CENTCAST details all the events, crises, and geopolitical considerations that led to the formation of US Central Command in 1983. One event stands in history above all others in prominence. One crisis forced the American Congress, presidency, and Pentagon to develop a unified command focuses solely on the central region. That event sits at the heart of this episode. CENTCAST host Joe Buccino is joined on this episode by historian David Farber. David is the Roy A. Roberts Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Kansas. He’s authored many books about American history in the 1960s and 70s. The one we’re concerned about here is “Taken Hostage: The Iran Hostage Crisis and America’s First Encounter with Radical Islam,” published in 2009. More than four decades after the conclusion of the hostage crisis, much about it is misunderstood. David and Joe separate mythology from fact and lay bare the real story of this event, how it happened, and how it reverberates in Iran and America today.