Iran Crisis Involves Alumnus, Students, Professors

Professors criticized the United States for supporting the Shah and offered solutions to the current crisis at a panel discussion on Iran at the Science Center last night.

"America always chooses a military dictatorship over a popular democracy" to promote U.S. financial interests, George Wald, Nobel laureate and Higgins Professor of Biology Emeritus, told a crowd of about 300.

He called Henry Kissinger "David Rockefeller's personal Secretary of State" and said Rockefeller's banking interests heavily influenced U.S. policy in Iran.

Though he said he is "an American patriot and damned ashamed of it," Wald said he approved of the Iranian students' seizure of the embassy because only direct action could have ended American intervention in Iran.

Roger D. Fisher, Williston Professor of Law, agreed that the U.S. acted improperly in Iran, but said Iranian actions were "crazy" and unnecessary.

Fisher called for the Iranians to release the hostages and to plead their case before the International Court in The Hague.

Edward Abrahamian, professor at the City University of New York, agreed the Iranians should seek an international court, but said they should turn to the League of Human Rights.

Wilfred C. Smith, visiting professor in the History of Religion, called the crisis a clash between "two groups from different worlds.

"Americans cannot control the world like they once thought they could, so they get angry," he added.

Fisher said deportation of the Shah would be illegal without an extradition treaty. He predicted the United States would not concede to the Iranians' demands to return the Shah.

Abrahamian said the Shah squandered public resources, torturing political opponents and murdering innocent people, adding that under the Shah Iran had the highest rate of execution in the world.