover. Some of the hostages even claim he was one of the interrogators.

Of course the human drama is worth reading as well. The hostages were in doubt of their futures and lives until the moment they were told they had crossed out of Iranian airspace. The long, laborious process the diplomats faced in even figuring out who to negotiate with in the almost non-existent Iranian government also provides worthy reading.

To get back to the larger historical picture, the hostage crisis could be blamed for much of ills that have plagued the Middle East for the past 25 years. When the embassy was taken, the US froze Iranian assets, including equipment for the military that the Shah had already paid for. Because of Iran's state of disorganization and unpreparedness, Saddam Hussein felt Iraq was well poised to strike and seize the Shatt Al Arab, as well as some valuable oil fields. If Carter had been reelected, the US would not have dealt with Saddam and given him weapons (of mass destruction!), and possibly, even probably, we would not be in a war there now. If Iran's moderate government hadn't been toppled due to the instability caused by the seizure, Iran might be a moderate democracy and would never have backed terrorists.

Lastly, this book provides some insight into how Iranians viewed and view the US. It's not what you might think. There are and have always been those who sympathized with the US and wished to have normal relations with us. There are those who believe America is the Great Satan (and they're usually among the most ignorant). One also gets to see what Khomeini was really like, and it was more like a powerless puppet than you might think.

Anyway, that's all I can think to say for this book. You need to read it, unless you already know everything there is to know about the history of Iranian-US relations.