Just before Valentine.'s Day: after hiding for more than six weeks, six Americans were smuggled out of Iran by the Canadian embassy staff. The daring move brought tumultous waves of thanks from aU of America . Cards were sent, phone calls were made and billboards within view of the Canadian border were painted with messages to show the United States' gratitude. The Iranians were furious that the Canadian government had gone to the lengths of giving fake passports to the Americans and dosing their Tehran embassy to hide the escape of the six. One militant holding Americans hostage at the U.S. embassy was quoted, ironically, as saying, "That's iIlega!!" For Canadian students at Harding the episode provided a day of national pride filled with thank-you's from Americans. One Canadian, mass communications major Tom Cark, beamed with pride as he spoke about the Canadian rescue. "1 remember that day one of my teachers drew attention to the fact that it was "thank a Canadian dax'-' because of what we did. Everybody else went around that day shaking my hand. I was really...proud: ' Clark said he thought Canada would have done the same thing for any country which might be in the same situation. But, because it was America that Canada helped, he thought the action was even better. He said his pride wasintheactitself mostly. "It's not so much that it was Americans," he stated. "But for me, since it was Americans rescued and 1 was down here in 'Americaland: J thought it was pretty nifty:' ~ *' Thankyou, Canada 2 Scenes: Aggression Courlny Wide World Photos But even the events in Cambodia were thrust out of America's mind when on November 4 raging mobs in the Iranian capital of Tehran overran the United States embassy, taking 62 Americans hostage. Only 15 days earlier, despite warnings from the American ambassador in Iran and other officials, President Carter granted Shan Pahlavi a visa to enter the United States for cancer treatment in a New York hospital. Once the Shah was on American territory, the militants in Iran captured the embassy, demanding the return of the Shah and his fortunes in exchange for the hostages. The world-wide reaction was intense and varied. Muslims in four countries, spurred by false reports of American retaliation on the Grand Mosque ' in Mecca, attacked American embassies. In Islamabad, Pakistan the embassy was burned and two American servicemen were killed by the angry mob. In the United States the public reaction was a wave of outrage and nationalism, the likes of which had not been seen since World War II. President Carter placed a freeze on more than $6 billion of Iranian assets in American banks, stopped all Iranian oil imports and all types of aid to Iran. He also sent a large contingent of American ships to the Indian Ocean in a show of United States military might. The talk of war was in the air, although some hostages were released just before Christmas. No one, not even the Iranians, could foretell the world impact of the seige or just how long it would last. As the new decade came in the wild chain of events continued. With a lightning-fast strike from the north, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in a move reminiscent of the 1968 takeover of Czeckoslovakia. Carter responded with an embargo on grain to the U.S.S.R. and a call for a world boycott of the Summer Olympic Games to be held in Moscow. As January ended the inflation rate had risen an overall 1.4 percent, a yearly rate of 18.2 percent. With the 1980 primaries ahead, the campaign trail for Jimmy Carter and every other presidential candidate appeared long and hard as the book went to press the last of February . , (continued on page 42) 41 World Scenes
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