On December 31, 1977, the President of the United States was in Tehran, the capital of Iran, to speak with their leader. During his stay he defined Iran as “an island of stability”. Less than two years later, on November 4, 1979, the American embassy in Tehran was stormed by Iranian students and all united citizens were taken hostage. Four hundred and forty-four days later, on January 20, 1981, the hostages were finally released. Each of those days, the world was watching. This political cartoon was published on January 24, 1980, 81 days after the hostage crisis began. The cartoon uses Uncle Same to represent the United States. In it Uncle Sam appears confident and proud, fully believing that the United States is the most powerful country. Meanwhile, Ayatollah Khomeini wraps a rope around Uncle Sam's legs. The Ayatollah is much smaller to represent how the US is much stronger than Iran. The rope around the legs symbolizes how Iran is tying up and stopping the United States. The cartoon overall shows how the strong and proud nation of the United States is successfully stopped by a much weaker Iran, and does nothing about it. To understand the tensions, we must look back. For thousands of years the Iranian people had a Shah as their absolute ruler. To secure access to Iranian oil fields during World War II, the United States Mohammad Reza Pahlavi employed the Shah of Iran as a puppet of the United States. This lasted until 1951, when Mohammed Mosaddeq became an extremely popular Iranian prime minister. His goal was to nationalize Iran's oil industry away from the British. To combat this, the newly formed CIA has secretly staged a coup to remove the Prime Minister from or...half of paper...the world over which the United States has very limited control. The Iranian hostage crisis has not yet been forgotten and the lasting effects will continue to be seen. Works Cited Contenta, Betty. “Personality, Policy, and Group Process Variables in Foreign Policy Decision Making: Jimmy Carter's Management of the Iranian Hostage.” International Political Science Review / Revue Internationale De Science Politique 10.1, Case Studies in Psychopolitics/L'analyse Psychopolitique: études De Cas (1989): 35-61. JSTOR. Network. May 11, 2014. Larson, David L. “The American Response to the Iranian Hostage Crisis: 444 Days of Decision.” International Social Science Review 57.4 (1982): 195-209. JSTOR. Network. May 11, 2014. Valtman, Edmund S. "We Are the Most Powerful Nation in the World; January 24, 1980: AAECEditorial Cartoons." AAEC editorial cartoons. Np, nd Web. May 11 2014.