Top American diplomat held among 52 hostages in Iran
WASHINGTON — L. Bruce Laingen, the top American diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran when it was overrun by Iranian protesters in 1979 and one of 52 Americans held hostage for more than a year, has died. He was 96.
His son Chip Laingen told The Associated Press that his father died Monday of complications from Parkinson’s disease at an assisted-living facility in Bethesda, Maryland, a Washington suburb.
Iran was in chaos in 1979, roiled by the departure of the Shah of Iran that January and the return a month later of the revolution’s leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, a longtime religious leader in exile. The U.S. had supported the shah’s regime and incurred the wrath of Iranian revolutionaries.
When U.S. Ambassador William Sullivan stepped down in early 1979, the U.S. sought a short-term leader for its Tehran Embassy, Mr. Laingen recalled for a 1992 oral history for the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. He said he accepted the appointment as chargé d’affaires to Iran with the understanding it would be for a period of four to six weeks.
In spite of his wife’s reservations, Mr. Laingen said, he went to Tehran that June with a feeling of excitement. “That was where the action was,” he said.
On Nov. 4, 1979, protesters took over the American Embassy. For 444 days, the plight of the American hostages was a daily news story — and a never-ending political drag for President Jimmy Carter as he campaigned for reelection in 1980, a bid he ultimately lost.
Chip Laingen said his father was held separately at the foreign ministry for most of that period and was “treated fairly well.” His father struggled with feeling like he was the “captain of the ship” and not able to be with the rest of the hostages, his son said.
On Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, 1981, the hostages were released — a rebuke to Carter as well as recognition of a new American leader, Ronald Reagan.
Recalling in the oral history his feelings upon returning to the U.S., L. Bruce Laingen said: “I can only remember the joy of it, the relief of it, the incredible embrace of affection we had from every American.”