Hungry Hungry Russia
March 21, 1951 — The Miami Daily News

The Mossadegh Project | April 10, 2014                    


The Miami Daily News ran this as their lead editorial on Wednesday, March 21, 1951. Founded in 1896, it was Miami, Florida’s oldest newspaper.




Iran Could Be Tip-Off Of War

The Shah of Iran proclaims martial law in his capital city of Tehran and its suburbs. Iran is the Middle East strategic arena of conflicting pressures of the free world and the slave world of Communism. It is a treasure house and potentially an arsenal of oil.

Thus government recognition of the instability of conditions in Iran follows closely the assassination of the American-supported former premier, Ali Razmara, and the nationalization of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. The new premier, Hussein Ala, favors from ties with the west–but his position must be weighed against the nationalization of the oil industry which is a blow to Britain, and the current Iranian protests at scanty U.S. postwar help. [Hossein Ala]

Reports throw doubt on speculation that the anti-foreign nationalist feeling in Iran is pro-Communist, or whether any significant amount of it could become pro-Communist. However, the Communists are already beneficiaries of the upsetting of amicable arrangements between Iran and the west, and may be expected to profit from further instability in that country. Overhanging fear of the moment in Iran, and elsewhere in the free world, is the possibility that Russia—looking hungrily at Iran’s oil—may decide to move in.

Iran has been mentioned along with Yugoslavia and Germany as possible 1951 danger points. Whether Russia would be willing to risk World War III over Iran at this time is questionable but the odds are that if she is, the move would be a tip-off of ultimate intentions.

Today Iran remains a danger spot because it is both weak and inviting: a door ajar to Communism which could also usher in World War III.


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Challenge of the East: TIME's 1951 Man of the Year Mohammad Mossadegh

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Related links:

Peace In Balance | Jamestown Post-Journal, Oct. 18, 1951

Intent on Evicting West, Iran Virtually Asks Russia In (July 31, 1952)

Boiling In Oil | The Vassar Chronicle, May 26, 1951



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