Office of the Historian

117. Memorandum for the Files1

Washington, December 25, 1979, 4:30 p.m.

SUBJECT

  • Summary of Conversations with Clerical Delegation and Bruce Laingen

In two conversations this afternoon with the clerics and one talk with Bruce Laingen after his two hour conversation with them the following paragraphs summarize their activities to date.2

The clerics spent five hours in the compound and in three separate services believe they saw 43 individuals (Howard saw 21 persons, Coffin 16, Gumbleton/Duval 6). The persons whom they saw and whom Bruce Laingen could identify are listed in the first column of the attached.3 The clerics also received from the captors 33 personal messages. Where these messages identify other Americans, they are listed in the second column. In our last conversation with the clergy, they had not yet completed their analysis of the names and lists and so the information on the attached is necessarily incomplete.

The clergy asked that we not pass any messages to dependents about their contacts with the hostages. Instead, they would like this information to come from the New York office of the clerical group. The clergy also asked that we not refer to our contacts with them in press briefings.

The clerics will attempt in subsequent contacts with the students to clear up the discrepancy between 50 and 43 hostages.4 They will [Page 306] attempt to see all 50 before departing. They will raise this subject in their meeting with Ghotbzadeh on December 26.

The clerics say there has been no discussion of the release of the hostages. They also say that there was no indication in any of their conversations on the compound that any of the hostages had been held in another place.

The clergy told Bruce Laingen they had been impressed by the resilience and courage of the hostages they met. Some were angry about their conditions, others were depressed, but their spirits seemed to improve during the meeting with the clergy. Apparently several of the hostages are in a rather bad psychological state. Bruce did not want to give their names over the telephone.

At least one hostage, John Limbert, apparently declined to give his last name to the clergy. We identified him through his reference to his dependents.

  1. Source: Department of State, Official Files of [P] David D. Newsom, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Lot 82D85, Iran Update Dec 1979. Secret. Drafted by Constable. Attached to the December 27 Iran Update memorandum from Newsom and Saunders to Vance sent on December 26.↩
  2. The clerical delegation was composed of Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Rev. William M. Howard, Jr., Bishop Thomas C. Kelly, and Bishop Thomas Gumbleton. (David Pearce, “State Dept. ‘Welcomes’ Move To Allow Visit by Clergy,” Washington Post, December 22, 1979, p. A18) The clergy, who left for Iran on December 23, were invited by the Iranian Government to meet with the hostages for Christmas services. (“Three Clergymen Invited To Visit Hostages,” Chicago Tribune, December 23, 1979, p. 2) In Iran they were joined by Cardinal Etienne Duval, the Archbishop of Algiers. (Doyle McManus, “4 Clergymen Meet, Pray with Hostages,” Los Angeles Times, December 25, 1979, p. OC1) For the statement issued by the clergy on their departure from Tehran, see New York Times, December 26, 1979, p. A16.↩
  3. Attached but not printed.↩
  4. The seven hostages not seen by the clergy were “tentatively” identified as Belk, Metrinko, Queen, Blucker, Ahern, Daugherty, and Kalp. (Memorandum for the Record, prepared by the interagency working group, December 26; Department of State, Official Files of [P] David D. Newsom, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Lot 82D85, Iran Update Dec 1979)↩