April 26, 1980 – CBS World News Roundup – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
April 26, 1980 – Aftermath and morning after for the failed hostage rescue attempt. No shortage of outrage, recriminations and wagging fingers.
The blasts from Capitol Hill were palpable – shock and anger that Congress wasn’t informed; nobody ran the idea past them. Credibility with our European allies took a decided nosedive and of course, the Soviet Press went to town portraying America and the Carter Administration as a bunch of dummies who couldn’t do anything right. All that, and loud protests along with ear-splitting drumbeats did very little to inject any calm into the fractured scene at the White House.
To make matters worse, eight Special Forces members of the hostage rescue team who were killed during a collision with one of the rescue helicopters and a C-130 transport were left in the desert, only to be claimed by the Iranians.
And fears that the 52 hostages would be broken up and dispersed to various facilities outside of Tehran had become reality. It was revealed the Students holding the hostages had already moved the hostages out of the Embassy compound sometime either just before the failed mission or right after it was discovered.
Needless to say, candidates seeking to unseat Jimmy Carter in the fall election were falling over themselves, denouncing the Carter Administration as inept and badly mismanaged.
The only takeaway the White House was able to latch on to was the potential of rising suspicions between the Militants and the Bani Sadr government. The Militants were claiming there were mercenaries, agents and even contacts within the government poised to help the hostage rescue team. They called for an immediate investigation of the government.
And that’s what was going on for the most part, this April 26, 1980 as reported by the CBS World News Roundup.
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