Washington, Tuesday, January 20, 1981 at about noon. Ronald Reagan is sworn in as the 40th President of the United States of America on the terrace of the Capitol. On the same day, the release of 52 Americans, who had been held hostage for 444 days in Tehran by students and accomplices of Ayatollah Khomeini, ended the most serious US foreign policy crisis since the Vietnam War. The release was no mere coincidence.
The US media reported the failed release affair around the clock, which had put a lot of pressure on Jimmy Carter in the last months of his tenure and destroyed his chances of re-election. But how exactly did the hostages return at such a special time as the change of president? And how was the release portrayed in the country's media?
