What does carter say about argo

Early in the s, the Shah announced social and economic reforms but refused to grant broad political freedom. Iranian nationalists condemned his U. During rioting in , the Shah cracked down, suppressing his opposition. Among those arrested and exiled was a popular religious nationalist and bitter foe of the United States, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Between and , the Shah spent billions of oil dollars on military weapons. The real price of military strength was the loss of popular support. On January 16, , the Shah fled Iran, never to return. The exiled Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Tehran in February and whipped popular discontent into rabid anti-Americanism.

When the Shah came to America for cancer treatment in October, the Ayatollah incited Iranian militants to attack the U. I was informed about it the first day. And I was very much involved with the Canadian government because the Canadian government would not legally permit six false passports to be issued.

So the Canadian Parliament had to go into secret session the first time in history, and they voted to let us use six Canadian passports that were false. I mean, if this had gone badly wrong, you would have been an absolute laughingstock. But it was much bolder for the Canadian government to do it, because the Canadian government was not involved in the hostage crisis, as you know.

They could have been hostages themselves had it been revealed. But as I said, you know, they did the primary work. And as a matter of fact, the American hostages left Iran and landed in Switzerland and landed before the Iranians ever discovered that they had been there. And that prevailed for a number of years afterward. He did what? He risked the reputation of the United States of America on a ludicrous Hollywood science-fiction slapstick scam that only an idiot would think might work?

Typical Carter! If you think Dukakis in a tank looked silly, try Carter dressed up like a Klingon. Yes, the idea for the caper was the C. Agent Tony Mendez deserves his belated accolades. Carter deserves a few, too, for green-lighting the thing. On the ground, in Tehran, this was overwhelmingly a Canadian caper—the ultimate Worthwhile Canadian Initiative.

Plucky little Canada, people would have thought. Good for them. As it was, Canada got all the credit. Carter and the C. That was part of the plan, of course. But Carter and his top aides—Hamilton Jordan, Jody Powell, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Gary Sick, and many more—sat on this incredibly juicy story for nearly twenty years, long after there was any national-security reason to stay silent. Say this for Carter and his confidants, Georgian and not: these guys knew how to keep a secret.