AN AUGURY OF REVOLUTION: THE IRANIAN STUDENT ...

etween Iran and the United States.” 208 Any incidents “would be highly damaging to our foreign
policy, and to our national security interests in view of Iran’s military importance to us.” 209
Leading up to the trip, Talbot urged Under Secretary of State Averell Harriman to ask
Robert Kennedy to take action in deporting Ali Shayegan. 210 Shayegan spent many years in the
United States and France, and was one of the more prominent members of the CIS. He was a
moderate Islamist who organized many anti-shah demonstrations throughout the 1960s and
1970s. He was, along with Hosein Fatemi, one of the most anti-Western members of
Mosaddeq’s cabinet. 211 The deportation of Shayegan was deemed an important issue because the
shah was still suspicious that anti-shah Iranian students were condoned, and possibly supported
by the U.S. government. 212 According to Talbot, a symbolic act such as deporting Shayegan
could alleviate his suspicions, and possibly reduce the intensity of anti-regime demonstrations at
UCLA. Also, Shayegan was considered a threat because he told an NEA officer less than a year
before that “he intended to dedicate the remainder of his life to the destruction of the Shah.” 213
Talbot’s concerns about Shayegan were echoed by Acting Administrator of the Bureau of
Security and Consular Affairs Charles Mace, who sent a similar message to INS Commissioner
Raymond Farrell two days later. 214 Mace also wanted Robert Kennedy to issue another warning
to the leaders of the ISAUS. 215 Following President Kennedy’s assassination, Robert Kennedy
208 Mace to Farrell, 15 May 1964, RG 59, NA.
209 Mace to Farrell, 15 May 1964, RG 59, NA.
210 Talbot to Harriman, “Request that you ask the Attorney General to Begin Deportation Proceedings against an
Anti-Regime Leader in the United States,” 13 May 1964, FRUS 1964-1968, Vol. XXII, 38.
211 Janet Afary and Kevin Anderson, Foucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the Seductions of Islamism
(University of Chicago Press, 2005), 110.
212 Talbot to Harriman, “Request that you ask the Attorney General to Begin Deportation Proceedings against an
Anti-Regime Leader in the United States,” 13 May 1964, FRUS 1964-1968, Vol. XXII, 38.
213 Talbot to Harriman, “Request that you ask the Attorney General to Begin Deportation Proceedings against an
Anti-Regime Leader in the United States,” 13 May 1964, FRUS 1964-1968, Vol. XXII, 38-9.
214 Mace to Farrell, 15 May 1964, RG 59, NA.
215 Mace to Farrell, 15 May 1964, RG 59, NA.
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