This is CBSI and the world. I'm John Thatcher. Craig Unger's new book is Den of Spies,

Reagan, Carter, and the Secret History of the Treason that stole the White House.

These many decades later, this is American presidential history, and therefore caution is well-advised. However, we have a mystery to solve, and perhaps it's solved in front of me,

but I have the author here to ask. On January 20th, 1980, 81, Ronald Reagan is sworn in his president of the United States,

inauguration day.

And as he begins his inaugural speech,

the hostages, I believe, are still in custody incarcerated

throughout in Tehran.

And as he ends his speech, the announcement comes that they've been freed. Is that

accurate, Craig? Did it happen that way? Yes, absolutely. In fact, Jimmy Carter, they had agreed to

release them while Jimmy Carter was president. And this was the last day of Jimmy Carter's presidency. He got zero sleep. He may

have napped on the couch in the Oval Office. He was making sure again and again that every dot,

every I had been dotted, every tea had been crossed, and he kept waiting for them to release them during his administration.

And there, while Reagan was up on the podium, taking the oath of office, and it was about three minutes later that the hostages were actually, they were actually in planes, they were on the tarmac, but they did not take off until Reagan took the oath of office.

And, you know, it was one of those things where it seems obvious on the face of it that Reagan, the Reagan campaign had to have made a secret deal.

Before he became president, he had no authority whatsoever to negotiate with Iran.

And his presidency was three minutes old, and we all saw him on the podium.

So when could he possibly have met with Iran?

That was not possible.

The onion, the satirical magazine, had a wonderful joke about it.

When they looked back from the, they did a book on the 20th century looking back on this day, they said they had the headline, Ronald Reagan inaugurated, urges America not to put two and two together.

And so something had to have happened, and that was the great mystery, but no one seemed to notice.

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