Introduction to Intelligence Studies

History of Intelligence in the United States 37

rioting and demonstrations had overwhelmed even the brutal SAVAK (secret

police) and military. As a result, the Shah abdicated the throne and le Iran

in early 1979. He was eventually replaced by a religious leader, the Ayatollah

Ruhollah Mousavi Khomeini, who shared the Iranian peoples’ enmity for

both the Shah and the United States.

Second, on November 4, 1979, Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy

in Teheran, taking 53 Americans hostage. e Iran Hostage Crisis, as it came

to be known, lasted 444 days and became an overriding feature of the Carter

presidency. At one point, the military attempted a covert rescue operation,

Operation Eagle Claw. Although the rescue was unsuccessful, opera