AN AUGURY OF REVOLUTION: THE IRANIAN STUDENT ...

USSR. 295 Three months later the shah concluded a deal with the Soviet Union to build a steel
mill in Isfahan. The Soviets also aided the Iranians in building a gas pipeline and a mechanical
engineering plant. As part of the deal, Iran agreed to buy $110 million in Soviet arms. There
was also an increase in trade between Iran and Eastern Bloc countries. 296 However, the shah
desired American arms, and he believed that he could use Soviet rapprochement as a bargaining
chip to gain access to a greater quantity of American-made weapons at a better price. It also
appeared that the shah believed that Iranian rapprochement with the Soviet Union could
encourage Washington to do something about Iranian student protests in the United States.
Because of Johnson’s desire to limit Iranian rapprochement with the Soviet Union, the
administration did not view the vocal protest of Iranian students in the United States as a sign of
a flawed policy. The Johnson administration instead viewed the protests of Iranian students as a
liability that jeopardized the fragile relationship between Washington and Tehran.
While the ideologies of Iranian students abroad were evolving throughout the mid-1960s,
their attitudes regarding the United States remained paradoxical. They revered the Constitutional
rights that were guaranteed to them while on American soil, and they still looked to influence
those whom they referred to as the freedom loving people of the United States. However, they
greatly resented American foreign policy. 297
This resentment was not just contained to U.S.
policy regarding Iran, but its imperial actions throughout the entire world. While the
295 Basil Dmytryshyn and Frederick Cox, eds., The Soviet Union and the Middle East: A Documentary Record of
Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkey, 1917-1985 (Princeton: Kingston Press, 1987), 373-6; Johns, “Tired of Being Treated
like a Schoolboy,” 73.
296 Dmytryshyn and Cox, The Soviet Union and the Middle East, 377-92; Meyer; Quiet Diplomacy, 135; Johns,
“Tired of Being Treated like a Schoolboy,” 77; Bill, The Eagle and the Lion, 171.
297 The ISAUS was extremely aware of their legal rights while in the United States. They published their own
pamphlet describing these rights: Caroline and Cyrus Ghani, The Alien and United States Laws: With Particular
Reference to the Foreign Students (Iranian Students Association Special Publication No. 2), (ISAUS, 1958). At the
time of the publication, Caroline Ghani was an attorney in New York City and Cyrus Ghani was the editor of
Daneshjoo and graduated from NYU law school.
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