weeks from the embassy in iran, the students holding the hostages promise to obey an order from ayatollah khomeiniomen and blacks. the ayatollah explained, quote, islam has respect for women and blacks who spent ages under oppression and tyranny. >> the president was apparently confident that at least some of the hostages will soon be free. we are thankful, said his statement, the ordeal may be over for them and soon reunited with their families. but it went on to urge that the authorities in iran now move to secure the safe release of all of tse still being held. >> what can you do? you can bring pressure. you can bring sanctions. you can go to the united nations. you can send emissaries. but america can't do a damn thing. >> ted koppel on abc news, walter cronkite, america, day 15, day 100, day 200. it started wearing on people. and carter started becoming the symbol of lost american prestige. >> ronald reagan is running officially. he got in the race tonight in new york city at a fund-raising dinner. and he taped a speech yesterday for showing tonight on about 90 independent television stations

. >> ayatollah khomeini became the enemy of the united states the moment he replaced the shah.s of sermons that condemned the loss of iranian sovereignty. >> when ayatollah khomeini saw large groups supporting in front of the embassy, he made the decision, i'm not going to stand against this wave. i'm going to ride it. >> there has bn a persisnt belief in many quarters here in iran that the united states government was plotting to restore the shah to power here. >> from the iranian standpoint, it wasn't terrorism. they looked at the embassy as an occupying force. the embassy was actually the agent for controlling iranian politics. >> a new warning. he said if the americans try military force to rescue the hostages, the students will kill them all and blow up the embassy. >> because of the distance from tehran to the arabian sea, a rescue of the american hostages is considered unlikely. >> how much longer can you go on doing this? >> we are ready to go on until martyrdom. martyrs are alive in islam. martyrs do not die. martyrs are not destroyed. >> so the bullets do not really k

i believe ayatollah khomeini tends to do the same thing. andink it was unfortunate dangerous. there is another certification due in october i believe and an upcoming deadline for waving sanctions. let me say i would urge the administration there is no greater threat on the face of the earth to united states then the threat of a nuclear iran. i think the certification yesterday is very hard to justify with the facts on the ground. let me shift to another topic. there is right now eight disagreement going on between the department of defense and house armed services committee concerning whether a separate military branch should be created for space. i am interested in your thoughts on that question. gen. selva: i do not believe right now is the time to have a discussion about developing a space force. it would complicate the command and control of the space installation which is critical operations, so i believe the time is not right for a discussion about eight corps or force. i think there are three things we need to do. to our in progress. the first was the consolidation of o

was attacked in tehran, hostages were taken, we had a president -- well, he had hailed the ayatollah khomeini as a man of peace when he took power so it was kind of tough for him to attack him, but the iranians, they said the students did it very came very clear soon, they were saying we had the hostages. it was a government-orchestrated attack. they could have and should have protected our embassy and carter should have made it clear, you either get our people out unharmed or we are bringing the full power of the united states military to iran and it wouldn't be a bluff. i think they would have let them go. that's why they spent at least three days talking about the students having them. that was a way out. if carter had said we're coming if you don't get those folks out, i think they would have let them go. but you can't bluff in a situation like that. but we got -- should have made it clear that we're not tolerating attacks on united states land, and that's what an embassy is, and because we didn't defend ourselves there, the story started. well, they ran from vietnam. you know, didn't do