AN AUGURY OF REVOLUTION: THE IRANIAN STUDENT ...

warned the Iranian students that they should “adopt a very low profile.” 216 Mace argued that
stricter actions should be taken and the warnings this time should be harsher because it would
convince the shah that the 24 December warning was not a “feint by us to disguise our
continuing support or at least sufferance of anti-regime elements” in the United States. 217
Mace
also mentioned that a list was compiled by the Office of Security in the Department of State that
identified Iranian students who were involved in anti-shah activities. 218
The actions taken by SAVAK and the State Department did not silence the students.
Leading up to the shah’s visit, the ISAUS sent out a memorandum on 25 May 1964 that was
addressed to numerous organizations in the United States, along with the “Freedom-Loving
People of the United States.” 219 It is important to note that Iranian students distinguished
between American policymakers and the people of the United States in the 1960s. The letter was
aimed at increasing the number of participants for the protests that were planned to take place in
Washington, New York, and Los Angeles. They said that all the protests would be “in good faith
and in accord with democratic principles of protest and peaceful assembly” and that the struggle
of the Iranian people was “essentially identical with the battle fought by the courageous
American people from the dawn of their independence.” 220
When the shah arrived at Kennedy International Airport on 4 June 1964 he was greeted
by a group of Iranian students marching in front of the airport shouting “Down with the
216 Jerome, The Man in the Mirror, 61.
217 Mace to Farrell, 15 May 1964, RG 59, NA.
218 Mace to Farrell, 15 May 1964, RG 59, NA.
219 Letter from the Executive Committee of the ISAUS, 25 May 1964, printed in ISAUS, Iran in Turmoil, 43. Some
of the groups that the letter was sent to included the United States National Student Association, the African
Students Association in the United States, the Organization of Arab Students in the United States, the National
Association of University Professors, the International League for the Rights of Man, the AFL – CIO, the ACLU,
the NAACP, and the Congress of Racial Equality.
220 Letter from the Executive Committee of the ISAUS, 25 May 1964, printed in ISAUS, Iran in Turmoil, 43.
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