There has always been a balance between negotiations and hard power. Under Carter, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance believed negotiations would be more beneficial while his national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, advocated a more hawkish strategy. To convince the Iranians to release the hostages and find a more diplomatic solution, the United States stopped buying oil from Iran and froze all Iranian assets. After the failure, Carter looked to Brzezinski for a military method, Operation Eagle Claw. Unfortunately, this mission was a catastrophe. The helicopters used by rescuers malfunctioned, and eight Americans were killed in the process. Finally, on January 20, 1981, the hostages were freed, just hours after Ronald Reagan was sworn in. Negotiations were conducted and called the Algiers Agreement. Farber concludes the book with a look at the future and how events that have occurred could affect the present. “Historians are usually accused of exercising hindsight. But in this case, in that moment, the historian's visions can also be used to look forward to a dangerous future" (Farber,