Hopefully this won't turn out as badly as the last time something like it happened. I strongly recommend Mark Bowden's book, Guests of the Ayatollah (which happens to be on sale at Amazon right now). Like Black Hawk Down, this one really puts you there in the moment -- I would be surprised if anyone can get through it without feeling outrage at the Iranian revolution for the grave breach of international protocol, and at our "allies" who demonstrated utter cowardice and unwillingness to take even minor steps like economic sanctions against Iran. (The one exception was Canada, which at not inconsiderable risk to its own embassy personnel, forged Canadian passports for a small number of Americans who had escaped the initial takeover of our embassy, and smuggled those Americans out of the country.)
One of my favorite books about the Iranian Revolution is Ken Follett's "On Wings of Eagles" about Ross Perot's company's efforts to get employees out of Tehran as it all went down. It's supposed to be pretty much as-it-happened, not a novel. Really good read.
Posted by: Matthew Lewis | November 30, 2011 at 08:25 AM