Yellow Ribbon

The former charge+a7 d'affaires at the U.S. embassy in Tehran during its occupation by Iranian militants describes his 444-day ordeal as a hostage, his feelings and thoughts during captivity, and his insights into revolutionary Iran.

On Nov. 4, 1979, Iranian revolutionaries took over the U.S. embassy in Tehran, and the 444-day ordeal of 52 American hostages began. Laingen, the embassy's charge d'affaires, was held separately with two staffers until three weeks before the general release. Based on his journal and letters to his family, this book offers a somewhat generalized account of his struggle against anger, frustration and boredom. His captivity was relatively uneventful, and much of the material here concerns his reaction to news, such as the failure of the Desert One rescue mission and Ramsey Clark's visit to Tehran for the "Crimes of America" conference. Laingen provides a stirring account of the hours leading up to the release of the hostages, their flight to freedom, their meetings with outgoing President Carter and later with newly inaugurated President Reagan. The predictability of the author's views and the absence of other characters in the journal make it of limited appeal for the general reader. Photos.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The personal journal of the highest-ranking US envoy to be interned during the 444-day siege that became known as the Iran Hostage Crisis. Relatively speaking, Laingen was fortunate. Posted to Tehran in mid-1979 as charg‚ d`affaires while Washington decided whether to accredit a full-fledged ambassador to the theocratic regime that overthrew the Shah, he was away from his office when militant ``students'' seized the American embassy and took its staff prisoner. Consequently, the author spent all but the last three weeks of his confinement with two subordinates in the reception rooms of the Iranian Foreign Ministry. More like birds in a gilded (if dirty) cage than political prisoners, the three detainees had access to books, newspapers, radio, and TV; they also had plenty to eat, endured no physical or psychological abuse, and received periodic visits from fellow members of the local diplomatic community. Constant contacts with the outside world enabled Laingen (who turned 58 during his ordeal) to keep an impressively detailed log of his captivity and to remain informed on current events, including the ayatollahs' efforts to make an Islamic state of Iran. Much of the material here, including letters to his wife and three sons, was spirited out of the chancellory by Swiss colleagues. Taken together, the near-daily entries offer an affecting, albeit kaleidoscopic, account of a good and decent man's response to protracted adversity. Lonely, hopeful, despairing, frustrated, resigned, and outraged by turn, Laingen relied on traditional values--duty, honor, country, family, religion--to sustain himself. That these oft-deprecated virtues obviously helped him through some very rough times represents the most important message of this low-key testament. (Illustrations, including facsimiles of journal entries smuggled out of Iran.) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Laingen was charge d'affaires in Tehran when the U.S. embassy was seized in 1979. He and two colleagues were confined in the Iranian Foreign Ministry, apart from the 49 other American diplomats kept hostage for 444 days. Laingen's journal notes, plus letters to his family, make up this book. While one must admire his religious faith, devotion to wife and children, discipline, patriotism, and fair-mindedness toward Iran, the even temper that got Laingen through his ordeal has not produced sufficiently thoughtful observations on the events. More than a half-dozen hostages have written memoirs of the Iran crisis, most about ten years ago. Barbara and Barry Rosen's The Destined Hour ( LJ 8/82. o.p.) is still the best. Optional for public libraries.
- Robert F. Nardini, North Chichester, N.H.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.