It has always been a balance between negotiations and hard power. Under Carter, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance believed the negotiations would be more beneficial while his national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, advocated a more hawkish strategy. In order to persuade the Iranians to release the hostages and find a more diplomatic solution, the United States stopped purchasing Iranian oil and froze all Iranian assets. After this failure, Carter sought out Brzezinski for a military method, Operation Eagle Claw. Unfortunately, this mission was a disaster. The helicopters used by the rescuers malfunctioned and eight Americans were killed in the operation. Finally, on January 20, 1981, the hostages were released, hours after Ronald Reagan was sworn in. The negotiations were carried out and called the Algiers Accord. Farber ends the book by taking a look at the future and how the events that have occurred might affect the present. “Historians are generally accused of looking back 20 to 20 years. But in this case, at the time, the historian's visions can also be used to envisage a perilous future" (Farber,