Reagan Conspired to Keep Hostages in Iran Until After 1980 Election

There have been remarkably few U.S. obituaries for such a significant figure. Only one mentions what is probably the most important fact about Bani-Sadr’s life from the perspective of American politics: He claimed that Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign colluded with the post-revolution Iranian government to keep U.S. hostages in Iran until after that year’s election.

The lone exception was from The Associated Press, and even it mentioned the subject mostly to knock it down. The AP obituary stated that Bani-Sadr “gained notoriety after alleging without evidence in a book that Ronald Reagan’s campaign colluded with Iranian leaders to hold up the hostage release.”

In fact, rumors that the Reagan campaign had made some sort of agreement with Iran’s Islamic Republic began swirling in Washington soon after Reagan’s landslide victory over President Jimmy Carter. The possibility became known as the “October Surprise” theory thanks to the documented concern in the Reagan camp that Carter would pull off a release of the hostages in October, just before the election. (The AP obituary incorrectly says that Bani-Sadr’s book “gave birth to the idea of the ‘October Surprise’ in American politics.”)

Read more on the original:

https://theintercept.com/2021/10/11/bani-sadr-reagan-iran-hostages-october-surprise/