A desire for successful assertive action against terrorism in the Reagan administration was further spurred by the memory of the political cost borne by President Jimmy Carter for a lack of the same (his inability to free American hostages seized by student demonstrators in Iran was held to been a major factor in his failed 1980 reelection bid). Despite covert CIA searches, the Reagan administration had also been frustrated in its inability to find American hostages held being in the Lebanon hostage crisis that had begun in 1982, nor had they had an opportunity for decisive action in the recent TWA hijacking.