Continued: Iran hostage shares his odyssey

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Former U.S. Ambassador L. Bruce Laingen's tattered, gray suit isn't much to look at anymore. But to the staff at the Minnesota History Center, it's a treasured piece of history.

Laingen, a Minnesota native, wore that pin-striped suit the day that he and 51 other Americans arrived safely on U.S. soil after being held hostage for 444 days by radical Iranian students. The Iran Hostage Crisis, which lasted from Nov. 4, 1979, until Jan. 20, 1981, captivated the world's attention and left an indelible mark on U.S.-Iranian relations.

Laingen's celebrated suit is one of many personal items he donated Tuesday to the Minnesota Historical Society for its upcoming exhibit, "Minnesota's Greatest Generation." The exhibit will open on May 23 at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul and will include oral histories and photographs to document the lives of a passing generation.

Laingen, 86, grew up on a farm two miles west of Odin, Minn., and traveled the world, first in the U.S. Navy and later as an ambassador.

His experience symbolizes the global vision many people from that generation developed as a result of the times they were living in, said Brian Horrigan, exhibit curator for the Minnesota's Greatest Generation project.

"These people told us that the war opened up the world to them," he said. "We see over and over again examples of this. A guy grows up on a farm in Odin, Minnesota. He ends up an ambassador."

Laingen was the senior American official at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran when it was overtaken by radical revolutionists. Among the items Laingen is donating is one of his most prized possessions: a wooden box containing the U.S. flag that President Ronald Reagan presented to him on the South Lawn of the White House.

Laingen's collection covers the gamut of his life.

"You reach a point in your life where you have too much stuff," he said, noting that some of his papers will go to the Carter Center in Atlanta. "You like to keep everything forever, but you can't."

Other items he donated to the Historical Society include scrapbooks of his days serving in the Navy during World War II, 4-H ribbons he won, and his report cards that history center officials said showed that young Laingen received almost all As. There were letters from his family and from schoolchildren. During captivity, "we were a classic school project," he said. Captors dropped off bags of mail that included letters that came from kids who had written to them on Valentine's Day.

"They were full of all kinds of good advice on how to get out of there," he said Tuesday, laughing.

Reflecting on those 444 long days he spent as a hostage, Laingen spoke passionately and at times tearfully.

"It is the first time that an entire embassy and its persons were taken and held hostage in the interests of that country," he said. Pointing to the navy and gold striped tie that he wore throughout the crisis, he explained its significance. He wore it during captivity, he said, to make a statement that what his captors were doing was utterly wrong. "I was going to show them I'm still a diplomat," he said.

Looking at the flag and photos of the homecoming ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House where he and the other hostages were greeted reminded him of the "magnificence of the American people," he said, suddenly teary-eyed. "The way we were genuinely embraced at every turn. The real heroes were our families."

Relations with Iran cannot improve, Laingen argued, until leadership changes in both countries. The Iranian revolution is still going on, but it's a revolution in progress, he said. "The mass of Iranians today, I'm sure would say, 'We like America.'" His experience during that historic crisis underscored for him the importance and values of the processes of diplomacy in furthering our interests abroad, he said. "Diplomacy must be our first line of defense."

Allie Shah • 651-298-1550

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