The Lessons From Tehran

THE 52 HOSTAGES just returned from Iran should serve as reminders of two tragedies.

The first of those horrors has been fully documented--the 444 days of pain, suffering, and deprivation that the embassy personnel suffered at the hands of their Iranian captors. But the second scandal has not been so completely reported in recent weeks--it is the 25 years of pain, suffering and deprivation that the Iranian people spent under the late shah. And it, as much as the hostages' tales, should be a lesson for our country.

To say that the actions of the Iranian militants are understandable is not to excuse them; excusing inhumanity is at all times and in all places hypocritical. But to recognize our own inhumanity is not unpatriotic; instead it is a sensible first step towards improving our conduct and preventing a repetition of the Iranian debacle. For a generation Iranians lived in fear, oppressed by a tyrant placed in power by our Central Intelligence Agency and maintained by our largesse. It is not hard to understand why Iranians hate the United States. It is not hard to understand why they lined the streets of Tehran to shout "Death to America" as the hostages left. And it is not hard to predict that, should America try in other lands, perhaps Latin America, what it tried in Iran, the result will be the same.

In the days since the return of the hostages, the headlines and the news columns have been given over to jingosim and sentimentality. "Nuke Iran" buttons are making a resurgence, and "Buy Iraqi War Bonds" has appeared on many bumpers. That the American public has given way so quickly to this onslaught of false patriotism and true bigotry, that too many of us believe the Iranians are truly "barbarians," that some have called on President Reagan to break our word to another country after 14 months of decrying violations of international law--these are all distressing signs. Can it be we have forgotten so quickly the message of our misadventure in Vietnam? Can it be that we truly do not realize the extent and the meaning of American involvement in Iran? The idea that it will take another war like the one in Indochina, another 50,000 U.S. lives, to cure our shortsightedness, our false zealotry, should scare every American.

Iran has been the setting for a pair of crimes--ours and the Iranians.' It is not necessary to decide which offense was worst. It is necessary to correct the one over which we have some control, our own misconduct.