Rudolph Giuliani’s disingenuous television ad talking about the Iran hostage crisis reveals several things. Besides omitting much historical background, he implies that the hostages were released because Ronald Reagan was taking office. The facts are quite different. President Jimmy Carter negotiated the hostages’ release through Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Abdulkariim Ghuraib, an Algerian. The resulting Jan. 19 “Algiers Accords” resulted in the hostages’ release the next day which, coincidentally, coincided with Reagan’s inauguration.

Although Giuliani does not actually lie, he misleads by omitting most of the relevant facts. In addition (and more reprehensibly) he conflates the Iranian students’ actions with Islamic terrorism, and implies it was Reagan’s reputation which caused the hostages to be released. Thus, if we are “tough” with terrorists we can win the war.

The students were, in fact, reacting to the historical involvement of the U.S. in overturning Iranian democracy and reinstalling the Shah in 1953, after the democratically elected Prime Minister Mossadegh nationalized Iranian oil fields. Their actions had nothing to do with “terrorism,” as such.

These historical facts, of which most Americans are ignorant, can be easily verified. The students’ main goal was to protest U.S. scheming in their country’s politics.

Do we want another president who attempts to deliberately mislead? Do we want a president who carefully selects his facts to press our jingoistic buttons? Or do we want, finally, to install some sanity in U.S. foreign policy to try to build a better world for all mankind?

Bruce Mitchell, Wilton