On January 20, 1981, Jimmy Carter went from 39th President of the United States to humble private citizen. While some former commanders in chief experience a mix of emotions on that final ascent away from the White House, Carter had one clear sentiment: exhilaration.
It wasn't because he was thrilled to leave office. It was because the crisis that dominated the final year of Carter's presidency had finally come to an end.
More than a year before Carter boarded his flight out of Washington, 66 Americans were taken hostage in Tehran when a group of Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy there. The world watched as President Carter worked tirelessly to negotiate their release. As he tells Oprah during an interview on "SuperSoul Sunday," the moment Carter heard about the American hostages, he was on high alert.
"I hadn't been to bed for three days and three nights," he says.
Right after the hostages were captured, Carter sent a clear message to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who was leading Iran at that time and supported the Iranian students' extremism.
"We sent word to the Ayatollah through the Germans and others that if he injured a hostage, we would close off all access between Iran and the outside world," Carter says. "And if he ... killed a hostage, we would attack Iran militarily. So he was very careful not to let any hostage be injured or killed."
After 444 days in captivity, the hostages were released -- just moments after Carter left office. The timing, he points out, was no accident.
"I had just been negotiating with the Iranians and with 12 other countries," Carter says. "And at 9 o'clock that morning, they were already in the airplane ready to take off from Tehran. But the Ayatollah Khomeini kept them there until after I was no longer president."
When Carter received word from the Secret Service that the hostages had actually taken off from Tehran, he was elated.
"It was one of the best days -- best moments -- of my life," he says.
The next day, Carter got the opportunity to come face to face with the hostages. "President Reagan was nice enough to invite me to go and meet them," Carter says. "I didn't know how they were going to react to me."
The former president walked into the room where the former hostages were assembled, in Germany, prepared for any response.
"They stood up and broke into applause," Carter recalls with a smile. "One by one, they embraced me and thanked me for getting them out."
But what about the pointed timing of the hostage release? Did Carter ever harbor a hint of disappointment that it did not technically happen during his presidency?
"I really didn't think about that until later, when the news media began to comment," Carter says. "But I didn't worry about that. I was so thankful to get them out."
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