The health situation, however, weighed on him. Carter, after all, doted upon his image as a humanitarian. On October 19, he asked his national security team point-blank: “Does somebody here have the answer as to what we do if the diplomats in our embassy are taken hostage?” There followed an interval of silence. “I gather not. On that day we will all sit here with long, drawn faces, and realize that we’ve been had.”
