Minnesota native and top American official held in Iran during hostage crisis dies

Writing for for the Star Tribune, Mary Lynn Smith looks back at the life of Bruce Laingen, a career diplomat who was among the 52 Americans taken hostage by Iranian students at the US embassy in 1979. 
 

After being held hostage in Iran for 444 days, Bruce Laingen and 51 other Americans safely returned to the United States amid celebrations and parades.

But all Laingen, the top US diplomat in Iran, wanted back in January 1981 was to reconnect with the small farming community in southern 
Minnesota where his heart was rooted.

“He was a big-shot diplomat, but he was always more comfortable being on the farm, baling hay in a place where no one made a fuss about you,” Laingen’s son, Chip, recalled Tuesday. “He wanted to embrace where he came from and the people who meant the most to him.”

Laingen, who lived most of his adult life in Bethesda, Maryland, died Monday at age 96. Memorial services will be held later this summer in his hometown of Odin, about 125 miles southwest of Minneapolis. Although his career in the foreign service spanned 38 years, many Minnesotans best remember Laingen as one of the Americans taken hostage when radical Iranian students took over the US embassy in Tehran in 1979.

Laingen had first served in the US consulate in Mashhad, Iran, in the 1950s. Then in June 1979, he returned to Iran when President Jimmy Carter appointed him US.chargé d’affaires.

Months before the embassy takeover and amid rising tensions, Laingen warned US officials not to allow Iran’s deposed Shah to enter the United States for medical treatment.

“When President Jimmy Carter authorized that, it was the final straw for the radical students who believed the US was really the devil,” said Laingen’s son.

Americans were gripped by nightly reports of the high-stakes hostage standoff. Laingen’s wife, Penne, tied a yellow ribbon around the oak tree in the front yard of their Bethesda home.

Americans quickly followed suit in solidarity and hope that the Americans would be safely returned.

News clips often showed Laingen bound and blindfolded. Despite that, Laingen felt he was treated fairly by his captives, his son said.
 

Read the full article on the Star Tribune website