AN AUGURY OF REVOLUTION: THE IRANIAN STUDENT ...

same day the lavish ceremonies were taken place. However, a letter from U.S. attorney James L.
Browning, Jr. to Ardeshir Zahedi on 12 June 1973, almost two years after the incident occurred,
indicated that the bombing was not solved. 477
Amidst this atmosphere of discontent, the Iranian government continued to crack down
on subversives, and this affected American citizens. Sharon La Bere, an American nursing
student from Oakland, California, was arrested tribunal on 9 November 1971. 478 The Iranian
government believed that she was sent to Iran with funds from Iranian students in the United
States to contact guerrilla fighters. If convicted she could have faced ten years in solitary
confinement. She was engaged to an Iranian student named Akbar Vahedian who lived in San
Francisco. La Bere claimed she was in Iran to visit relatives of her fiancé. She was exonerated
of the charges. However, she admitted to participating in anti-shah demonstrations in the United
States and was sentenced to three years in jail because she acted against the national security of
Iran. 479 Despite the growing protests by anti-shah students abroad, and the complications that
arose throughout the early 1970s, the Nixon administration continued to emphasize the
importance of its relationship to the shah. Nixon and Kissinger believed that the shah’s
leadership in the Persian Gulf fulfilled the objectives of the Nixon Doctrine. With the British out
of the Gulf by late 1971, the United States feared having to deploy additional forces to the
Middle East and Indian Ocean regions. Nixon believed that the shah would be a good surrogate
for British power in the region. This special relationship further antagonized opponents of the
477 Letter from U.S. Attorney James L. Browning, Jr. to Iranian Ambassador to the U.S. Ardeshir Zahedi, forwarded
to Department of State, 12 June 1973, General Records of the Department of State, Central Foreign Policy Files
1970-1973, Box 2381, Folder POL 17 IRAN-US (1/1/70), RG 59, NA. A day earlier, on 14 October 1971, the
Iranian Student Association headquarters caught fire. The Metropolitan Police believed that this was done by
SAVAK or by the local Organization of Arab Students.
478 “Iran Opens Military Trial of U.S. Woman as a Spy,” NYT, 10 November 1971, p. 8; “U.S. Woman is Sentenced
by Iran to a 3-Year Term,” NYT, 17 November 1971, p. 15.
479 “U.S. Woman is Sentenced by Iran to a 3-Year Term,” NYT, 17 November 1971, p. 15.
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