As they sat locked in the same room day after day, week after week, month after month, listening to death to America chants and wondering when the bullet might come, the 52 American hostages being held in Iran had no idea what President Jimmy Carter was doing or if he even cared.
Only later, after the handcuffs and the blindfolds came off, after the plane carried them out of Iranian airspace, after the threat of show trials and summary executions finally vanished, did the hostages held for 444 days realize just how much Mr. Carter had done, and how consumed he had been with freeing them.
There's no doubt about it in my mind that if it weren't for President Carter, I don't think I would be here now, Barry Rosen, 80, the press attache at the embassy during the takeover, said in an interview from his home in New York.
But to at least some of those who lived it, Mr. Carter remains a figure worthy of respect and admiration for his relentless determination to bring them home, even at the expense of his own political career.
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