All Fall Down: America's Tragic Encounter With Iran

by Gary G. Sick

All Fall Down is the definitive chronicle of Americas experience with the Iranian revolution and the hostage crisis of 1978-81. Drawing on internal government documents, it recounts the controversies, decisions and uncertainties that made this a unique chapter in modern American history. From his personal experiences, the author draws revealing portraits of the people who engaged in this test of wills with an Islamic revolutionary regime. A page one review in the New York Times Book Review praised it as convincing, fair and balanced.

Genres: Iran, Middle East, History, Politics, Nonfiction

468 pages, Paperback

First published April 12, 1985

Reviews

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I highly recommend this book for those who want an insider account of the Iranian revolution of 1979. It includes detailed information about the takeover of the U.S. embassy by Iranian student radicals. We have not had formal diplomatic relations with Iran since then.

The book suggests the problems a U.S. president has in balancing many issues at any one time. For example, the Camp David Accords between Egypt's Anwar el Sadat and Israel's Menachem Begin were taking place even as problems in Iran mounted. It's sobering to realize that crises sometimes occur because too many events are happening at the same time.

The book highlights the assumptions our culture makes and our surprise when those assumptions are proved wrong. We found out that diplomatic missions are not necessarily respected as they had been for centuries. Even during the outbreak of World War II, American diplomats in hostile territory were given safe passage. Not so anymore.

We also discounted how important one's culture is and how the inroads of free wheeling Western lifestyles can offend. This has happened in most Middle Eastern countries to one degree or another.

The embassy takeover was more than a decade behind us when I began my service with the U.S. Foreign Service, but I served with a former hostage as well as one of the six who escaped with the help of the Canadians. (The movie Argo was loosely based on their experiences.) It created scars within both the Foreign Service and the American psyche.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to know a little history behind the Iranian Revolution and all of the problems that it caused, read this excellent book. Gary Sick wrote the definitive book on the subject. I haven't found anything close to it since. I'm surprised there aren't more books on the subject.

[Christopher Herndon · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you only read one book about what lead to the Iranian Revolution in 1979, this is it. I am fortunate enough to be a former graduate student of the author Gary Sick and greatly benefited from his lectures and this book.

[Jack Ewart · Rating 3 out of 5]

For class, boring but kind of cool to learn about

[Thomas Ray · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sick learned the truth after he wrote this book. See /Den of Spies/, Craig Unger, 2024, pp. 43-44.

[Luke Lanciano · Rating 5 out of 5]

The definitive Iran hostage crisis book. Sure, the author has his biases, but he also makes an endless series of meetings into a gripping narrative, so it balances out nicely.