Daniel Pipes recalls Reagan’s Early Victory in the War on Terror.

On November 4, 1979, a mob indirectly under Khomeini’s direction seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran, an action that encouraged Islamist confidence and unleashed Muslim fury against Americans worldwide. That fury then took violent form when Khomeini inaccurately declared that the capture of the Great Mosque of Mecca on November 20 was a U.S.-led assault on the sanctities of Islam. (In fact, it was carried out by a group of bin Laden-like fanatics.)

A wave of anti-American mob attacks then followed in North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. The worst of the violence was in Libya and Pakistan; in the latter country, four deaths resulted — among the first fatalities of militant Islam’s war on America.

In reaction, Jimmy Carter hemmed like Bill Clinton and hawed like John Kerry. He got bogged down in diplomatic details and lost sight of principles and goals. For example, he responded in part to the embassy takeover by hoping “to convince and to persuade the Iranian leaders that the real danger to their nation lies in the north, in the Soviet Union.”

He responded to diplomatic efforts like a technician: “It’s up to the Iranians” to make the next move, he said in late 1980. “I think it would certainly be to their advantage and to ours to resolve this issue without any further delay. I think our answers are adequate. I believe the Iranian proposal was a basis for a resolution of the differences.”

In contrast, as president-elect, Ronald Reagan took a bold stance. He called the Iranian captors “criminals and kidnappers” and he called the political leaders “kidnappers.” If they understood from his insults, he added, “that they shouldn’t be waiting for me [to take office], I’d be very happy.” …

Reagan’s tough words and tough reputation won the United States a rare bloodless victory over militant Islam. Even a senior Carter administration official, though preferring to emphasize his boss’s mistakes over Reagan’s strengths, grudgingly acknowledged that “we probably would not be getting the hostages out now if Carter had been reelected.”

As Pipes writes, Reagan’s later record against militant Islam is not so great (Beirut, Iran-Contra); but the example of this early victory beautifully illustrates the uselessness of Carter-style diplomacy when dealing with fanatic Islamists.