The Siege: A Six-Day Hostage Crisis and the Daring Special-Forces Operation That Shocked the World by Ben Macintyre tells the story of how six Arab gunmen stormed the Iranian embassy in London in 1980 while the U.S. embassy hostage crisis in Tehran was happening simultaneously. Not only did it change London forever afterwards because of the crisis, but it also brought to the forefront the shadowy SAS military group. While it’s often heard and read that the SAS has one of the most difficult and brutal training programs for its members prior to acceptance, here in The Siege, we get to read about how their popularity came to be with their daring rescue operation of the hostages within the Iranian embassy. Courage comes in many forms, and for the majority of the time, it’s not often known who among regular civilians possesses this trait until they are truly tested. This is how the author tells the story of Trevor Lock, Sim Harris, Mustapha Karkouti, Roya Kaghachi, and the other unfortunate people who were in the embassy at the time of the embassy takeover.

The story of the Iranian embassy takeover was spectacular in that it also occurred during the U.S. embassy takeover in Tehran by students. Due to the gunman’s lack of experience along with their confusing initial demands for freedom for Arabistan, a place most people can’t locate on a map, confusion heightened the tension of the crisis and made things worse for everyone involved, from the policeman to negotiators and higher authorities. Reading about these crises in the past is always made interesting because we get to see how these conflicts were worked on in an era before the Internet and high-speed communication. The author gives the readers a clear play-by-play look at how the entire saga unfolded over each of the six days. The buildup and tension ultimately lead to the assault within the embassy by the SAS soldiers. Some of the events were just so movie-esque that I had a hard time believing at first.

The Siege is a highly recommended read. In this story, the hostage-takers, while obviously in the wrong as the cause of the embassy siege, are not the usual villains who murder innocent civilians for no apparent reason. Some could even accuse the author of being sympathetic to their cause. This was at a time, as noted by the author, when embassy sieges were actually happening frequently around the world as a way for terrorists to make demands. It just so happens that the six gunmen here were inadequately trained, inexperienced, and were easily manipulated. As pointed out, the best terrorist schemes were plotted by clever people but only then to be carried out by manipulated morons. On the other side of things, The Siege also highlights how the negotiators at that time dealt with the situation, which was mainly by stalling. It was an intense high-stakes game of chicken to see who would blink first, basically. The Siege makes for intense reading and one you’ll not likely want to put down until the very end. It really does make one wonder how the situation would have turned out had it been different hostage takers.