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On March 12th in 1979 talks were going on in Israel between Menachem Begin and Jimmy Carter, with an emergency session being held on this day. Speculation among Middle East watchers was President Carter to spend an extra day trying to hammer something out.

And to go along with the negotiations were reports of continued violence in the West Bank, anti-Carter riots around Jerusalem and a general feeling of tension while some sort of peace process was being arrived at.

And if that weren't enough, talk on Capitol Hill centered around what was being described as a disastrous Energy policy and a looming crisis by way of Arab Oil. Only time would tell on that one.

Meanwhile, news from overseas, aside from the Peace talks, centered around continued Rhodesian attacks on rebel bases in Zimbabwe and the Women of Tehran turning out en masse to protest the latest edicts from the Ayatollah regime regarding a severe curtailing of civil rights for women and a reintroduction of the Chador as required apparel for all Iranian Women.

And when the talk wasn't focused on the potential energy crisis or the Middle East, Capitol Hill was focusing on calls for a Constitutional Amendment to the Balanced Budget, with John Stennis leading the charge. And if Jimmy Carter didn't have enough trouble, Republican Presidential hopefuls Howard Baker and Bob Dole were busy making political hay from calls for an investigation of the Carter Family Peanut business based on an FBI investigation that alleged Prodigal Brother Billy was busy cooking books at the warehouse.

And so spiraled this March 12th in 1979 as reported on CBS Radio via their 8:00 am-9:00 am (PST) network news and The World Tonight.

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(Sen. Alan Cranston - Majority Whip and Tap Dance - 1980)

As the hostage crisis in Iran dragged on, the finger pointing season was in full swing. Everyone from the President to the State Department had their fair share of blame to pass around. Our attempts at diplomacy and negotiation were failing miserably and there seemed to be no positive outcome to the story.

So when Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.), Senate Majority Whip appeared on Face the Nation on March 30, 1980 he was barraged with questions on what, if any, next moves were on the horizon. From the sounds of it, there were none.

Sen. Alan Cranston: “I think you have to go all the way back to the beginning of the crisis to really fault what has occurred. I do not fault the decision to permit the Shah to enter this country, I think that that was necessary and appropriate, given our past relationship with him and his health. I do feel that, in retrospect it would have been far wiser for the President to have taken steps to insure the safety of our people in Iran. There apparently there were reasons to fear what might happen when the Shah came in. And I think we should have closed our embassy and removed our personnel simultaneously with the permission of the Shah to come this country. Since that time, I think the President has handled a very difficult situation with restraint and wisdom and imagination in seeking ways to go and resolve an incredible situation.”

In short, there was no solution and a lot of blame to pass around. But bear in mind, it was only going to get worse with an ill-fated rescue attempt a little over a month away.

And thirty years ago it was very possible to make a bad situation worse.