Christmas in Tehran During the 1979 Iran Hostage Crisis
The New Yorker Radio HourIn 1979, a minister received a telegram from Iranian militants who had taken hostages in the American Embassy, inviting him to perform Christmas services. Two days later, he was inside.Listen and subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google | Wherever You ListenSign up for our daily newsletter to get the best of The New Yorker in your in-box.In 1979, as Christmas approached, the United States Embassy in Tehran held more than fifty American hostages, who had been seized when revolutionaries stormed the Embassy. No one from the U.S. had been able to have contact with them. The Reverend M. William Howard, Jr., was the president of the National Council of Churches at the time, and when he received a telegram from the Revolutionary Council, inviting him to perform Christmas services for the hostages, he jumped at the opportunity. In America, “we had a public that was quite riled up,” the Reverend Howard reminds his son, The New Yorker Radio Hour’s Adam Howard. “Who knows what might have resulted if this issue were not somehow addressed? . . . Might there be an American invasion, an attempt to rescue the hostages in a militaristic way?” The Reverend Howard was aware that the gesture had some propaganda value to the Iranian militants, but he saw a chance to lower the tension. Accompanied by another Protestant minister and a Catholic bishop, the Reverend Howard entered front-page headlines, travelling to Tehran and into the Embassy. He gave the captives updates on the N.F.L. playoffs, and they prayed. It was a surreal experience, to say the least. “It was in the Iranian hostage crisis that I understood how alone we are, and how powerless we are when other people take control,” the Reverend Howard says. “And really it’s in that setting that one can develop faith.”This segment originally aired on December 15, 2023.New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Follow the show wherever you get your podcasts.The New Yorker Radio Hour is a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
Listen and subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google | Wherever You Listen
Sign up for our daily newsletter to get the best of The New Yorker in your in-box.
In 1979, as Christmas approached, the United States Embassy in Tehran held more than fifty American hostages, who had been seized when revolutionaries stormed the Embassy. No one from the U.S. had been able to have contact with them. The Reverend M. William Howard, Jr., was the president of the National Council of Churches at the time, and when he received a telegram from the Revolutionary Council, inviting him to perform Christmas services for the hostages, he jumped at the opportunity. In America, “we had a public that was quite riled up,” the Reverend Howard reminds his son, The New Yorker Radio Hour’s Adam Howard. “Who knows what might have resulted if this issue were not somehow addressed? . . . Might there be an American invasion, an attempt to rescue the hostages in a militaristic way?” The Reverend Howard was aware that the gesture had some propaganda value to the Iranian militants, but he saw a chance to lower the tension. Accompanied by another Protestant minister and a Catholic bishop, the Reverend Howard entered front-page headlines, travelling to Tehran and into the Embassy. He gave the captives updates on the N.F.L. playoffs, and they prayed. It was a surreal experience, to say the least. “It was in the Iranian hostage crisis that I understood how alone we are, and how powerless we are when other people take control,” the Reverend Howard says. “And really it’s in that setting that one can develop faith.”
This segment originally aired on December 15, 2023.
New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Follow the show wherever you get your podcasts.
The New Yorker Radio Hour is a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
