Think and Grow Rich

November 26, 1951 — The Somerset Daily American


Arash Norouzi

The Mossadegh Project | March 30, 2018                     


This misleading, sanctimonious and contradictory editorial, complete with Biblical references, ran in a Somerset, Pennsylvania newspaper shortly after Premier Mossadegh returned from his trip to America.

The paper chided Iran for being too dependent on outside assistance during the Anglo-Iranian oil dispute. Unacknowledged was the fact that the United States was giving out economic aid all over the world, including to European countries and its closest ally, Great Britain, then undergoing a severe austerity period after the previous World War.

The editors also failed to clarify that Britain was attempting to starve Iran economically after oil was nationalized, and that consequently, Dr. Mossadegh was seeking a loan, not a handout, to see Iran through the crisis.

After Mossadegh was overthrown with the *help* of Anglo-American forces, the U.S. spent the next several decades pumping millions of dollars into the Shah’s military dictatorship. What happened to self-sufficiency?




Somerset Daily American (Somerset, Pennsylvania)

Self Help

It would be well if someone in Washington with a voice strong enough to be heard were to repeat time after time a proverb that was held in high esteem by Americans of generations past:

“Self help is the best help.”

Many a man who has arrived has learned the value of that proverb. He has sought help and been denied it and later in life thanked the friend who denied him that which he thought he needed.

We are what we want to be.

This applies to nations as well as to individuals.

If we find ourselves in a tight place and will take the trouble to examine our situation fairly and honestly, we will probably find that we are where we are because we want to be there. We have not wanted hard enough to be somewhere else.

It is the same way with nations.

As long as the pauper nations of the world imagine that they can bring a tincup to Washington and have it filled, we may expect that sort of visitors and those who come will be poorer for that which they receive.

The military adventure headed by General Eisenhower has been held up to us as a protective measure for the United States.

No man is a better morsel for communism than the fellow who imagines that somebody other than himself ought to make him well, strong and happy.

The nations that need America most need the lessons America can teach more than the gold they can get from America.

Premier Mossadegh has gone back to his home in Iran.

Iran is poor as Job’s turkey because of a policy advocated by Mossadegh that has denied the Iranian government the revenue that it had and yet might have but for the foolish notion propounded by Mossadegh that Iran doesn’t need the British. [Mossadegh actually wanted the British AIOC employees to stay]

“No man liveth to himself”, but Mossadegh hasn’t learned that yet. [This misapplied Bible verse is actually about living your life for Christ and for God, not just yourself]

The United States has put about eight million dollars into his tincup, but that is not sufficient. Mossadegh has demanded of President Truman that the United States pay the cost of Iran’s folly. [No, he requested a loan, and the U.S. money to Iran under Point Four was mostly military and technical aid]

The United States sought to aid Iran with sound advice.

There was a time when most of the American railroads were actually owned by the British who owned the bonds the railroads had issued.

Was there any great outcry against this situation?

The British had the money American railroads needed and a business deal was made just as a business deal on oil was made between Britain and Iran. [So you’re saying the U.S. needed help?]

The British showed Iran the greatness of her wealth and helped her to realize upon it. The oil was drawn from the earth, refined and marketed. Iran was better off economically than she had been in her history. [If Iran was getting such a sweet deal, why nationalize?]

All that has been tossed overboard.

Iran yet has power to help herself. Perhaps the greatest kindness the United States could show Iran would be to insist that she use her resources in approved fashion rather than seek alms from her neighbors.



Search MohammadMossadegh.com



Related links:

In Letter to Eisenhower, Shah Demands More U.S. Aid To Preserve World Peace (1956)

CIA Weighs Iran’s “Serious Financial Problems” | June 1961

Iran Wants U.S. Money As Price of Friendship | INS, Aug. 27, 1953



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

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