The story that most people know about the Iranian hostage crisis begins in 1979, with the Iranian revolution and the hostage crisis.
University students held 52 diplomats hostage for 444 days.
To really understand the crisis, you need to understand how the CIA overthrew the elected Iranian government in 1953 and installed religious fanatics.
Western governments felt they had to act, in order to prevent the Iranians from nationalizing their oil industry. This is the story of Operation Ajax.
