American officials were structurally unable to connect foreign grievances to US actions.

Evidence

Carter’s inability to connect what some foreigners felt about the United States’ longstanding support for local dictators with what was happening to the Americans held unlawfully in Teheran is extraordinarily symptomatic. Even if one completely opposes the hostage-taking, and even if one has only positive feelings about the hostages’ return, there are alarming lessons to be learned from what seems like the official national tendency to be oblivious to certain realities. — Edward W. Said, Covering Islam, 99