The Siege: A Six-Day Hostage Crisis and the Daring Special-Forces Operation That Shocked the World

As one has a right to expect with Ben MacIntyre books, this is a gripping account of real events. In the Siege, the author recreates the story of a week long hostage crisis in London after a band of Arab-Iranians seized the Iranian embassy with the objective of causing major change in their homeland. It is a fascinating story. Often lost - particularly in the United States I suspect - as this crisis took place while the Iranians were holding the American embassy in Tehran, this story is full of irony. The bad-guys are Iranian Arabs who detested the Shah and now detest Khomeini for failing to let the majority Arab province in Iran avoid regime persecution and attain some degree of promised autonomy. Not hard bitten characteristic terrorists from that neck of the world (save one), these first-time hostage-takers garner as much sympathy as bad guys can in a story like this. Some even bond in the short time they are together with various hostages. Unlike the 56 Americans imprisoned by the Khomeini regime in Tehran, the hostages are an international amalgam of British, pro and anti Revolutionary Iranians, and a few unlucky visitors to the embassy from other areas of the world. MacIntyre's book is a day by day, often hour by hour account of the hostage drama, negotiations and conclusion. While focusing mostly on the characters inside the embassy, it also details the actions of the police, SAS, and political leadership including first year PM Margaret Thatcher. There is also nice background (thorough enough to ground the actions, brief enough not to be tedious) on a couple of the major players, background on connected contemporary events, and training of the SAS warriors who stood by to intervene should the situation demand immediate and violent action. As a few other reviewers have noted, I'm not sure how much literary license may have been taken with conversations and thoughts portrayed long after the fact. The quotes and thoughts are usually very detailed and often mundane and I wondered about the accuracy of reportage. The author does a good job laying out the sequence of events - the cycle of negotiation, terrorist response and renegotiation get repetitive but I don't think any author could have portrayed it better. The conclusion is riveting. My enormous fandom for Margaret Thatcher is only buttressed by the portrayal of her role during the event. A good book that will keep me searching subsequent MacIntyre works.

I’m a fan of Ben Macintyre. This new book is as good as his others and surely will become a film. He meticulously introduces the people then suddenly you’re in the midst of the action. I stopped everything to read the last 2 chapters.

Was only a kid when this occurred and I do not remember a whole lot about it. But I do now. Excellent read.

Hostage negotiations and rescues are different topics, but this book does a good job of covering how they were handled during one of the most iconic incidents in which both were required. But as the TV ads say, That’s not all. This was the first account of many I’ve read about the event that explained why it occurred—from the treatment of the Arab minority in Iran to the support of Saddam Hussein and well-known terrorist masterminds. Most other accounts simply report what happened, and not the background and motives of the hostage-takers. My one objection to the book is something I’ve noted in many other works by British authors who write about activities involving firearms. They usually get the descriptions of guns correct, but they just as commonly they know nothing about shooting or ballistics, including the effects of gunfire. A full metal jacket 9mm Parabellum bullet won’t “explode” inside a human body, nor will it necessarily be stopped even if fired from a common handgun, and especially not if fired from a Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine gun with its usually somewhat longer barrel. The Smith and Wesson model Regulation Police revolver was chambered for the relatively anemic 38 Smith and Wesson cartridge (not the somewhat more powerful 38 S&W Special), and a shot from the gun would certainly not “blow” someone’s head off any more than any other small arms projectile. I wish such well-meaning, but ignorant authors would find true authorities about the subject rather than accepting what they’re told by other ignorant individuals. If they can’t do that, it would be better to not mention such details at all and thereby misinform the other uninformed.

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