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This is the Persian empire...

...known today as Iran.

For 2500 years, this land was ruled by a series of kings...

...known as shahs.

In 1950, the people of Iran elected Mohammad Mosaddegh...

...a secular democrat, as prime minister.

He nationalized British and U.S. petroleum holdings...

...returning Iran's oil to its people.

But in 1953...

...the U.S. and Great Britain engineered a coup d'état that deposed Mosaddegh...

...and installed Reza Pahlavi as shah.

The young shah was known for opulence and excess.

His wife was rumored to bathe in milk...

...while the shah had his lunches flown in by Concorde from Paris.

The people starved.

The shah kept power through his ruthless internal police:

The SAVAK.

An era of torture and fear began.

He then began a campaign to westernize Iran...

...enraging a mostly traditional Shiite population.

In 1979, the people of Iran overthrew the shah.

The exiled cleric, Ayatollah Khomeini, returned to rule Iran.

It descended into score-settling, death squads and chaos.

Dying of cancer, the shah was given asylum in the U.S.

The Iranian people took to the streets outside the U.S. embassy...

...demanding that the shah be returned...

...tried...

...and hanged.

Based on a true story.

U.S. Embassy, Iran - November 4, 1979

The carnival's a little bigger today, huh?

Windows are supposed to be bulletproof, right?

Well, they've never been tested.

You just need to finish filling out this section here.

We can process your visa.

We need some security. Yes, it's your responsibility.

They're over the walls.

We should all split. I'm gonna close up my office.

Oh, my God.

Marines to Number One. Fall back.

- Can anyone hear me? We need help. - I need police right now. Right now, goddamn it!

- Jesus. - Can anybody hear me?

There was a breach.

Just burn everything! Burn it now!

All right, burn everything! All the files, file cabinet, safe.

Let's get a cart over here. Burn it all. Come on.

Burn everything! Burn the classifieds! Everything!

GOLACINSKl: Don't fucking shoot anybody.

You don't wanna be the son of a bitch who started a war.

They need an hour to burn the classified.

I need you to hold.

If you shoot one person, they're gonna kill every single one of us in here.

I'm telling you, if we're going to go, we need to go now.

- Okay, we need to make a decision-- - Can we wait until the Iranian police come?

No, the police aren't coming. It's been 45 minutes.

- How do you know? - The police have abandoned their posts.

If the police are not coming, then the army's gonna come.

The prime minister won't let the embassy be taken over.

The prime minister may come tomorrow, but the Komiteh are here today. So we have to evacuate.

Look at me. No one is coming.

Get the desk drawers. Everything. Don't sort it.

Get it down to the incinerator in the vault! Go, now!

Tear gas as a last resort only.

I repeat: only if your life is under threat.

In here, we are in America right now. Outside, we are in Iran.

- It's on American soil-- - I'm not going out into that.

They're not safe here.

If they get caught applying for visas to the U.S.?

Mark, we are in the only building with direct access to the street.

- If we're going to go, then we need to go now. - Yeah, I'm in.

- Yeah. - Yeah, let's go.

- I'm going outside. - Why?

To reason with them.

Open the door!

Open the door!

Open the fucking door!

You said you wanted to see the world, right, Tom?

GOLACINSKl: Let me in! Let me in!

Burn it all. Come on.

Get the safe, get the filing cabinets, get it all.

All four drawers, I want them shredded right now.

Not gonna shred fast enough.

Grab the visa plates!

All four! And anything else you see out there.

When in doubt, just shred it!

We got 10 minutes! Let's go, let's go, let's go! Everything!

Get the shredder.

There are no police.

Jesus.

Leave the building, go now.

Iranians go first.

Now, hurry!

Who has made this?!

Who has made this?!

Who has made this?!

It's done. They're in.

Okay, come on. We gotta get off the streets.

This way. Up here to the left.

- These fucks hit us, we can't hit them back? - Mosaddegh, we did it to them first.

- These fucks hit us, we can't hit them back? - Mosaddegh, we did it to them first. STATE DEPARTMENT - 7TH FLOOR

STATE DEPARTMENT - 7TH FLOOR

You think the Soviets would put up with this shit? They'd invade. STATE DEPARTMENT - 7TH FLOOR

You think the Soviets would put up with this shit? They'd invade.

We helped the guy torture and de-ball an entire population.

- How many were there? - At least 50. We're not sure.

- Schafer! - You still haven't found Schafer?

No, I was screaming his name because I was fucking him.

CANADIAN AMBASSADOR'S RESIDENCE, TEHRAN

Come in. CANADIAN AMBASSADOR'S RESIDENCE, TEHRAN

CANADIAN AMBASSADOR'S RESIDENCE, TEHRAN

It's confirmed, sir. Six escaped. CANADIAN AMBASSADOR'S RESIDENCE, TEHRAN

It's confirmed, sir. Six escaped.

- I was told five. - No, sir, apparently it's six.

- What happened? - Not clear. We know they escaped.

- What happened? - Not clear. We know they escaped. SECRETARY OF STATE's OFFICE

SECRETARY OF STATE'S OFFICE

- Where are they? - The Canadian ambassador's house. SECRETARY OF STATE'S OFFICE

- Where are they? - The Canadian ambassador's house.

- Do they stay put? Are we attempting rescue? - Hold for the Secretary of State.

Yes. Is White House joining?

They claim the embassy was a den of espionage.

We wish it was.

We wish it was. WHITE HOUSE, CHIEF OF STAFF'S OFFICE

WHITE HOUSE, CHIEF OF STAFF'S OFFICE

Cl's got three people over there, they don't see a revolution coming? WHITE HOUSE, CHIEF OF STAFF'S OFFICE

WHITE house, CHIEF OF STAFF'S OFFICE

- Call it something other than intelligence. - Hold for the chief of staff. WHITE HOUSE, CHIEF OF STAFF'S OFFICE

- Call it something other than intelligence. - Hold for the chief of staff.

- Hodding. - I'll call him back.

They're sticking. No release till we expel the shah.

- Put him on a plane, then. Fuck him. - He's half-dead and he's in chemo.

We took him in. He's ours now.

Great, so we'll take in any prick as long as he's got cancer?

No, just the pricks on our side.

So all our other pricks on their prick thrones know when they get thrown out on a rail...

...they won't get their fucking spleens taken out by some camel vet in Sinai.

What about the six who are with the Canadians?

We've got 60 in the embassy with guns to their heads right now.

The whole world is watching the embassy. They're safer than the six on the street.

Banisadr's saying it'll be over in 24 hours.

We leave the six where they are. I'll go brief the president.

All right, let's get to it.

So far official comments about the incident have been a model of restraint.

69 DAYS LATER

Iran's Revolutionary Guard has rounded up a gang of terrorists...

...blamed for one murder of a half-dozen followers of A ya toll ah Khomeini.

It says security at Khomeini's home now has been tightened.

This, by the way, is the 69th day that the American hostages have been held in Tehran.

There is no change reported in the hostage situation.

In this country, George Meany died last night. He was 85 years old.

Yeah.

Yes.

What?

To begin with, of course...

...we wanted to learn about the hostages held in the American embassy compound.

They may not understand what their ordeal means to their countrymen.

But this nation, their nation, is outraged.

And we cannot really know what it is like inside the prison that was once our embassy.

And we cannot really know what it is like inside the prison that was once our embassy. C.I.A. HEADQUARTERS, VIRGINIA

And we cannot really know what it is like inside the prison that was once our embassy.

Actions of Iran have shocked the civilized world.

Our embassy has been seized...

...and more than 60 American citizens continue to be held as hostages.

The situation in Iran this morning is unchanged in regard to the hostages.

NBC's situation in Iran has changed, however.

- Is he back there? - Office.

What happened?

The six of them went out a back exit.

Brits turned them away, Kiwis turned them away.

Canadians took them in.

Traffic calls them "The Houseguests."

They haven't left the Canadian ambassador's house since it happened.

- Why didn't we get them 10 weeks ago? - Too dangerous.

You got Revolutionary Guards going door-to-door like Jehovah's Witnesses.

Half of them think that Khomeini's been too lenient on the ones in the embassy.

What about the White House?

Carter's shitting enough bricks to build the pyramids.

The Canadians are done.

They say they're bearing too much risk. Their foreign secretary corners Vance in Brussels...

...and told him she wants the six of them out.

- Who else knows? - Just the families.

Meanwhile, some genius in our embassy was keeping a mug book...

- ...on everybody who worked there. - Jesus Christ.

We think it got shredded before they got in.

But now the bastards are using sweatshop kids to reassemble the shreds.

And once they reassemble that book they'll know six Americans got out.

And they'll know what they look like.

Standing room only for beheadings in the square.

- Who's handling? - State is coordinating in-house.

State?

- They don't do exfils. - They do now.

They want to run it by us, strictly as consultants.

Engell says it's a lose-lose.

These people die, they die badly. Publicly.

State wants the blame, we'll give it to them.

What does he want me here for?

So he can tell State he ran it by his best exfil guy.

Okay.

This is Bob Pender from State O.S.

He's been talking to Morgan at ExtAff.