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The Destined Hour
Chronicles the captivity of the American hostages as experienced by former hostage Barry Rosen and by his wife Barbara, at home
Hardcover
Published January 1, 1982
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April 27, 2019
I picked up The Destined Hour as background for a novel I’m weaving around the 1979-81 Iranian Hostage Crisis and have found it unbelievably useful. Written in the wake of Barry’s return from 444 days of captivity, it should be reissued today for the upcoming 40th anniversary of that crisis, along with the authors’ updates on how their assessments have developed over the intervening years.
As the reader you feel as though you yourself are shackled along with Barry trying to keep sane amid the brutality. Bound to chairs for days. Punished when caught whispering to a friend. Put in solitary confinement. Submitted to mock executions. Interrogated and beaten. Bound by tie strips so tight your fingers grow numb. Desperate for news about the world and your family. Censorship of any letters you’re allowed to write your wife and children. And capricious delivery of incoming mail by an unreliable guard some of the hostages called Hamid the Liar.
Then you’re back in Brooklyn with Barbara trying to raise your children. Hounded by TV cameras once the media find out where you live. Outraged by a talk-radio host who broadcast information that could easily harm your husband. Fighting with your mother-in-law on what to tell the media about this man you share, you as wife and she as mother. Then making up with her. Appalled at the superficiality of media coverage. Distressed when you point out an unmistakable error in an NBC news report only to find yourself dismissed by the network as irrelevant. Then discovering that you have a knack for making a positive TV appearance. Developing a savvy ability to insert some nuances about the situation that would otherwise not get into the prevailing TV narrative.
An irony of their story is that both Barry and Barbara disliked U.S. policy toward the Shah of Iran before the Iranian Revolution took place. Barry had been a Peace Corps volunteer there before he joined the U.S. Foreign Service and became press attaché. He was deeply immersed in and appreciative of Iranian culture. He had hoped to be a bridge to a new Iran, but to his captors he was a symbol of evil. The empathy the Rosens felt toward Iranians at the beginning of their ordeal, however, became intense dislike by the end. It would be interesting to know how they view this today.
Barbara became an active participant in a group of hostage family members called Family Liaison Action Group (FLAG). Travelling to Europe to drum up support for release of the hostages, she felt she received excellent advice from the chancellor of Germany. But she had mixed feelings about their meeting with the Pope. She was disappointed that he did not have a private conversation with the FLAG delegation. But she realized that the mere fact of his meeting with them was a statement in favor of releasing the hostages.
There was something very American about the Rosen family, this merging of people from different backgrounds. He was the child of Orthodox Jews and lost his job as a youth worker at a synagogue when he married outside the faith. She was the Catholic child of a Ukrainian American father and an Italian-American mother who originally opposed the marriage. In time they relented and hosted the event in the backyard of their house in Brooklyn. He cames from a small nuclear family; she from a sprawling extended family with four generations of people living in the same house. From the beginning, Barry and Barbara navigated their differences and reveled in the things they held in common.
It was only near the end of the hostage ordeal that they dared wonder what its impact would be on their future. In some important ways, they had become different people than they were at the start, and the fourteen-month trauma had a profound impact on the survivors. Of the 53 hostages, 26 were married. Seven of them became divorced or separated within a year. The Rosens somehow managed to hold it together, and apparently they still do.
Our hats are off to them.
As the reader you feel as though you yourself are shackled along with Barry trying to keep sane amid the brutality. Bound to chairs for days. Punished when caught whispering to a friend. Put in solitary confinement. Submitted to mock executions. Interrogated and beaten. Bound by tie strips so tight your fingers grow numb. Desperate for news about the world and your family. Censorship of any letters you’re allowed to write your wife and children. And capricious delivery of incoming mail by an unreliable guard some of the hostages called Hamid the Liar.
Then you’re back in Brooklyn with Barbara trying to raise your children. Hounded by TV cameras once the media find out where you live. Outraged by a talk-radio host who broadcast information that could easily harm your husband. Fighting with your mother-in-law on what to tell the media about this man you share, you as wife and she as mother. Then making up with her. Appalled at the superficiality of media coverage. Distressed when you point out an unmistakable error in an NBC news report only to find yourself dismissed by the network as irrelevant. Then discovering that you have a knack for making a positive TV appearance. Developing a savvy ability to insert some nuances about the situation that would otherwise not get into the prevailing TV narrative.
An irony of their story is that both Barry and Barbara disliked U.S. policy toward the Shah of Iran before the Iranian Revolution took place. Barry had been a Peace Corps volunteer there before he joined the U.S. Foreign Service and became press attaché. He was deeply immersed in and appreciative of Iranian culture. He had hoped to be a bridge to a new Iran, but to his captors he was a symbol of evil. The empathy the Rosens felt toward Iranians at the beginning of their ordeal, however, became intense dislike by the end. It would be interesting to know how they view this today.
Barbara became an active participant in a group of hostage family members called Family Liaison Action Group (FLAG). Travelling to Europe to drum up support for release of the hostages, she felt she received excellent advice from the chancellor of Germany. But she had mixed feelings about their meeting with the Pope. She was disappointed that he did not have a private conversation with the FLAG delegation. But she realized that the mere fact of his meeting with them was a statement in favor of releasing the hostages.
There was something very American about the Rosen family, this merging of people from different backgrounds. He was the child of Orthodox Jews and lost his job as a youth worker at a synagogue when he married outside the faith. She was the Catholic child of a Ukrainian American father and an Italian-American mother who originally opposed the marriage. In time they relented and hosted the event in the backyard of their house in Brooklyn. He cames from a small nuclear family; she from a sprawling extended family with four generations of people living in the same house. From the beginning, Barry and Barbara navigated their differences and reveled in the things they held in common.
It was only near the end of the hostage ordeal that they dared wonder what its impact would be on their future. In some important ways, they had become different people than they were at the start, and the fourteen-month trauma had a profound impact on the survivors. Of the 53 hostages, 26 were married. Seven of them became divorced or separated within a year. The Rosens somehow managed to hold it together, and apparently they still do.
Our hats are off to them.
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May 1, 2020Hi John,
It was a pleasure reading your review of our book. You have an uncanny understanding of what we wanted the American public to understand what we went through during those horrendous days. Moreover, for me, I wanted others to know something important about a culture and people that had been devoured by a vacant American foreign policy.
By the way, Barbara and I are still in love and will be celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary.
I love your idea of updating and our book but the world of publishing is much different than it was 40 years ago.
Best, Barry
It was a pleasure reading your review of our book. You have an uncanny understanding of what we wanted the American public to understand what we went through during those horrendous days. Moreover, for me, I wanted others to know something important about a culture and people that had been devoured by a vacant American foreign policy.
By the way, Barbara and I are still in love and will be celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary.
I love your idea of updating and our book but the world of publishing is much different than it was 40 years ago.
Best, Barry
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews