"Members of the 8th Special Operations Squadron stand for a group photo in front of an MC-130E Combat Talon I prior to setting out
​for Operation Eagle Claw on April 24, 1980", Moody Air Force Base

FAILED MILITARY INTERVENTION

Discouraged by many unsuccessful attempts at compromise, the U.S. abandoned diplomatic negotiation
and ​launched a disastrous military rescue mission.
The morning of April 11, 1980, Carter began considering military intervention. After months of failed negotiations, the military rescue mission planned since November 1979, Operation Eagle Claw, was to be executed on April 24, 1980.
​
It ended in disaster. Eight Americans died, five were injured and no hostages were rescued.
April 25, 1980, The Woodstock Whisperer
Everybody asks me, 'What would you do [differently]?' Well, I would [have sent] one more helicopter because if I had one more helicopter, we could’ve brought out not only the fifty-two hostages but also brought out the rescue team.

-Jimmy Carter reflecting on the failed rescue mission in a CNBC interview, October 4, 2014
The plan was for eight RH-53D helicopters to be launched off the aircraft carrier Nimitz, stationed in the Arabian sea, and fly 600 miles to a landing field within Iran, designated as Desert One, near a town called Tabas….At the designated site, the helicopters were to meet with six C-130 transport planes that were to fly in from Masirah Island, off the coast of Oman. Three C-130s carried the assault force of about 120 men; the other three carried fuel for the helicopters.

After meeting, the C-130s were to refuel and transfer their special operations men to the helicopters and return to base. The helicopters were then to fly on to another location in the hills about 100 miles south-east of Tehran, called Desert Two, where the men were going to hide out during the day until they attacked the embassy by surprise as planned the following night. Local sympathizers had arranged ground transportation to the embassy at that time. After the ground attack on the embassy, the helicopters were going to pick up the soldiers and the hostages at a stadium across the street from the embassy compound, fly them to a nearby abandoned air field at Manzariyeh, and fly them out of the country on C-141s that were to meet them there.

-Rose McDermott in Risk-Taking in International Politics
Carter's televised addressed to the nation on the failed rescue attempt,
​April 25, 1980, Miller Center
In the months after Operation Eagle Claw, the U.S. held off on drastic compromise attempts.
The failure of the rescue mission had cooled the political climate. The voices calling so insistently for the government to 'do something' fell silent....President Carter returned to active campaigning for the first time in many months, and there was a widespread, if tacit, recognition that nothing further could be done for the moment.

-Gary Sick in All Fall Down
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