The American Peace Corps operated in Iran from 1962 to 1976, coinciding with the unfolding of Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi’s Inqelab-e Sefid, or White Revolution, launched in 1962 to preempt a “Red revolution,” combat communism and attract US military and financial aid. Next to land reform, the White Revolution’s cornerstone was the much-touted Literacy Corps, often compared to the Peace Corps. Thus, the Kennedy administration is considered the initiator of both Iran’s White Revolution and the American Peace Corps. By directly assisting people in developing nations, Kennedy envisioned the Peace Corps to counter the imperialist image of the US and hence undermine Communist propaganda.
The Peace Corps’ actual performance in Iran is generally deemed a success. This is according to the Peace Corps Agency and the few scholars who remember or have written about it, most notably James Bill in The Eagle and the Lion: The Tragedy of American-Iran Relations (1988). According to Bill, the Peace Corps was one of the most notable cases of positive US-Iran relations during the 1960s because it encouraged people-to-people interactions between ordinary Iranians and Americans. However, the Peace Corps’ arguable success in Iran cannot be separated from its involvement in the Shah’s White Revolution. Iran’s distinction as the first Middle East nation to host the Peace Corps and the longest-surviving Peace Corps program in the region, at fourteen years, is related to the Peace Corps administration’s assistance in carrying out the White Revolution’s development plans and priorities. Peace Corps Agency documents and correspondence illustrate that the Iranian Plan and Budget Organization’s economic and social development goals set the objectives of the Peace Corps’ programming in Iran. Yet, this administrative collaboration did not dictate the nature of relations on the ground between American volunteers and the Iranian communities they served. Oral history testimonies of these volunteers reflect ambivalence towards the White Revolution, ranging from positive assessments of the Literacy Corps to negative evaluations of land reform. Moreover, accounts from volunteers often note their resistance to participating in Iranian government programs they deemed unnecessary, detrimental, or even illegitimate. This paper will assess the record and legacies of the Peace Corps in Iran in light of volunteer and Iranian community accounts and oral histories, official US and Iranian government documents, and the existing scholarly literature in Peace Corps studies and US-Iranian relations.
