IThose who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Studying history is necessary to avoid repeating past mistakes. This saying comes from the writings of George Santayana, a Spanish-born American author of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
This was never more true than what has happened this past week with regard to the U.S. military’s success in taking out one of the most cruel and bloodthirsty terrorists our world has known in recent years. Qassim Suleimani, Iran's terror mastermind, was on a rapid mission to destroy our country and terrorize our citizens, possibly even planning another takeover of one or more of our embassies and holding more American citizens hostage.
Yet there were those among our politicians and media elite who criticized the action taken by our president. They either have never read the accounts of that terrible time in our past, or have forgotten how the Iranians tortured non-military American citizens in those days.
But not all of us have forgotten. We remember that day in 1979 when a large group of Islamic militant students broke into the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took 52 Americans hostage, both men and women, keeping them in blindfolds and handcuffs for 444 days, all for the pleasure of the Ayatollah Khomeini.
The captors had no fear of the weakened and failed foreign policies of Jimmy Carter, but on Inauguration Day 1981, not wanting to incur the wrath of our new President Ronald Reagan, the Iranians released the hostages and they were put on a plane in Tehran even as the new President was making his inaugural address.
Who can forget how we felt and shed tears of joy as we watched them on television disembarking from the plane at Andrews Air Force Base and what it meant to know they were back on American soil once again.
And if you were living in Lebanon then, how could you forget how so many of us gathered on the steps of the Post Office in the bright January sunshine to celebrate their homecoming on that Saturday.
Patriotic Lebanon citizens had begun to hang yellow ribbons on the trees on their property right after the hostages were taken and over the long weeks, yellow ribbons were seen flying from front porch bannisters and car antennas all over town.
On that Saturday after President Reagan’s inauguration and the immediate release of our brave American citizens, yellow ribbons were fluttering in the wind from every small tree on Commercial Street and our flag was proudly flying from all the downtown businesses.
Lebanon businessman Eddie Smith, also known as “Mr. Patriotism”, presided over the ceremony which included the Pledge of Allegiance, and inspiring remarks by Representive Paul “Pete” Page and Senator John T. Russell. We all joined in singing “God Bless America” and Dr. Robert Taylor led us in an eloquent prayer of gratitude for the safe return of the hostages.
Before we left, we lined up to put the faded yellow ribbons we had displayed on our property into a box on the Post Office steps to be sent to the State Department. The sweet older woman ahead of me in the line touched my heart as she said, “That’s been hanging on my porch for many months.”
Now we learned this week that one of our hostages’ captors has been named Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations and has applied for a visa from our State Department.
For the State Department to grant this visa would be a slap in the face to the Iranian hostages, most of whom are still alive,and very much angered that this man, who mistreated and abused them, would be allowed to live and work in America.
Fox News Politics website quotes former American hostage Barry Rosen who was the embassy’s press attache, as saying it would be an “outrage” and “disgrace” if Congress and the president do not condemn this act by the Islamic Republic. “If Washington grants this visa, then our captivity and suffering for 444 days at the hands of Iran was for nothing. He must never set foot on American soil.”
Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton says he thinks Iran should either be expelled or suspended under the U.N. charter because it is not a peace loving state.
He went on to say, “I have no hesitation at all in saying we shoud deny a visa to this man.” But he expresses doubt that such a denial will take place. “There is no chance the Obama administration will do that because they’ll fear its consequences for the nuclear negotiations.”
This story of the Iranian hostages brings to mind another news item this week as we learned that Rear Admiral Jeremiah Denton died last week.
He became one of my heros after being held as a POW after eight years in captivity at the Hanoi Hilton, and other notorious prisons, four of those years in isolation in a windowless room about 3 feet by 9 feet, mostly in irons.
I will never forget that day in 1973 when he arrived back in the states after his release. As he stepped off the jet, dressed in his uniform, he said,
“We are honored to have had the opportunity to serve our country under difficult circumstances. We are profoundly grateful to our Commander-in-Chief and to our nation for this day. God bless America.”
Needless to say, I had to grab a box of tissues to wipe the tears away as he expressed his thanks to God for bringing him home safely. He continued to witness to his faith in the years that followed.
Admiral Denton and his navigator/bombardier, Bill Tschudy were shot down over the city of Thanh Hoa in North Vietnam where they were captured. He was best known for using Morse Code to communicate to Americans and his superiors that American POWs were being tortured in Vietnam when the Vietnamese forced him to participate in a televised press conference in 1966. He repeatedly blinked his eyes in Morse code during the interview, spelling out the word “T-O-R-T-U-R-E”.
He was also questioned and mocked by the Vietnamese about his support for the U.S. war in Vietnam to which he replied, “I don’t know what is happening but whatever the position of my government is, I support it fully. Whatever the position of my government, I believe in it, yes sir. I am a member of that government, and it is my job to support it, and I will as long as I live.”
We are a blessed nation to have so many brave and courageous men and women to inspire us and it is our duty to pass on these stories to our children and grandchildren so that they never forget.
© Joan Rowden Hart
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