Backhanded Compliment

April 29, 1952 — U.S. Editorial


The Mossadegh Project | November 11, 2020                  


The Brush-Moore Newspapers, Inc., an Ohio media chain, owned all of the papers the following quizzical editorial ran in. Anonymously-penned editorials would often run under the mastheads of various newspapers, misleadingly appearing to represent that particular Editor’s views.




Anyone Surprised?

Aside from the resumption of Japan’s sovereignty, the high point in U.S. diplomacy last week was the belated decision of the government of Iran to accept an indeterminate number of American dollars.

This could not have happened without a vast deal of persuasion on the part of the State Department. The persuasion began last Winter when Premier Mossadegh was lionized in Washington and has been going on ever since. There has been a background of cloaks, daggers, Red riots and big business, with special emphasis on British big business.

Premier Mossadegh, as all newspaper readers know by this time, is a cagey character; that is intended as a compliment. He has been presiding over a small country in chaos without losing that sure touch which distinguishes the men from the boys in the great game of diplomacy.

By rough count, his touch is going to cost Iran’s share in a $396,250,000 fund for military aid shared with Greece and Turkey; about $24 million under Point Four and whatever other prerequisites will fall due to a deserving republic intent on resisting the Communist conspiracy.



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Related links:

We Asked For It | U.S. editorial, November 16, 1951

Iran Stays on Skids | Gannett News Editorial, July 24, 1952

Texas Oil Men Cite Mossadegh | Associated Press, December 16, 1951



MOSSADEGH t-shirts — “If I sit silently, I have sinned”

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