AN AUGURY OF REVOLUTION: THE IRANIAN STUDENT ...

intimately involved in the U.S. counterculture movement...” 372 Babak Zahraie, and Iranian
student at the University of Washington who faced deportation in the early 1970s, was active in
the anti-war movement. 373 While Iranian individuals became involved in the American
counterculture and anti-war movement, Iranian student groups became highly involved with
American organizations. The ISAUS often participated in events with the Black Panthers. A
rather unusual message from the ISAUS was published in The Black Panther by the end of the
decade. Most publications by Iranian student groups were primarily critiques of the shah’s
government. However, the one-page article written by the ISAUS in The Black Panther had no
mention of the shah. The group was throwing its support unquestionably behind the cause of the
Black Panthers. This article was most likely an attempt to demonstrate that the ISAUS was a
vital component of 1960s radicalism. Also, in return for their support, the ISAUS hoped their
support would be reciprocal. The two groups protested together in the following years. 374
Lyndon Johnson dismissed the concerns of American and Iranian student groups. These
concerns included escalating the war in Vietnam, and adopting a policy of largely uncritical
support for the shah. Despite this global call for a retreat from imperialism, the Johnson
administration sought more intimate relations with the shah. Major shifts on the geopolitical
map led Washington to ignore the voices of Iranian students. Washington wanted to limit the
effects of Iranian rapprochement with the Soviet Union and demonstrate to the shah that the
United States was a reliable ally. By the late 1960s, the Vietnam War severely curtailed the
effectiveness of the American military throughout the world. The Six Day War escalated the
level of instability in the Middle East that Washington hoped could be countered by a strong ally
in Iran. Also, with the British withdrawal from the Persian Gulf, the United States hoped that the
372 Sullivan, “Interview with Hamid Naficy” as seen in Exiled Memories, 63.
373 Helen Myers, “U.S. Tries to Deport Iranian Student,” The Militant, Vol. 36, No. 38 (20 October 1972), 9.
374 “From the Iranian Students Association in the United States,” The Black Panther, Vol. 5, No. 24 (1970), 4.
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