To the Editor:

The recent episode at the Statue of Liberty, when six Iranian students chained themselves to the the crown of the statue and displayed slogans against the Shah, represent a daring and symbolic adventure designed to alert the freedom-loving Americans to the tyranny of one man’s rule in Iran.

In the United States we often talk about the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall and repudiate the lack of freedom in the countries of Eastern Europe. It is unfortunate that we have so far kept silent and totally indifferent about a more drastic situation created by the Shah’s reign of terror, bloodshed, and repression in Iran.

It is a shame that both Presidents Nixon and Ford were adamant supporters of the Shah, who is responsible for the execution of thousands of innocent Iranians and whose secret security service has been responsible for the kidnaping and jailing of many more thousands of students and educated Iranians who may have dared to express an opinion. [Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford]

The majority of the Iranian students and nationals in the United States are hoping that the Carter Administration, unlike its predecessors, will put an end to the fallacy of supporting the Shah’s despotic regime which has destroyed the whole legal and constitutional process in Iran.

After the many setbacks we have experienced due to our unwise and miscalculated foreign policies in Taiwan, Vietnam, and Cambodia, where we had insisted on backing the wrong and corrupt rulers, it is time now for our government to back rulers who show some respect for human rights and democracy, and are genuinely supported by their own people.

Hassan F. Zandy
Trumbull