Abandonato and Taylor 1

Allyson Abandonato and Kaitlin Taylor

Process Paper

Our topic for this year’s National History Day is “The Iranian Hostage Crisis: 444 Days

in the Dark”. We selected this topic because although it is a mere part of the United States’ vast

history, it was life changing for the 52 hostages taken from us. This topic was particularly

compelling because the crisis created a lingering impact in the US. For example, the US and

Iran currently remain distant and engage in few affairs with each other.

We conducted our research by utilizing a variety of sources. To begin, books were a

helpful resource. An informative book was Guest of the Revolution by Kathryn Koob. Koob was

one of the two women held hostage in the Embassy. Her book describes her experience as a

hostage. This book gifted us with information about the challenges the hostages faced, during

and after the matter. In addition, websites definitely were a critical part of our research. Websites

for newspapers, such as “The NY Times”, were crucial because they depicted articles from the

time of the hostage crisis. This allowed us to view the same material that US citizens viewed to

get updates on the Iran affair. Also, documentaries assisted us in learning about the crisis. A

documentary titled, “What Caused the 1979 US Embassy Hostage Crisis” gave us insight about

events that indirectly caused the crisis. Lastly, pictures were essential to our research. Pictures

helped us to understand the magnitude of the situation in a way that words failed to. For

example, pictures from the Library of Congress illustrated violent protests and protesters.

We chose a website because it allows us to include necessary information, and also be

creative with the appearance of our project. We were assisted by our parents, who helped us

discover how to create a website, insert videos, and format the site.
 Abandonato and Taylor 2

This year’s National History Day theme is “Conflict and Compromise”. Our topic, “The

Iranian Hostage Crisis: 444 Days in the Dark” relates to the theme because the violent protests in

the streets and the forceful occupation of the US Embassy represented conflict. The Iranian

Hostage Crisis had two types of conflict. The more obvious type of conflict included violence.

Iranians and Americans were protesting the street. US citizens were blindfolded and held hostage

by Iranians for 444 days. The second type of conflict was not violent, but equally dangerous.

American newspapers ran articles that fueled the citizens’ hatred of Iran. Public figures such as

Ronald Reagan declared statements such as “[The US will not] pay ransom for people who have

been kidnapped by barbarians.” Although this type of conflict didn’t include violence, Iran and

the US were still at war. With the help of mediator Algeria, the Algerian Accords acted as a

peace treaty and allowed Iran and the US to compromise. The US got the hostages back, and Iran

received a series of promises by the US.