Moorhead Kennedy, a former diplomat and Mount Desert resident who was among more than 50 people taken hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Iran in 1979 and held for 444 days, has died.
Kennedy, known to friends as “Mike,” passed away on May 3, according to his obituary. He was 93 years old.
Kennedy, a native of New York, was stationed at the embassy in Tehran as a State Department economist when Iranian students protesting U.S. involvement in the country’s politics stormed the diplomatic compound on Nov. 4, 1979.
In an interview 30 years later with the BDN, Kennedy said he could still vividly recall when the students forced their way through the embassy’s locked gate.
“A Marine came down the hall shouting ‘Everyone upstairs! There’s been a break-in!’” Kennedy said. “I spent my 49th birthday tied up, blindfolded, and tied to a chair.”
Kennedy said he expected the situation to be resolved quickly through diplomatic negotiations, but as it dragged on it became a major issue in national and international politics. A failed U.S rescue attempt in April 1980 made things worse, and is considered a significant factor in President Jimmy Carter’s loss in the election later that year to Ronald Reagan.
Following the release of Kennedy and 51 other American hostages in January 1981, after Reagan was sworn in as the new president, Kennedy resigned from the State Department and became an author and an educator.
In 2012, Kennedy publicly backed federal legislation that would allow the former hostages to seek monetary compensation for their ordeal.
The agreement between the U.S. and Iran that released the hostages explicitly prohibited them or their families from seeking such compensation, but Kennedy argued that victims of other acts of state-sponsored terrorism have been allowed to sue the governments responsible in international court and have been compensated.
Kennedy and his family stood to gain millions of dollars in compensation, but he said the money was not as important as receiving official recognition and justice for the trauma he and other hostages experienced.
“I still occasionally have nightmares,” he said. “Some of our number have not been able to keep jobs or marriages. They just fell apart … The families went through hell also.”
In 2015, Congress approved the bill, but the hostages and their families still have only received partial compensation, according to advocates who continue to pressure U.S. officials to fully fund the program.
Kennedy is survived by four sons and eight grandchildren. A celebration of his life will be held at St. Mary’s-By-The-Sea in Northeast Harbor, on July 19, 2024.
