Guests of the Ayatollah

Acknowledgments

I have never had so much help in writing a book, and I’m afraid now I have been permanently spoiled. I would like to thank Morgan Entrekin, David Bradley, and Scott Rudin for their enthusiastic and generous support of this project. Michael Oreskes and Vivian Schiller of The New York Times (and Discovery-Times) made the companion documentary possible.

My research assistant Terrence Henry has been invaluable. He joined me in this project soon after I started it, and over the years I came to lean on him more and more. I might have been able to write this book without him, but it would have taken me twenty years and it would still be missing bits and pieces of information he cleverly unearthed from the National Archives and the Carter Center in Atlanta. My cousins David and Arcadia Keane, and my son Aaron Bowden (along with the rest of the talented folks at Wild Eyes Productions) signed on early to make the companion documentary for the Discovery-Times channel, and effectively became my collaborators. David and Arcadia made one reporting trip to Tehran, and David accompanied me on my two trips, and I owe them a great debt for their help, companionship, and a terrific place to stay in Hermosa Beach. Aaron wrote the documentary and chipped in on a lot of the interviewing, traveling all over America, and my gratitude toward him is mixed with a huge helping of fatherly pride.

I would also like to thank Tim Wells for the extraordinary early reporting he did on this story, all of which is deposited in a special collection at the Duke University Library, where my own notes, transcripts, and files will be donated. Wells was gracious and extraordinarily generous in sharing his work. Ramin Mostaqim was our guide and translator in Tehran, and he threw himself into the work like the talented journalist he is. I would also like to thank Michael Hornburg for his careful and patient copyediting, Ron Bernstein, Christina Asquith, Jennie Dunham, Scott Manning, Jamison Stoltz, Kaveh Ehsani, and Nikki Faratsatpour.

Lastly, I would like to thank the participants in this story who worked hard to make sure I told it accurately, most of all John Limbert, Michael Metrinko, Bill Daugherty, Dave Roeder, Mike Howland, Bruce Laingen, Bucky Burruss, and Logan Fitch.