Some of you may not be old enough to remember the Iranian hostage crisis, but you should understand what it meant, because it explains everything we are watching right now.
In 1979, after the Iranian Revolution, Iranian militants stormed the U.S. Embassy and held American diplomats hostage for 444 days. Not hours. Not days. More than a year, with the United States publicly humiliated while a new regime made it clear that hostility toward America was not temporary, it was foundational.
That crisis didn’t end because of a beautifully worded statement or a breakthrough panel discussion. It ended when the regime in Tehran understood that a different kind of president was about to take office. When Ronald Reagan came in, the calculation changed overnight. Strength, or even the credible expectation of it, forced a decision that months of careful diplomacy had failed to produce.
That was the lesson.
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