Death to America
Videos
Page
Death to America is an anti-American political slogan widely used in North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, and Pakistan. Originally used by North Korea since the Korean War, Ruhollah Khomeini, the first supreme leader of Iran, popularized the term. He opposed the chant for radio and television, but not for protests and other occasions.
Iranian protesters burning the flag of the United States along with a US Dollar in Tehran, November 2018
A conference named "Long Live Death to America" held on November 3, 2015, at Tehran University explores historical reasons for chanting the slogan.
Two protesters in Iran tearing an American flag at an anti-American rally.
Iran hostage crisis
Videos
Page
The Iran hostage crisis was a diplomatic standoff between Iran and the United States. Fifty-three American diplomats and citizens were held hostage after a group of militarized Iranian college students belonging to the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line, who supported the Iranian Revolution, including Hossein Dehghan, Mohammad Ali Jafari and Mohammad Bagheri, took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took them as hostages. The hostages were held for 444 days, from November 4, 1979 to their release on January 20, 1981. The crisis is considered a pivotal episode in the history of Iran–United States relations.
Iranian students crowd the U.S. Embassy in Tehran (November 4, 1979)
Anticipating the takeover of the embassy, the Americans tried to destroy classified documents in a furnace. The furnace malfunctioned and the staff was forced to use cheap paper shredders. Skilled carpet weavers were later employed to reconstruct the documents.
Two American hostages during the siege of the U.S. Embassy.
Barry Rosen, the embassy's press attaché, was among the hostages. The man on the right holding the briefcase is alleged by some former hostages to be future President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, although he, Iran's government, and the CIA deny this.