If Ronald Reagan ended the Cold War, then Jimmy Carter certainly freed the US Hostages in Iran

Once again, with the recent Death of Reagan, the Republicans are gilded and the Democrats denigrated. Reagan, somehow won the Cold War -- even though Truman initiated Kennan's communist containment policy. But, somehow the Reagan magic of a huge military build up, which started during the Carter administration, won the Cold War ten months after he left office. Well, the Cold War was waged for about 50 years, and there were a few different Presidents from both of our parties in office during those years.

[Never mind that the CIA somehow missed the coming collapse of the Soviet Union, even though my Economics Professor, Seymour Melman, a founder of the No Nukes Movement, saw it and called it years before just by inspecting antiquated Soviet factories. In 1990 there was a lot of soul searching on how the CIA missed that one, just as there is a lot of navel gazing on how we let the 2001 Plane Attacks on NYC and DC happen, and how we somehow mistook a lack of WMDs for actually having lots of different ones. Perhaps their is a political-economic need for the CIA to be so wrong so many times? It certainly leads to a lot of arms sales and militarization of the U.S.]

Meanwhile, ten years before, ABC's Nightline Show was founded pretty much to nightly hound Carter on the Iranian Embassy Hostage Crisis, and news shows nightly showed the day-count. It was national mourning in America every night.

[As shocking and barbaric as it was to hold 'ambassadors' hostage, the US Embassy did have a bitter legacy in Iran for Iranians. In the early 1950s, Kermit Roosevelt, working for the CIA, developed the 'Iranian' coup deposing democratically elected Modsedeq who wanted to nationalize Iran's oil resources, and installing instead the Shah of Iran, who bought US weapons systems and gave us preferential oil deals.]

Contrast Nightline and late 1970s nightly news' coverage of the Hostage Crisis to present day coverage of troop deaths and injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan.... Contrast Bush' victimization of Iraq for Al Quaida's attacks on the US with the accusations of Clinton "wag the dog" when he bombed the Al Quaida training camps...

Contrast this to Bush 2's frequent and long vacations, including the monthlong one in August 2001 even though we discovered that Al Quaida bombed the Cole in late 2000 and declared war on the U.S, and despite over 50 2001 warnings of airline highjackings, domestic attacks, and an intelligence briefing that Al Quaida was determined to attack the US and that they had a cell here. Before 9/11/01 Bush was concerned about Iraq, secret energy policies, and severely limiting stem cell research. Today the arrivals of dead and injured troops are secret and they go uncovered on our nightly news.

Carter sent a rescue squad to free the hostages and the helicopters unfortunately crashed in a sandstorm. He also negotiated hard for the hostages' release, while planning a second military rescue mission and emplacing severe sanctions and embargoes on Iran. Carter barely left the White House so dedicated was he to solving this crisis, but the press treated him like a loser in charge of a systemic failure.

Bush 2 took a month to start a 'war' against Afghanistan, allowing Bin Laden to escape. The perpetrator of the worst domestic attacks on the US is still on the loose. Bin Laden and Afghanistan are barely mentioned anymore. Yet Afghanistan is flooding the world with heroin. But don't look at that, look at this: we've beaten other middle eastern 'terrorists' in a war. We not helped topple Saddam's statue, but we got him, too.

We find out later that former CIA Director George Bush (the First), and Reagan 1980 Campaign Director, Bill Casey, who was to become CIA Director under Reagan were doing their own negotiations with the Iranians since November 1979 to delay the release of the US hostages for over 12 months more, to assist a Reagan victory for the assurance that the US would reward Iran with arms and other incentives, such as lifting some or all of the Carter embargoes on Iran.

Transcript of Cable of USSR surveillance of Iranian Arms dealings in the 1970s and 1980s associated with Reagan officials. See for yourself the actual cable sent to Lee Hamilton investigating the Reagan Arms for Hostages dealings in 1993 This House Committee didn’t release this cable, but it came to the conclusion that the Reagan campaign team did not delay the US hostages release in Iran by over a year. This link gives the background on how investigative reporter Robert Parry found and copied these documents .

This evidence means that Carter could have freed the hostages during his administration. The hostages were freed just as Reagan was inuagurated. The story was spun that the Iranians were so terrified of Reagan doing something militarily to them that they gave up the hostages out of fear! What we didn't know then was that the Reagan team was dealing arms for hostages before his administration was elected.

Therefore, Carter freed the hostages, using the same logic that Reagan ended the Cold War. When you add the facts that the Reagan 1980 Team delayed the hostages' release, it is clearer that Carter freed them.

Obviously illegal and immoral as it was for the Reagan 1980 team to delay 52 hostages' release by fourteen months, but it was also impractical from a hostage prevention standpoint.

In the early 1980s, Iranian backed militants took more Americans hostages in Beirut. These hostages were held for years. As some were released, others would be taken. By this point, Iran and Iraq were at war, the US -- semi-officially -- was backing Iraq with sales of Iraqi oil financed US arms