Here is an interesting Cold War artifact — a 1951 telegram draft from Taipei-based Bai Chongxi to the new Prime Minister of Iran, Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh, offering advice to the Iranian people on behalf of the Islamic League of the Republic of China (Taiwan).

Omar Bai Chongxi, aka Pai Chung Hai, was born a Muslim, and, according to various sources, even had some Persian ancestry. The Hoover Institution at Stanford, who acquired a trove of his personal papers last year, dubbed him “one of the greatest military strategists in Chinese history”.

This cable appears to have gone unnoticed until Kelly Hammond, Assistant Professor of East Asian history at the University of Arkansas, found it via Academica Historica in Taiwan. Specializing in the history of Chinese Muslims and Islam in East Asia, she posted this find earlier today on Twitter.

The telegram pertains less to Islam, however, than to the spectre of Soviet imperialism. Bai was a dedicated Cold Warrior who later the same year called on Muslims worldwide to unite against the Red menace. This message, lacking any reference to the British, may be viewed largely as a component of this campaign.

• Note: Bracketed text, capitalization, punctuation and other improvements have been made for clarity. See image below for fascimile of original.

• August 25, 1952 cable from Howard P. Jones of the American Embassy in Taipei, notes that “Mullah Ayatollah Kashani, leader of the Iranian Moslems, is one of the persons General Pai exchanges letters with.”