U.S. Public Diplomacy toward Iran of Pahlavi Era (Case of the Pease Corps 1961-1976)

In line with the program of Alliance for Progress, the Pease Corps establishment in 1961 innovated by President John F. Kennedy in order to restore America’s prestige in the third world. The Pease Corps consisted of volunteer students and graduates of U.S. universities who worked abroad for a period of two years after three months of training. Training human force as well as promoting more understanding between Americans and other nations or, in other word, exporting American culture and lifestyle were of its goals. Through an analytical-documentary approach, this paper tries to answer what was the ground and goals of the Pease Corps in Iran. The results indicate that the corps activities in Iran were parts of ideological competition between two superpowers during the Cold War. The Pease Corps were of U.S. public diplomacy instruments which served to educate and publicize of American culture in order to make it exemplar in friend countries.