Save the Day, Mr. Harriman!

July 12, 1951 — The Brooklyn Eagle


The Mossadegh Project | September 12, 2015                 


W. Averell Harriman With regard to Dr. Mossadegh and the Iranian oil dispute, this may be the mildest, fairest and most optimistic editorial that the usually grumpy Brooklyn Eagle ever published. It also contradicts their later accusations that the Prime Minister was in the pocket of the Soviet Union.




Harriman Mission Stirs
Hope in Iran Oil Crisis

Hope gleams anew in Britain’s oil dispute with Iran and it arises from the initiative of President Truman, who is realistically aware of the full implications of the crisis.

If nothing more than the profits of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company were involved, the President would have been justified in taking the position that the issue concerned only Britain and Iran.

This dispute between an oil firm and a government, however, holds the danger that a vital sector of the Near East, if not all of it, may be thrown into the Communist orbit.

This danger becomes more remote with Premier Mohammed Mossadegh’s message to President Truman expressing willingness to receive W. Averell Harriman for conferences on Iran’s oil nationalization crisis.

Premier Mossadegh, while firm in his policy of nationalization, has shown a disposition toward conciliation. Iran has promised to suspend anti-sabotage legislation, which provides up to a death penalty for interference with the Abadan oil plant’s operation. The Premier has explained further that the law was aimed only at Communist saboteurs, not at the British.

It is now the responsibility of British statesmanship and American mediation to rise to the demands of the crisis. There are urgent reasons why the crisis must be ended. Western Europe needs Iran’s oil; Iran needs the money and the nations of the West must prevent at all costs the country’s rich oil resources from coming into the possession of Soviet Russia.


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Related links:

Mr. Harriman’s Mission | The Buffalo Courier-Express, July 16, 1951

Pres. Truman “Most Disappointed” By Suspension of Iran Talks (Aug. 23, 1951)

Pinch-Hitting For Aladdin | The Times Record (New York), July 14, 1951



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

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