When the embassy was overrun on 4 November, the first reaction among the American decision-makers in Washington DC was stunned surprise. Officials from both the embassy and the moderate Iranian government had warned the administration that admitting the shah might produce such a reaction – indeed, Carter himself had anticipated it, overriding his own reservations on humanitarian grounds – but such dire warnings had seemed misplaced after 22 October. The reaction in Tehran had appeared muted on its face, since nothing of consequence happened for nearly two weeks. This, however, proved to be merely the calm before the storm.

Secretary of State Vance was roused from his bed at 3 o'clock that Sunday morning, and over the course of the next few hours a number of advisers and experts assembled at the State Department and the White House. Meetings within the US government began almost immediately, with the goal of defining the nature of the situation and developing a response to it. The SCC (or Special Coordinating Committee) first met the day after the crisis began, on Monday 5 November. At this stage, very little was known about why the embassy had been overrun, or even about the identity of the captors. Nevertheless, it is now clear that few of the participants on the American side expected the whole affair to last very long.