Maksim's On-Line Museum

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  • Home
  • North America
    • U.S. Capitol Flag
    • Coal Mine Scrip
    • Woodstock Ticket
    • Cable Car Cable
    • Pitch Pine Torch
    • Alcatraz Concrete
    • Ringling Bros. Staff Pin
    • Montgomery Bus Token
    • WTC Ticket
    • KKK Membership Card
    • Archaic Arrowhead
    • Prohibition Prescription
    • Smokey Bear Pinbacks
    • Gold Rush Nuggets
    • Edison Disc Record
    • Hoover Dam Cable
    • Jack Dempsey
    • Cal Ripken, Jr.
    • Bre Pettis
    • Steve Wozniak
    • Robert Ballard
    • Glenn Miller
    • El Cazador Shipwreck Coin
    • Panama Canal Matches
  • Political
    • Iranian Hostage Crisis
    • Watergate Scandal
    • White House Easter Egg
    • Eisenhower Rally Ticket
    • CCC Scrip Tickets
    • Condoleezza Rice
    • Gail Halvorsen
    • Berlin Wall
  • Military
    • Stalag POW ID Tag
    • Disney WWII Insignia
    • D-Day Barbed Wire
    • OPA Ration Tokens
    • WWII Polish Home Army Badge
    • Ships for Victory Pin
    • Crimean War Button
    • Korean War Safe Conduct Pass
    • USO Record Home
    • Vietnam War Mess Token
    • Kamikaze Recognition Slide
    • Kilroy Was Here
    • WWII Monopoly Pieces
    • Red Cross Thimble
    • Pearl Harbor Tool Tag
    • U-boat Badge
    • Red Ball Express Patch
    • Allied Military Currency
    • William McRaven
    • Fred Sutherland
    • Woody Williams
    • Harry Ettlinger
    • Richard Cole
    • Charles McGee
    • George Sakato
    • Chester Nez
    • Don Walsh
    • Joe Kittinger
    • Trinitite
    • Revolutionary War Cannonball
    • Antietam Bullets
  • Aeronautics and space
    • Chuck Yeager
    • Catherine Coleman
    • Soyuz Heat Shield
    • Crawlerway Rock
    • Shuttle Challenger AFRSI
    • Bernice Haydu
    • Edgar Mitchell
  • Automotive
    • Model T Radiator Cap
  • African
    • Anti-Apartheid Pin
    • Maersk Alabama Hijacking
    • Okpoho Manilla
  • Natural
    • Organ Cave
    • Woolly Mammoth Hair
    • Shiva Lingam Stone
    • Mount St. Helens Ash
    • Mosasaurus Tooth
    • Knightia Fish Fossil
    • Megalodon Shark Tooth
  • European
    • Viking Fibula Brooch
    • Olympic Clay Pigeon
    • Chernobyl Liquidator Badge
    • Titanic Coal
  • Asia
    • Great Wall Of China
    • Sikhote-Alin Meteorite
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    • Commemorative Coins
    • Greenbrier Bunker Key
    • World Stamps
    • Russia
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Iranian Hostage Crisis Autographs

The Iranian Hostage Crisis was a result of a group of Iranian students belonging to the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam’s Line seizing the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979, and taking hostage sixty-six American diplomats and citizens.  The students were amongst the Iranian populace that supported the Iranian Islamic Revolution and held very anti-American views out of the perception that the United States supported the Shah Pahlavi, who had been overthrown during the revolution.

Thirteen of the hostages were released November 19-20, 1979, and one was released on July 11, 1980. 

Early diplomatic negotiations failed to secure the release of the hostages, and a military operation known as Operation Eagle Claw was attempted in April 1980, but failed and resulted in the deaths of eight U.S. servicemen and one Iranian civilian. 

After negotiations mediated by the Algerian government, a set of agreements known as the Algiers Accords were finalized and signed on January 19, 1981, which resolved the crisis.  The fifty-two remaining hostages, who had been held for a total of 444 days, were released on January 20, 1981, which coincided with President Ronald Reagan assuming the office of President.

Another aspect to the crisis involved six diplomats that had been able to evade capture during the Embassy take-over and had made their way to the home of a Canadian immigration officer, who was a friend of one of the diplomats.  Some of the Americans stayed at the home of the immigration officer, while others stayed at the residence of the Canadian Ambassador.  The Canadians harbored the Americans while the CIA developed a rescue plan to help to the Americans escape the country.  The rescue, which was done with the cooperation of the Canadian government, involved the Americans being issued Canadian passports, and then two CIA agents joined the diplomats.  The group then conducted a ruse on the Iranians whereby they portrayed themselves as a film crew that had been in the country scouting an appropriate location to film a science-fiction movie named Argo, and they went to the airport and successfully boarded a flight to Zurich and escaped Iran on January 27, 1980.
I have two items in my collection.  One is a card autographed by Tony Mendez, who was the CIA expert on exfiltration, and one of the two agents who went to Iran as part of the rescue operation.  The other item is a card which was signed by Paul Lewis, who at the time was a Sergeant in the Marine Corps assigned as a guard at the Embassy, and was one of the individuals that remained a hostage for the full 444 days.
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