American Experience

Part 1 |Taken Hostage | American Experience

Revisit the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, when 52 Americans were held hostage in Tehran, through stories of those whose ordeal riveted the world.

Part 1 |Taken Hostage | American Experience

1h 52m

Revisit the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, when 52 Americans were held hostage in Tehran, through stories of those whose ordeal riveted the world.

Previews + Extras

  • Trailer | Taken Hostage: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Trailer | Taken Hostage

    S34 E5 - 3m 14s

    Revisit the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, when 52 Americans were held hostage in Tehran, through stories of those whose ordeal riveted the world.

  • Snapshot: America in the 1970s: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Snapshot: America in the 1970s

    S34 E5 - 2m 6s

    From Jimmy Carter's "Crisis of Confidence" speech to the Hostage Crisis, here's a look at each year from 1970 to 1979.

  • Operation Ajax: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Operation Ajax

    S34 E5 - 6m 8s

    The secret plan by the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) to overthrow the then-democratically-elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh.

  • Jimmy Carter: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Jimmy Carter

    S34 E5 - 58s

    President Jimmy Carter confronted one of the most significant challenges of his presidency during the Iran hostage crisis.

  • The Shah: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    The Shah

    S34 E5 - 1m

    Mohammad Reza Pahlav, the last Shah of Iran consolidated power after a CIA-backed coup in 1953 overthrew Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh.

  • Hilary Brown: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Hilary Brown

    S34 E5 - 48s

    Hilary Brown was the first female foreign correspondent at ABC News. Her coverage included first-hand reports on the fall of Saigon, the Rwandan genocide, and the Iranian Revolution.

  • Barry Rosen: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Barry Rosen

    S34 E5 - 46s

    Barry Rosen was the press attaché at the U.S. embassy in Tehran during the Iran hostage crisis. He first visited Iran in 1967 on a two-year Peace Corps mission and fell in love with the country and pursued graduate studies in Iranian language and culture.

  • Who's Who: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Who's Who

    S34 E5 - 1m

    Who's who of the Iran Hostage Crisis.

  • Title Sequence: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Title Sequence

    S34 E5 - 1m 7s

    Watch the opening sequence of film, Taken Hostage from American Experience.

  • Ways A Rescue Mission Can Go Wrong: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Ways A Rescue Mission Can Go Wrong

    S34 E5 - 3m 40s

    On April 24, 1980, after 172 days of captivity, a U.S. Armed Forces operation attempted to rescue the hostages. Colonel James Q. Roberts recalls the details of the failed Iran Hostage rescue mission.

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