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A tale in the desert youtube4/7/2023 One extraordinary new account comes from an Iranian man who had been an 11-year-old boy riding a bus through the desert on the night of the mission, when his family was detained by American soldiers.Īt a moment when tensions once again rise between the governments of Iran and the U.S., old wounds remain painfully current for many on each side who detail their recollections in Desert One – but talk of hope also emerges, that the lessons of the past might finally guide us to a better future. Kopple brought on an Iranian crew for original filming inside that country, finding many touched by these events who had for too long been overlooked. This is not only an American story but an Iranian one. Reflecting back on their experiences all these years later, fresh emotion and insights surface, not only from military warriors and the Carter administration but also former hostages, the families back home and, perhaps most powerfully, people of Iran. “It was touching and revelatory for me to find another side of these special ops soldiers and Iranians that we don’t often see,” says director Barbara Kopple, “to sit down for such personal conversations with so many about a story that still clearly matters very much to them.” She takes a humanistic approach to a thrilling story, drawing out insider details that offer new understandings about what took place. Finally, the day arrives, April 24, 1980, and the heart-pounding and unforeseen events experienced by this rare group will forever unite them. News of the crisis dominates their TVs most nights, yet they cannot tell their families what they are about to undertake. Lingering doubts begin to fade as they train for the mission. Most have never worked together, drawn from several different military branches. Someone has to have “the guts to try,” they tell themselves, and they determine they will be the ones. They know what faces them is daunting, but they are driven by a deep empathy toward the kidnapped Americans in Tehran. Those who volunteer for the mission are forced to largely invent from scratch the techniques and strategies to accomplish Carter’s goal. military, but then few had been attempted - and none of such scale and complexity. “Special ops” are today used with great frequency by the U.S. Like President Carter, America’s Special Forces are also in uncharted territory as they ready for this one-of-a-kind operation. Publicly he takes a posture of pursuing diplomatic talks as his only answer, knowing this will create a perception of weakness that may be exploited by his opponents, but in secret he green-lights the training for a rescue mission. That outcome is simply not one he is willing to accept. If the president takes aggressive military action, as many pundits advocate, he believes the hostages will be killed. embassy in Tehran by force and hold hostage fifty-two American diplomats and citizens. Among those Americans is President Jimmy Carter, readying to face a re-election challenge when self-described student revolutionaries suddenly take power in Iran. This is the thrilling story of a group of Americans working together to overcome the most difficult problem of their lives. Evocative new animation brings audiences closer than anyone has ever gotten to being on the inside for this history-making operation. Two-time Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple discovers a wealth of unearthed archival sources and receives unprecedented access, engaging in intimate conversations with many of the soldiers closest to the story, some for the first time, as well as President Jimmy Carter, Vice President Walter Mondale and TV newsman Ted Koppel. ![]() ![]() It has been called “the most audacious, difficult, complicated, rescue mission ever attempted.” Desert One uniquely blends emotion and bravado to tell the incredible tale of America’s secret mission to free the hostages of the 1979 Iranian revolution. Powers of light and darkness.Using new archival sources and unprecedented access to key players on both sides, master documentarian Barbara Kopple (Harlan County, USA) reveals the true story behind one of the most daring rescues in modern US history: a secret mission to free hostages captured during the 1979 Iranian revolution.
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