The Carter Conspiracy

FACT OR FICTION?Most conspiracies require a few hard facts to give respectability to the rumours that grow or that are seeded. This book is entirely fictional, but the setting is factual. The capture of the occupants of the US embassy in Tehran on 4th November 1979 is well documented, as are the events that followed. The extraordinarily brave attempt by the US forces to free them is also a matter of record and I would like to recommend the book The Guts to Try written by Colonel James H Kyle as a brilliant factual account of what happened. I have used this as my main source where real events have formed the setting for my story, and indeed I have quoted from it by way of introduction. I did consider changing the names of the military personnel who carried out the mission, to emphasise the fictional story I wished to compose but ultimately this seemed to me to be disrespectful to their memory, and thus I hope I cause no offence by including them in my book. Clearly, when I have described his or her words during the mission, this is the product of my imagination and is not intended to be taken literally by anyone. The claim made by the Iranians to have found the bodies of nine soldiers is a matter of fact and was widely reported at the time by the US media. Similarly, the effect of the crisis and the fall-out of its failure is a matter of record. Here, I have primarily used the excellent Crisis: The Last Year of the Carter Presidency by Hamilton Jordan, Carter’s chief adviser, as a reference for what happened, and indeed his book is quoted by one of my fictional characters and proves to be the source of his eventual unravelling of the story. My aim throughout has been to entertain without trampling on the memories, achievements and sacrifices of the men and women behind Operation Eagle Claw. I truly hope I have succeeded in this aim. Finally, I hope the reader will take a moment to reflect on what happened out in the Iranian desert at the location known as Desert-1 and remember the eight men whose lives were lost, as listed below. To undertake a mission that involved flying into the heart of Iran, driving lorries and coaches into Tehran, fighting off the Iranian guard, freeing fifty-three hostages held in two locations and then capturing a local airport and flying the hostages home – this took guts and professionalism, which I have grown to admire and respect during every part of my research into this story. This fictional book – The Carter Conspiracy – is dedicated to all of them, and to the US President who had the guts to try.