November 4, 1979 – Postcard From Tehran: Death To America And Other Love Songs – Embassy Under Siege

– CBS Radio: The World This Week – November 4, 1979 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –

In what became the opening day of an odyssey, the U.S. Embassy in Tehran was attacked on November 4, 1979, overrun with over 100 Embassy employees taken hostage, all as the result of the recently deposed Shah of Iran undergoing Cancer treatment in New York. The chant Death To America became the new and uncomfortable slogan we’d come to hear repeatedly over the next 444 days and decades later. The Shah, whom we had denied granting exile, suddenly appeared in New York and quietly taken to New York Hospital to undergo treatment of non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Since treatment had complications, the Shah’s stay lasted longer than expected and it triggered storms of protest in Iran, many believing this was the spark that ignited the Embassy takeover.

Whatever prompted it, the action has had long-term consequences. And as they say, things were never quite the same again.

While we were trying to make sense out of the goings on in downtown Tehran. this November 4th in 1979, we had a few other things happen:

Former First Lady Mamie Eisenhower died earlier in the week. Korea mourned the death of Park Chung Hee in a big way. Chrysler gets a government bailout to the tune of $1.5 Billion, and Bolivia ended a brief fling with democracy as a coup took over, making it the 201st time the military took over in Bolivia’s 100 year history.

And that’s how the week rolled for this November 4, 1979 as reported on CBS Radio’s The World This Week.

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