The Iran Rescue Could Give Trump His Much Needed Win
6th April 2026
The remarkable rescue of an American airman shot down in Iran partially lays to rest the ghost of one of the great calamities of recent US history. In April 1980, an attempt to recover 53 embassy hostages held captive in Tehran went disastrously wrong, leaving eight US servicemen dead. Having taken place a few years after the Vietnam War, the failed mission was a humiliation for the Americans and ensured the end of Jimmy Carter’s presidency.
The prospect of another hostage crisis, if the missing airman had been captured and paraded by the Iranians, was a potential propaganda coup for Tehran that Donald Trump intended to avoid.