Rudy on Reagan and hostages

Despite my issues with the New York Times ad watch articles, yesterday's installment on Rudy's Reagan ad is pretty amusing.

Rudy:

I remember back to the 1970s and the early 1980s. Iranian mullahs took American hostages, and they held the American hostages for 444 days. And they released the American hostages in one hour, and that should tell us a lot about these Islamic terrorists that we’re facing. The one hour in which they released them was the one hour in which Ronald Reagan was taking the oath of office as president of the United States. The best way you deal with dictators, the best way you deal with tyrants and terrorists, you stand up to them. You don’t back down. I’m Rudy Giuliani, and I approve this message.

The Times accuracy check:

Although the hostages were freed less than an hour after Mr. Reagan was sworn in as president, the complex deal that led to their release was brokered by President Jimmy Carter’s administration. The hostages were released because the United States agreed to return nearly $8 billion in frozen assets to Iran, most of which Iran used to pay off foreign creditors. Some suggest that the Iranians continued to hold the hostages until Mr. Reagan was sworn in as a final affront to Mr. Carter; others say that there were logistical reasons for the delay. And while the advertisement seems to invoke Mr. Reagan as an example of standing up to terrorists, some members of his administration later went on to sell arms to Iran as ransom for hostages held in Lebanon, and to divert the profits to rebels fighting the Marxists in Nicaragua, contrary to official government policy.

The last line is the best part. Reagan's a great example of how we should stand up to Iran... except for the fact that he sold them arms for hostages. Other than that, though, he was tough!

Comments

[Sean-Sean-B]

He also withdrew the Marines from Beirut, hardly standing up against a terrorist act. You'd think by hearing legends of Reagan that he was a fabled character that lived before written history that couldn't be confirmed by modern historians.