The moment Reagan was sworn in, the hostages were released. Reagan would have nuked those Mullah @#^# !@&#'s back to the stone age, and they knew it.
I ran across someting similar the day after the disaster.
I was having lunch with a lady friend who was working in an area peripheral to the film industry. Her father had been a successful New York publisher and Hollywood producer. At this early point in her "career", before reality set in, it looked as though she might become a successful writer. After sitting down at our favorite Jewish deli in West L.A., she opened the conversation by saying, "Today I'm ashamed to be an American."
"Because the rescue mission failed?" I asked.
"No, because we even tried it."
I was too surprised to respond to that. I couldn't quite put myself into that mindset.
Apparently neither could Carter.
I remember the announcement, and from that point on I knew we had someone special at the helm.