AN AUGURY OF REVOLUTION: THE IRANIAN STUDENT ...

The shah saw Iranian students abroad as a growing threat to his throne; indeed the voices of the
students grew louder. The Johnson administration saw the students’ behavior as a liability to the
improvement of relations between the shah and Washington. By the end of the decade, the Six
Day War, the Vietnam War, and British withdrawal from the Persian Gulf had begun to greatly
influence Johnson’s foreign policy with Iran.
By 1964, the Iranian intelligentsia at home and abroad presented serious challenges for
policymakers in Washington. 194
Students were the most effective revolutionary element of the
Iranian intelligentsia, and they were emphasized in U.S. government reports because they
represented various social backgrounds and demonstrated “the most acute form of disaffection
from the regime in Iran.” 195 Also, there was an “exceedingly widespread” number of anti-regime
Iranian students in the United States. 196 Politically active members of the intelligentsia were not
given a chance to play a role in the shah’s government. In late 1963 “one of the most exciting
political problems of Iran today is how to bring younger elements of the intelligentsia into closer
harmony with the regime.” 197 The Iranian “angry young man” was the product of vast separation
between his ideals and aspirations, and the actual reality of Iranian life. 198 For the Johnson
administration, the activities of anti-shah Iranian students in the United States escalated and
became a “source of serious friction between the United States and Iran.” 199 Therefore, the State
Administration, the Shah of Iran, and the Changing Pattern of U.S. – Iranian Relations, 1965 – 1967, ‘Tired of Being
Treated like a Schoolboy,’” Journal of Cold War Studies, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Spring 2007), 83.
194 The United States government defined intelligentsia as “persons who have influence on the minds of other people
because of the quality of their own minds, usually as the result of higher education.” Refer to “The Iranian
Intellectual Community,” DNSA, 21 December 1963.
195 “The Iranian Intellectual Community,” DNSA, 21 December 1963.
196 “The Iranian Intellectual Community,” DNSA, 21 December 1963.
197 “The Iranian Intellectual Community,” DNSA, 21 December 1963.
198 “The Iranian Intellectual Community,” DNSA, 21 December 1963.
199 Talbot to Harriman, “Request that you ask the Attorney General to begin Deportation Proceedings against an
Anti-Regime Iranian Leader in the United States, 13 May 1964, FRUS 1964-1968, Vol. XXII, 38.
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