3. The Hostages Were Held for 444 Days
The ordeal seemed interminable for the hostages who were being held. At one point, President Carter orchestrated a rescue attempt that had to be aborted due to challenges when the flight team landed in the Iranian desert. Six months in, they were transferred to a remote prison close to the Russian border, possibly to make sure that no one from the American government could find them. Even after Iraq’s invasion of Iran, the hostages would have to wait an extra four months before being released. In total, they would be held for 444 days, over 14 months.
When Jimmy Carter was defeated in the 1980 presidential election in favor of Ronald Reagan, Khomeini began to make earnest attempts to have the hostages released and returned to the United States. International intermediaries, mainly from Algeria, went back and forth between the United States and Iran to help secure their release. A month after Reagan was elected, they were finally moved out of the prison at the Russian border and prepared to be returned to the United States. Even then, though, the interminable wait would continue. For the second year in a row, they would not be back home in time for Christmas. Once again, the prospects of finally returning to America began to look like a dream that would not come true.