AN AUGURY OF REVOLUTION: THE IRANIAN STUDENT ...

CHAPTER I – INTRODUCTION AND HISTORIOGRAPHY
American foreign policy with Iran during the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon
administrations can be best understood by looking at the Iranian student movement abroad.
Iranian student groups became politicized and well-organized in 1960. Over the next two
decades they vehemently protested Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s rule in Iran and American
support for his regime. As the Iranian student movement evolved into a powerful force, the
relationship between the shah and Washington became more intimate. The interaction between
the Iranian student movement, the U.S. government, and the Government of Iran created much
tension. By demonstrating how American policymakers viewed the Iranian student movement,
and how Iranian students viewed U.S. policy, it becomes clear that the Washington – Tehran
alliance and the Iranian student movement held contrasting visions for the future of the Middle
East. As a result, they viewed one another as threats to their respective objectives. These
contrasting visions were embodied in the policies enacted by Iran and the United States, along
with the many protests staged by Iranian students in the United States and Western Europe
throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
The objectives of these protests frequently ran counter to the aims of American foreign
policy. Iranian students had very strong opinions about Washington’s relationship with the shah
as American imperialism in the Middle East became deeply entrenched between 1960 and 1972.
The Kennedy administration considered alternatives to the shah’s rule and listened to the
concerns of Iranian students in the United States. However, Lyndon Johnson was a staunch ally
of the shah, and he set in motion a policy that took on greater importance under the Nixon
Doctrine. By 1972, a series of decisions tied the success of American foreign policy in the