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The New Frontier Meets the White Revolution: The Peace Corps in Iran, 1962‒76

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Jasamin Rostam-Kolayi
Jasamin Rostam-Kolayi*
Affiliation:
California State University, Fullerton
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Abstract

The Peace Corps brought an estimated 1,800 Americans to Iran from 1962 to 1976, coinciding with the unfolding of Mohammad-Reza Shah Pahlavi’s Enqelāb-e Sefid, or White Revolution. This article surveys Peace Corps Iran’s fourteen-year history by dividing it into three distinct moments defined by changing social and political conditions in Iran and shifting US‒Iranian relations. Initially, the Peace Corps Iran experiment built on earlier American foreign assistance programs, while coinciding with the roll-out of the White Revolution. Second, during its heyday in the mid-1960s, the Peace Corps inevitably became entangled with the White Revolution’s unfolding, both experiencing a phase of expansion and apparent success. Finally, as Iranian social and political conditions moved toward instability by the 1970s, Peace Corps Iran also seemed to have lost its direction and purpose, which ultimately led to a vote by volunteers to terminate the program. Based on accounts by US Peace Corps volunteers and the Iranians with whom they worked, the Peace Corps Agency, and the US State Department, this article argues that, ultimately, the Peace Corps Iran experience left a more lasting legacy on individuals than institutions.

Keywords

Peace CorpsPeace Corps IranWhite RevolutionPahlavi IranUS-Iran relations1960s Iran
Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 51 , Issue 4 , July 2018 , pp. 587 - 612
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 2018

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Footnotes

The author thanks Afshin Matin-asgari and the three anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and ideas for revision.

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