| January 21 |  |
Editor says, how would the Republicans have handled the Iranian Hostage Crisis in 1980? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1981, on this day a Air Force VC-137 Stratoliner exploded in a ball of flame shortly after landing at the Rhein-Main Air Base in West Germany. But "Freedom One" was no ordinary commercial aircraft; onboard were the fifty-two American hostages who had been held at the Iranian Embassy for the last 444 days.
Iranian Hostage Crisis on steroidsAlso amongst the long list of fatalities was none other than the thirty-eighth President of the United States, Gerry Ford. Because incoming President Edward M. Kennedy had sent him as an emissary in order to welcome the hostages back into US custody.
Kennedy's predecessor was also a secondary victim of the crisis, albeit an electoral one. The right-wing of the Republican Party put Ford under acute pressure to take action. Protestors in Washington were calling for all Iranians to be expelled from the United States. And so Ford had unwisely authorised two ill-fated mission to rescue the hostages, Operation Eagle Claw and shortly before the election, Operation Credible Sport.
The first attempt, launched at the nadir of the crisis, ended in confusion and embarrassment in the desert due to mechanical problems with the helicopters. And the for the second, which used C130 Hercules transport planes modified with ricket assisted take-off and landing was an unmitigated disaster of the first magnititude. The personal bitterness caused by that second desperate attempt had been so acute, that the hostage-takers had decided to draw Ford into crisis at an even more personal level; in fact, they planned to kill him.
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Back in Washigton, outgoing CIA Director George HW Bush (who sponsored both operations) was in the business of bringing to justice the criminals who had booby-trapped "Freedom One". And finding out precisely how the hostage-takers found out that Kennedy planned to send Ford to meet the hostages in Germany. High on the list of suspects was an Iranian student by the name of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Entry posted by
Michael Knight
© based on an idea from Michael KnightStory Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Crises Source: Wikipedia Labels: Iran, America, George Bush, Gerry Ford, Ted Kennedy.
~ This would have meant a US-Iran war for sure...
~ I can't help wondering if there wiuldn't have been war, or at least the threat of it, already. A President Ford still in office during the Iranian hostage crisis would have been under heavy pressure from within his own party to go to war over the hostage situation.
And if there had been war and we had won, no way would Kennedy have been elected in 1980. On the other hand, if we were in the middle of a war as of Election Day 1980, again it's unlikely that Kennedy would have unseated the incumbent President, especially given Chappaquiddick--which might have made it difficult for him even to secure his party's nomination.
~ The problem with going to war with Iran was that it's 'way too close to the (then) USSR for comfort---the Iranians could have squawked to the Soviets for help, and likely gotten it. About the only way to make it work would have been to go in with the Soviets. We'd done it in WWII, after all...
~ Gerald Ford re-elected in 1976 would have been ineligible to run for re-election in 1980 due to the 22nd amendment. These events are depicted at the end of Ford's re-elected term (Jan 81) He had served more than 2 years after becoming President so was limited to one additional 4 year term in office. He ran for the nomination in 1980 to serve his last term and lost to Ronald Reagan. If he had beaten Carter in 1976 it is highly likely that Reagan would have still been the nominee in 1980 and I have a hard time picturing a circumstance where Edward Kennedy defeats Reagan.
~ US & USSR teaming up on Iran... That would've shaken everything. Perestroika earlier, for one.
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
