AN AUGURY OF REVOLUTION: THE IRANIAN STUDENT ...

student movement abroad was by far the largest and most oppositional of any such student
movement, and this was due not only to its superior numbers, but also to its political
commitment.” 425
The shah had always found organized student opposition abroad to be an irritant.
However, on 21 March 1970, the CISNU was declared to be illegal. From this point forward,
any member of the CISNU who returned to Iran faced between three and ten years in prison. 426
Despite the ban, Iranian student protest abroad grew throughout the early 1970s. Demonstrations
occurred in some unlikely places, such as Finland during the shah’s June 1970 trip. The shah
was greeted by 500 demonstrators upon arrival on 22 June. 427
Demonstrations continued through
25 June, when 600 to 700 protested the shah’s presence at a state dinner. 428 American officials
worried not only that shah would become irritated, but also about the severity of anti-
Americanism that was present in the protests. 429
One day later, on 26 June, 41 Iranian students in Northern California gathered in front of
the Iranian consulate in San Francisco to protest Iranian government’s reaction to the massive
bus strikes that occurred in Iran. 430 The demonstrators in San Francisco were also protesting the
425 Nikki Keddie, Iran and the Muslim World: Resistance and Revolution (New York University Press, 1995), 69;
Quote also in Mehrzad Boroujerdi, Iranian Intellectuals and the West: The Tormented Triumph of Nativism
(Syracuse University Press, 1996), 39.
426 “Banned Students,” The Economist, 27 March 1970 in CIS, Documents on the Pahlavi Reign of Terror in Iran,
235. For an example of members of the CISNU returning to Iran and getting arrested look into the case of Hossein
Rezai. Accounts of his arrest and student reactions to it can be found throughout Documents on the Pahlavi Reign of
Terror in Iran, including p. 235.
427 Telegram from American Embassy in Helsinki to Secretary of State William P. Rogers, “Visit of Shah of Iran,”
23 June 1970, General Records of the Department of State, Central Foreign Policy Files 1970-1973, Box 2377,
Folder POL 7 IRAN (1/1/70), RG 59, NA.
428 Telegram from American Embassy in Helsinki to Secretary of State William P. Rogers, “Demonstrations Against
Shah’s Visit Continue,” 24 June 1970, General Records of the Department of State, Central Foreign Policy Files
1970-1973, Box 2377, Folder POL 7 IRAN (1/1/70), RG 59, NA; Telegram from American Embassy in Helsinki to
Secretary of State William P. Rogers, “Shah Winds Up Visits Amidst Demonstrations,” June 1970, General Records
of the Department of State, Central Foreign Policy Files 1970-1973, Box 2377, Folder POL 7 IRAN (1/1/70), RG
59, NA.
429 AE Helsinki to Rogers, “Demonstrations Against Shah’s Visit Continue,” 24 June 1970, RG 59, NA.
430 ISAUS, Defend the 41, (Berkeley, California: Iranian Students Association in the United States, 1973), 1.
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