10. Students Plotted to Take Over the Embassy
A group of students at the University of Tehran – a site of activism during the months leading up to the shah’s abdication – began plotting with a radical minister, Ayatollah Khoieniha. They were afraid that, as in America’s 1953 coup of the democratically elected leader Mohammad Mossadegh, there was a plot for the United States to try to reinstate the shah and continue imposing its own agenda on Iran. They began devising a plan to seize the embassy and drive America completely out of Iran, once and for all.
The plans were made in absolute secrecy. The students gained a map of the interior of the embassy and cased the building to determine the comings and goings of the embassy staff. They wanted to tell Ayatollah Khomeini of their plans to gain the support of the new government, but Ayatollah Khoieniha advised against telling anyone. They decided to carry out their plans without anyone in the government knowing, figuring that if Khomeini agreed with what they were doing, he would cast his support after the fact. If nothing else, they would send a clear message to the United States, that its presence was not welcome in Iran, especially not when it had chosen to grant asylum to the hated shah.