Failed Diplomacy
One of Jimmy Carters aides flew to Paris in a disguise composed of a wig, false mustache and glasses. His job was to meet with the Iran foreign minister Sadegh Ghotbzadeh and negotiate the terms of release for the 52 hostages. This was all fine but on February 19, 1980, Jimmy Carter’s Vice-President told a reporter that the hostage crisis was coming to an end. Unfortunately, Khomeini spoke later and called the taking of the hostages a “crushing blow to the world-devouring USA” which destroyed all hope of a conclusion at this point. Then in April of that year the agreement was that Carter would announce to the public that no further sanctions would be put on Iran and for that the students would agree to put the hostages into the control of the Iranian government and would be released within two months. After Carter completed his part of the agreement the President of Iran, Bani-Sadr, sensing Carter’s weakness added more demands and once again Carter complied. And after all of that the Ayatollah vetoed the plan and negotiations fell through again.
These two political cartoons are making fun of how Jimmy Carter would blindily follow all of the demands during the negotiations without getting anything from the hostage takers.