Five Attempts

In the past decade there have been five major rescue attempts, including two U.S. efforts, similar to the one mounted in Iran. All were risky; none was an unqualified success. Those that worked best took place in relatively isolated areas and were total surprises, which enabled the attackers to overpower their foes quickly. The missions:

November 1970: On orders of President Nixon, about 100 crack commandos choppered to the Son Tay prison camp near Hanoi to free 70 American prisoners of war thought to be held there. But all the raiders managed to do was dumbfound half a dozen North Vietnamese guards. The prisoners had been moved elsewhere weeks earlier.

September 1972: Eight members of the Palestinian group known as Black September shot to death two Israeli athletes and held nine others hostage at Munich's Olympic Village. The terrorists demanded the release of 200 Arabs from Israeli prisons. A day later, as the terrorists and their hostages prepared to board a plane to leave Germany, police opened fire. The terrorists murdered all nine Israelis. Five of the terrorists were killed; three were captured.

May 1975: After the Mayaguez, a small U.S. merchant ship headed for Thailand, was seized by a Cambodian gunboat, President Ford ordered a military rescue by 1,100 Marines. All 39 Mayaguez crewmen were freed, but at the cost of 41 U.S. servicemen killed and 50 wounded.

July 1976: Pro-Palestinian gunmen hijacked an Air France jet to Entebbe Airport on the outskirts of Kampala in Uganda. Holding 106 people hostage, the terrorists demanded the release of 53 prisoners from jails in Israel, Kenya and several European countries. Israeli commandos aboard three C-130 Hercules transports swept down on the airfield at night. Three hostages and one Israeli officer were killed; 103 people were rescued.

October 1977: Four terrorists hijacked a Lufthansa jet with 86 aboard after takeoff from Majorca, demanding ransom money and the release of leaders of the Baader-Meinhof gang from West German prisons. The terrorists made several refueling stops and finally landed at Mogadishu, Somalia, where West German commandos stormed the plane and rescued the hostages; three terrorists were killed.

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