AN AUGURY OF REVOLUTION: THE IRANIAN STUDENT ...

community by minimizing its “guilt by association.” 188
When Kennedy was president, Iranian
students had a friend in the attorney general. Robert Kennedy greatly impressed Iranian students
in the early 1960s, and Sadeq Qotbzadeh’s fondness for him “bordered on hero-worship.” 189
However, he retained his position for less than a year after his brother’s death before running for
the Senate, and he no longer had significant influence in the White House. 190
An escalation in the activities of Iranian students abroad coincided with the Johnson
administration’s desire to demonstrate unquestioning support for the shah. Johnson viewed the
shah much differently than Kennedy. Johnson rolled back the emphasis on reform that had been
coming from Washington from 1961 to 1963 for two reasons. First, Johnson was simply not that
concerned about international justice, human rights, or reform. He was more interested in
foreign leaders who would defend American interests abroad; not how they ruled their nations.
Second, Johnson felt the need mend the wound that had developed between Washington and
Tehran during the Kennedy years.
Johnson developed a friendship with the shah during two trips he made to Tehran as vice
president, and he agreed with the shah’s brutal response to demonstrators throughout the summer
of 1963. 191 While Johnson desired strong relations between the United States and Iran, the shah
was determined to let the United States know that he was indispensable to its Cold War policy by
charting an independent course. 192 By the mid-1960s, the shah sought a rapprochement with the
Soviet Union because he was “tired of being treated like a schoolboy” by the United States. 193
188 “The Iranian Intellectual Community,” DNSA, 21 December 1963.
189 Jerome, The Man in the Mirror, 59.
190 Jerome, The Man in the Mirror, 61.
191 Bill, The Eagle and the Lion, 156.
192 Thomas F. Brady, “Shah Denies Iran Depends on U.S.; But Praises Americans’ Highly-Seeks ‘Prudent’
Cooperation with Soviet,” NYT, 12 December 1965, p. 1.
193 Letter from Vice Presidential Aide George Carroll to Vice President Humphrey, “Conversation with Kermit
Roosevelt,” 27 July 1966, FRUS 1964-1968, Vol. XXII, 299; also see Andrew L. Johns, “The Johnson
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