Iran hostages reflect on a crisis that defined Jimmy Carter’s presidency: ‘A fine man that did his best’

When revolutionary students seized the US embassy in Tehran they initiated a 444-day ordeal that had a huge impact on Carter in both political and human terms

Isolated, incommunicado and blindfolded for much of their captivity, the newly released American hostages had mixed feelings at best about the US president who had presided - seemingly impotent and powerless - over their 444 days of misery.

Some blamed him for failing to extricate them from the Iranian revolutionaries who held them against their will and subjected them to ill-treatment, including beatings and mock executions. Others blamed him for the presidential decision that prompted their incarceration.