BOOKS OF THE TIMES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000605740054-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 3, 2012
• Sequence Number: 54
• Publication Date: June 6, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ST Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/03: CIA-R
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NEW YORK TIMES
6 June 1985
Books of The Times
By Benmidbwm-tz~
ALL FALL DOWN: America's Tragic En-
counter With Iran. By Gary Sick 366
pages. Random House. $19.95.
AMERICAN HOSTAGES IN IRAN: The
Conduct of a Crisis. By Warren Chris-
topher, Harold H. Saunders, Gary Sick,
Robert Carswell, Richard J. Davis,
John E. Hoffman Jr., Roberts B. Owen,
Oscar Schachter and Abraham A. Rtbl-
coff. 443 pages. A Council on Foreign
Relations Book. Yale University Press.
$25.
For instance, in "All Fall Down,"
and in the chapter be contributes to
the compendium of articles published
by the Council on Foreign Relations,
Mr. Sick strongly endorses the failed
rescue mission in Iran in April 1980,
the move that was advocated by Mr.
Brzezinski and finally led Mr. Vance
to quit Government in exasperation.
- "The rescue mission was a fail-
ure," Mr. Sick concludes in "All Fall
Down," "but it was a failure of mili-
tary execution, not of political judg-
ment or command...
"As suggested by the title, this
story has no heroes," Mr. Sick writes
in his preface.."No one had it right,
and the system itself inhibited the
flow of accurate information and
hampered judgment." -
But there are clearly some players,
in Mr. Sick's view, who had it less
right than others. The most acrimoni-
ous debate over Iran in Washington
has been whether anything could
have been done to prevent the coming
to power of the radical, anti-Amer-
ican Ayatollah Rubollah Khomeini.
William H. Sullivan, who was the
last Ambassadorto Iran, was the first
to make public his part of the argu.
ment. "Mission to Iran," published in
1981, blamed Mr. Brzezinski for sabo-
taging efforts that Mr. Sullivan
argued might have produced an alter-
native to the Ayatollah. The former
Ambassador also contended that
Washington was not paying enough
attention to Iran, was not sending him
clear instructions and was largely re-
sponsible for the collapse. Mr. Sick
argues that Mr. Sullivan was under-
mined, not so much because of policy
disagreements, but because he had
lost the confidence of the White House
by his free-wheeling actions.
The collection of articles in "Amer-
ican Hostages in Iran" is limited to
the period of the hostage crisis.
It is an invaluable book for any fu-
ture historian dealing with the details
of the negotiations leading up to the
release of the Americans. It includes
an exhaustive examination of how the
Carter Administration froze billions
of dollars in Iranian funds that had
been invested in American banks and
institutions, how the Administration
tried to impose a worldwide trade
embargo on the Iranians and how fi-
y the billions in assets were un-.
Pen in exchange for the hostages.
But this uneven book also includes
two separate chapters by Harold H.
Saunders, who was the senior State
Department official involved with
Iran throughout the period of the two
books. and whose views on the Middle
East still command respect now that
be is out of government... .%
Mr.. Saunders was close to Mr.
Vance, and if Mr. Sick in his book
gives a sympathetic portrayal of Mr.
Brzezinski's views, Mr. Saunders
,does the same for Mr.. Vance. Mr.
I Saunders throughout also gives a
very human account of the torment
felt on a daily basis in Washington by
those in the State Department trying
to free the hostages, and who believed
that patience would prevail.
T is now more than six years
since the Shah of Iran fell, and
four years since the American
hostage crisis ended. These
dual crises were exhausting-for the
public and for the Administration of
President Jimmy Carter.
To the significant literature on Iran
already published in recent years,.
two more excellent books have been
added. Of the two, Gary Sick's narra-
tive about American relations with
Iran, "All Fall Down," is the more
comprehensive, since it covers in de.
tail not desperate
also th esperate flailing around in
Washington and Teheran in the dos-
ing months of 1978 as the Shah's
power began discernibly to sHp.
Mr Sick,' a Navy captain who was
the Iran expert on the National Se-
curity Council, has written a taut,
dramatic account of the crises that
began with the. fall of the Shah. His
narrative moves easily through the
debate over whether the Shah should
be admitted to the United States. It
covers the seizure of the American
Embassy on Nov. 4, 1979, and con-
cludes with the negotiations that fi-.
nally led to the hostages' release on
President Reagan s _ Inauguration
Day.
Because of the frustrations in deal-
ing with Iran in 1978-80, the normal
differences within Government were
strained to breaking points. foreign afaf-
ter despite his interest -
fairs, could not seem ? to steer a
straight course. His policies fluctu-
ated between the "hard line". of Zbig-
niew Brzezinski, his national security
adviser, and the various approaches
put forth by the State Department,
led by Secretary of State Cyrus R.
'Vance. Mr. Sick was an intimate ad-
viser and a friend of his boss, Mr.
Brzezinski and not surprisingly his
judgments on most key issues favor
Mr. Brzezinski.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/03: CIA-RDP90-00965R000605740054-4