Back when those Iranian students were at MIT, Iran was one of the closest allies of the US in this region and also one of the largest buyer of US weapons exports. The whole Iranian military consisted of American equipment, even the civilian airline consisted of Boeings and McDonnell Douglas. They maybe checked if those students were communist sympathizers or had any ties to the Soviet Union. They did not understand, that you can be anti-communist, but also anti-american at the same time. Or those students turned to be more loyal towards political Islam after the Islamic revolution. Since Shia-Islam is almost exclusively a Persian thing, Persian nationalism and Shia-Islamism go well together. That was not understood back than.
Back when those Iranian students were at MIT, Iran was one of the closest allies of the US in this region and also one of the largest buyer of US weapons exports. The whole Iranian military consisted of American equipment, even the civilian airline consisted of Boeings and McDonnell Douglas. They maybe checked if those students were communist sympathizers or had any ties to the Soviet Union. They did not understand, that you can be anti-communist, but also anti-american at the same time. Or those students turned to be more loyal towards political Islam after the Islamic revolution. Since Shia-Islam is almost exclusively a Persian thing, Persian nationalism and Shia-Islamism go well together. That was not understood back than.