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(Tehran, December '79 - amping up the noise machine)

With the situation regarding the American hostages in Iran at a standstill, now it was the UN's turn to get involved. An emergency session of the Security Council was called On December 2nd, with a universal condemnation of the situation in Iran.

Donald McHenry (U.S. Ambassador to the UN): “Governments, of course retain the right to require that foreign diplomatic personnel leave their soil. But every standard of International behavior, whether established by practice, by ethics, by treaty or by common humanity supports the principle that the personnel of a diplomatic mission and diplomatic property are inviolate. Even in the darkest moments of relations between countries, the security and well-being of diplomatic personnel has been respected.”

Iran however, decided its Ambassador would skip the session - so basically it turned into a sermon to the choir. It's interesting the Soviet Union stayed reasonably mum about the goings on, preferring the old "we don't dabble in others affairs" line of reasoning. Of course, nobody knew the Russians were going to be sending troops into Afghanistan two weeks later.

But that's another story.

And 1979 just kept rolling along.

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("They'll greet us with flowers and candy . .. sort of")

Thirty years ago this December, the Soviet Union decided it was a good idea to take advantage of an unstable region by launching an invasion of Afghanistan. Convinced this would be easy and "what the Afghan people wanted", Moscow quickly moved to set up a Soviet backed regime and to fold Afghanistan into the Communist bloc. Or tried to anyway.

Dallas Townsend (CBS News): In recent days U.S. Intelligence has detected the influx of a battalion of Soviet troops, about five hundred men, into Afghanistan.”

Oddly enough, the news warranted only a scant 16 second mention at the end of this CBS World News Roundup broadcast from December 16, 1979. The big news was still the ongoing Hostage drama in Tehran. We were, it seemed, a bit preoccupied to notice what the other hands were doing.

The rest, as they say, is history.

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(November 12, 1979 - Getting a bit testy all around)

As the hostage drama continued to unfold (still at over 60 sitting in the Embassy in Tehran), Jimmy Carter started imposing sanctions on the Iranians, to not much success.

Jimmy Carter: “I am ordering that we discontinue purchasing of any oil from Iran for delivery to this country."

Making matters worse, demonstrations were popping up at college campuses all over, especially in Los Angeles, where Iranian students demonstrated in support of the hostage takers and the anti-Iranian crowd started making their presence felt.

All in all, it was clearly not going to be solved any time soon, and situations only made a bad situation worse.

And there was that added bonus of Ronald Reagan declaring his candidacy for President - to be official the next day.

Interesting coincidence, that.

Here is an excerpt of the day, as heard over KNX in Los Angeles

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(On a scale of bad to worse - eleven)

Continuing our odyssey of November 4th, we arrive at 1979. This one went from bad to worse in a matter of hours. And stayed that way for a record 444 days. The U.S. Embassy takeover in Tehran is largely thought to be responsible for bringing the Carter Presidency down and it did prove to be one series of epic blunders after the next, culminating in a disastrous rescue attempt that only served to aggravate an already out of control situation and further ramp up the chants of "death to America". But in the early hours of November 4, it only seemed like a diplomatic problem.

Richard C. Hottelet (CBSNews): “Young Iranians described as students, acting with the blessing of Ayatollah Khomeni have occupied the American Embassy in Tehran and hold more than fifty hostages there. They demand extradition of the Shah, who is now under medical treatment in New York.”

As the days wore on, there was no end in sight.

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(November 3, 1979 - by the end of the day it looked like this)

Saturday November 3, 1979 was supposed to be, by all intents and purposes a slow news day. South Korea had just buried its assassinated President Park Chung Hee, the 1980 Presidential race was getting started, the body of Mamie Eisenhower, former First Lady arrived in Kansas for burial and the coming week would mull Congress giving Chrysler a much needed bailout to stave off bankruptcy.

By the afternoon it got different. Five people were shot dead and at least eight were wounded during an Anti-KKK rally in Greensboro North Carolina, as carloads of whites opened fire on an otherwise peaceful demonstration. Twelve acknowledged Klan members would later be arrested. Protesters overran the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, signaling what would become a 444 day odyssey of hostages and attempted negotiations.

It goes to prove how quickly things can change, from seemingly nowhere.

But on the morning of the 3rd, when this CBS World News Roundup was broadcast, it was just another quiet weekend.

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(The Jags in 1979 - Catchy and hook-laden, but not sustainable)

A bit of late 70s UK Power-Pop this time. The Jags were one of the mainstays of KROQ here in L.A. around 1979. Not really considered Punk or New Wave, but not really mainstream either - sort of falling into that miscellaneous category that just sounded good, played catchy memorable songs but didn't last more than a couple albums. They broke up in 1982.

There were a lot of those kinds of bands from the late 70s to early 80s, and there was absolutely nothing wrong with them. They were not destined to change your life, but rather go along with it and provide the soundtrack to places, times and people.

Here is a live concert, recorded by the BBC at their Paris Theatre in London in 1979. A lot of familiar material.

And for some reason, I remembered exactly where I was when I first heard each of those songs.

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(Monochrome Set - another in a long line of unpredictable bands, for which we are forever grateful)

1979. The wave of Post-punk/pre-New Wave bands were starting to make their presences known over here in the States - eroding what was a pretty stodgy business during the mid-1970's. One of those bands were The Monochrome Set. Probably less commercially known than XTC, but no less interesting. They've enjoyed a pretty lengthy career, going from 1978 to 1985 and then picking up in 1990 to 1998. There was a one-off gig last year. So whether or not they will surface and regroup in the future is anyone's guess.

But for now - here's their second single "Eine Symphonie des Grauens".

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(Alan Price - From Animal to Lucky Man)

A jump into the mellower parts of the late 70s tonight. A set from Alan Price, recorded by the BBC from the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester in 1979.

I have always enjoyed Alan Price, going back to his days with Eric Burdon and The Animals. His music has gone through a lot of transformation over the years, from Blues to Funk to Pop to Jazz to Soundtracks - all of it well crafted and most of it pretty memorable, even after three decades since this concert was recorded.

I think it's safe to say he is probably not very well known to the music listening public of the past ten or so years. But that's not to say it's not worth the 55+ minutes to dig around and immerse yourself in something you're not familiar with. Right?

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(The Tourists - around for a short time, but on to bigger things)

Before Eurythmics entered our lexicon of Band names, we had The Tourists, a punk/new wave band founded by Peet Coombes in 1977 and featuring Dave Stewart, Annie Lennox, Jim Toomey and Eddie Chin. Great band with good production by way of German Prog-rock producer Conny Plank. As with many bands of the day, The Tourists had trouble breaking into the charts and airplay was sporadic, especially in the States.

After releasing three albums, Coombes called it quits and Lennox and Stewart resurfaced as Eurythmics. And the rest, as they say, is history.

But long before things and fortunes changed, The Tourists issued their first single "Blind Among The Flowers" in 1979.

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(Outside the U.S. Embassy in Tehran - November 1979. Not the happiest place on earth.)

For all the recent saber rattling coming from the shrill sector, it seems the lessons of history have fallen on selectively deaf ears.

And speaking of Iran - the last time we got the good idea of being the world's policeman we had our embassy overrun by militant students chanting "Death to America" and the uneasy feeling we were stuck in a game of chicken, seeing who was going to do what first and who was going to blink while doing it.

Trouble was, we had a history with Iran, going back a long way. Contrary to what some think that the average Iranian has a short memory span, most remember our foray into nation building in 1953, where we actively supported the overthrow of a legitimately elected government and replaced it with a monarchy the people no longer wanted.

We had a vested interest and it was called oil and we became inexorably linked to supporting the wrong guy in our adventures abroad for a goodly chunk of 20th Century history, particularly in the area of the independence movements after World War 2.

So when the overthrow of the Shah came in 1978, we were stuck in the rotten position of giving tacit support to the Shah while ignoring the moderate majority and allowing the fundamentalist factors to hijack a populist movement and turn it into a radical version of the repression they were dealing with since 1953.

The rest, as they say, is history. It is with that in mind that our current administration is taking the position of holding their tongues and letting history play itself out. In light of running the risk of history repeating itself, it's the only option available at the moment.

But in case you forgot the last episode, here is a rundown of events that took place between Washington and Tehran starting on November 4, 1979 and going to December 29th with Jimmy Carter's press conference.

A refresher course in the consequences of screwing up seems in order now.

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(Jumping from one frying pan straight into another.)

With the elections in Iran less than two days away, I remembered 2009 marked the 30th anniversary of the overthrow of the Shah and the ushering in of the Ayatollah - going from one repressive regime to another in a matter of months.

And in 2009 there is talk of an ouster of the fundamentalist regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a swing towards moderation and an unprecedented youth vote, probably too young to remember those days in 1979.

Word on the streets in Tehran is moderation and reform - women having an equal say in government, doing away with the repressive restrictions. Losing the stranglehold the fundamentalists have had these past 30 years.

But it's interesting to look back during those first 3 months of the overthrow (January to March 1979) to hear what was unfolding. News reports and speculations and finally an interview via Face The Nation with the Ayatollah Khomeni.

A quick look back. Later on in the year it would mean American hostages - and we'll cover that in the coming months.

"Relief and a measure of optimism prevail this morning near the site of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant. Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials are still convinced that the size of the large gas bubble inside the reactor has diminished. And as the bubble gets smaller so does the threat of a dangerous core meltdown." - Diane Sawyer, report.

The Seventh Day of the crisis. Calm was slowly starting to return, but the Hydrogen bubble is still a mystery. Schools within a five mile radius are opening and there was cautious optimism. Even the news was quietly removing the crisis to the back pages. The question was what was the extent of damage to the reactor and if it would ever be re-opened.

And then the blame game started.

"Even though this has been the most serious accident that has occurred with a nuclear power plant in the twenty-five year history of commercial nuclear power, that as yet, not only have no lives been lost in this case, but in the entire history of nuclear . . .of commercial nuclear power, there have been no lives lost, and that is unique for new technology." - James Schlesinger

Strange comfort to the people engaged in the war of nerves, living on the perimeter of Three Mile Island. Even though the bubble was dissipating, there was now the question of Hydrogen buildup as the result. A continuation of conflicting reports from two agencies, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Metropolitan Edison. Despite Jimmy Carter's assurances the day before, thousands of people within a twenty mile radius of the damaged nuclear reactor were still leaving their homes out of fear what may or may not happen.

("Nothing serious . . . .really . . .honest!)

Around four in the morning on March 28, 1979, a series of events would eventually turn into one of the biggest Nuclear Power Plant disasters in U.S. History. Initial reports indicated nothing much had gone wrong. In fact, as the situation slowly came to light, officials still vehemently denied anything was other than routine. Attempts at spin and passing the accident off as "nothing to be concerned about" hid the reality that this was much more serious than previously thought.

For example, this exchange from a Spokesman for Metropolitan Edison:

"The plant is in a safe condition. The radiation levels at the site boundary are really only a tenth of the general emergency level where we usually get concerned. We do have our crews out. We're monitoring for airborne contamination. The amount we've fond is minimal. Very small traces of radioactivity has been released from the plant"

The tune would change dramatically by the next day.

John Amato:

Gordon Skene has a great series up on Newstalgia covering the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear power plant disaster. I love history and Gordon has been doing a "bang up" job so far.
If you want to hear more news reports, here are Parts II, III, and IV of the series.

(Jimmy Carter inspecting the Three Mile Island Nuclear Facility -April 1)

Day Five. President Carter visited the damaged facility and issued a statement saying, even though the situation was slowly getting under control, it was still days before damage assessment would begin. He also pledged a revamping of the status of nuclear power plant faclities, attempting to assuage fears and protests which sprang up all over the country the previous few days.