Willravel

I don't think that situation was about balls. As a matter of fact, Carter did quite a bit. President Carter applied economic pressure by halting oil imports from Iran and freezing Iranian assets in the United States. At the same time, he began several diplomatic initiatives to free the hostages, all of which proved fruitless. On Apr. 24, 1980, the United States attempted a rescue mission that failed. After three of eight helicopters were damaged in a sandstorm, the operation was aborted; eight persons were killed during the evacuation. Carter did a hell of a lot to try and get the hostages freed. The reason that Reagen was able to succed was the Iran-Iraq War. This made the Iranians more receptive to resolving the hostage crisis. In the United States, failure to resolve the crisis contributed to Ronald Reagan's defeat of Carter in the presidential election (posslby what you are refering to as the publics thinking Carter didn't have balls). After the election, with the assistance of Algerian intermediaries, successful negotiations began. On Jan. 20, 1981, the day of President Reagan's inauguration, the United States released almost $8 billion in Iranian assets and the hostages were freed after 444 days in Iranian detention; the agreement gave Iran immunity from lawsuits arising from the incident. (info from www.infoplease.com)

Reagen caved to the terrorists. He gave them their frozen assets, immunity, and weapons.

/end threadjack