President Carter felt it was his personal responsibility to bring these American hostages back safely to the United States. On November 11th, he embargoed Iranian oil. Six days later, Khomeini released the females and African Americans from the group of American hostages but 53 Americans remained as hostages.Â
People in America still believed this hostage crisis would blow over quickly and that the American hostages would be returned home shortly. However, it was not the case.
President Carter did not want to use military force as he was afraid it may be too risky. Click on the link below to listen to an excerpt from President Carter explaining his response to the Iran Hostage Crisis:
http://presidentialtimeline.org/resources/educators/video/carter.mov
As time passed, more and more Americans grew angry and tired of waiting for President Carter to do something. Below is an excerpt of an interview with Rosalynn Carter, President Carter's wife, discussing how difficult the hostage crisis was for him.
"No one can know how much pressure there was on Jimmy to do something," said Rosalynn Carter.
"I would ask him 'why don't you do something?" and he would say "What would you want me to do?"
I said, "Mine the harbors [so when the Iranian boats go over the mines in the water, they will blow up]" and he would respond with "Okay, suppose I mine the harbors, and they decide to take one hostage out every day and kill him/her. What am I going to do then?"
On your assignment document, answer questions #9-12