Less Whining, More Refining
August 25, 1953 — U.S. Editorial

Arash Norouzi
The Mossadegh Project
| December 22, 2013                        


This piece ran in the editorial section of the following newspapers owned at the time by Scripps-Howard News Service:

The El Paso Herald-Post (El Paso, Texas) — Tuesday, August 25, 1953
The Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) — Wednesday, August 26, 1953


The Press also ran an adjacent editorial called "Truth Hurts", accusing India of Communist appeasement and blasting “the sanctimonious Mr. Nehru and his crew of cunning connivers”. The Herald Post ran it, too — the very next day. Accompanying it was an editorial called "Tough and Mean", about weeding out communists who had infiltrated the U.S. government. The Press ran it as their lead editorial three days later, on Saturday, August 29, 1953. You get the picture.




Neglected Treasure

THE SHAH OF IRAN, WHO FLED into exile to escape angry mobs shrieking for his blood only to return in triumph a week later to find some of the same people kissing his feet, is confronted by a new problem.

Mossadegh, the weeper, milked the treasury dry during his dictatorship, and the Shah can’t meet the payroll.

Money must be found within a matter of days or a new revolt may be in prospect, this one by the civil servants and the army.

The Shah has explained he doesn’t want a loan, but “assistance,” meaning he wants a gift. That, presumably, is where we come in, since we have a corner on the giveaway business. Since the switch from Mossadegh to the Shah seems to have saved Iran from being taken over by the Russians, a reasonable contribution may be justified under the circumstances. But let’s hope that Iranian stability isn’t to become a permanent charge against the United States Treasury. Our foreign pension list is much too long as it is, and we should be thinking about cutting it down.

Iran has vast oil deposits, as well as the world’s largest refinery at Abadan, and it is about time it got back into business for itself. Then it won’t need foreign aid.

It has been two years now since the British were “nationalized” out of Iran, and if the ensuing emotional spree has spent itself, less bloodletting and more oil production is in order. American assistance should be advanced with the understanding that the money will be used to prime the idle pumps which have been neglected while people who should have been working have been rioting.

Mossadegh & Arbenz & Lumumba & Sukarno & Allende... shirts

Mossadegh & Arbenz & Lumumba & Sukarno & Allende... t-shirts

Divvying Up the Loot: The Iran Oil Consortium Agreement of 1954
Divvying Up the Loot: The Iran Oil Consortium Agreement of 
1954


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Related links:

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

IRAN | The Commonweal, September 4, 1953

The Reluctant Dragon | U.S. editorial, August 20, 1953



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

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