When Ken Taylor arrived in Iran for his first ambassadorial posting, he had no reason to expect anything but a serene time as a promoter of Canadian business and trade. Instead, he ran headlong into the Ayatollah Khomeiniâ??s Iranian Revolution.
The revolution took a solid hold in early 1979, driving the American-backed Shah from his royal perch. Taylorâ??s embassy scurried to evacuate the 850 Canadian workers in Iran and settled down to wait out the chaos, while reporting back to the Joe Clark government on the rapid establishment of an Islamic republic and processing thousands of applications for visas from Iranians anxious to flee the country.
An angry band of Islamic militants stormed the United States Embassy on November 5, grabbing more than 70 American occupants as hostages. If they were to be freed, Khomeini demanded the return of the Shah, who was in a New York hospital, and of his ample bank accounts too.
A long nightmare for Jimmy Carterâ??s US government began. The president became as much a prisoner of Khomeini as the hapless American hostages. It took 14 months to get them all back home. The crisis was the straw that broke the back of Carterâ??s fragile presidency.
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