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Taken Hostage: An American Experience Special: Part 1

Dec. 25, 1979 - Washington, District of Columbia, U.S - Anti-Khomeini demostration in downtown DC. Protesting the takover of the US embassy in Tehran and of the holding hostage the 54 embassy employees. Police arrest one demonstrator and others yell at the police officers for protecting the Iranian students who were marching in supoort of the Khomeini government. (Credit Image: � Mark Reinstein/ZUMA Wire)
Mark Reinstein/ZUMAPRESS.com
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via ZUMA Wire
Dec. 25, 1979 - Washington, District of Columbia, U.S - Anti-Khomeini demostration in downtown DC. Protesting the takover of the US embassy in Tehran and of the holding hostage the 54 embassy employees. Police arrest one demonstrator and others yell at the police officers for protecting the Iranian students who were marching in supoort of the Khomeini government. (Credit Image: � Mark Reinstein/ZUMA Wire)

Mon Nov. 14 at 9PM on WKAR-HD 23.1 & STREAMING | Explore how America’s complex involvement in the Middle East led to the Iran hostage crisis.

Unfolding like a political thriller, Taken Hostage tells the story of the Iran hostage crisis, when 52 American diplomats, Marines and civilians were held hostage at the American Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979. For the next 444 days, the world watched as the United States received a daily barrage of humiliation, vitriol and hatred from a country that had long been one of our closest allies. Told through the candid, personal testimony of those whose lives were upended by the action, the crisis would transform both the U.S. and Iran and forever upend the focus and direction of American foreign policy.

The film is told largely through the lens of the exceptional love story of former hostage Barry Rosen and his wife Barbara, who was suddenly thrust into the public eye as the crisis dragged on. Other key figures are Hilary Brown and Carole Jerome, two pioneering female foreign correspondents who risked their lives to uncover the truth of what was happening in Iran; Gary Sick, a senior member of President Carter’s national security team and longtime Iran expert; and Colonel James Q. Roberts, a member of the top-secret American commando unit, who recounts details of the failed attempt to rescue the hostages in a daring Special Forces operation. Taken Hostage uses their candid, personal testimonies to tell the story of these dramatic, history-making events.

Watch this documentary at video.wkar.org during or after the premiere date.

MORE ABOUT AMERICAN EXPERIENCE:
For more than 30 years, American Experience has been television’s most-watched history series, bringing to life the incredible characters and epic stories that have shaped America’s past and present.

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