• November 28, 1994
• Vol. 42
• No. 22

Bruce Laingen

For An Iranian Hostage, Time Heals the Anguish

NOVEMBER 4 was the 15th anniversary of the capture of 72 Americans by Iranian militants in Tehran. Bruce Laingen, 72, the U.S. embassy's chargé d'affaires, prefers not to remember that day. "We celebrate Jan. 20, the day we were released," he says. Laingen, who spent 444 days in captivity and retired from the Foreign Service in 1987, says he has no malice toward the Iranian people. "To the extent that there was pain—and there was pain," says Laingen, who became a grandfather after his release, "time has softened it."