America’s postwar dealings with far and very foreign nations such as Iran have been a series of frustrations. Yet America’s role of responsible leadership of the nations allied for peace and freedom can only be played out in diplomatic skill and resourcefulness.

That is why our dealings with Iran may prove to be a particularly valuable experience. The announcement was made yesterday in Washington that the United States has agreed to resume arms shipment to Iran. Previously Premier Mossadegh had shocked our diplomats and public opinion by refusing to agree to certain demands under the Mutual Security Act.

Arms aid was thereupon suspended under terms of the legislation, which required that nations receiving military aid must agree to help increase the “defensive strength of the free world.” Premier Mossadegh contended this would violate the neutrality of Iran, an immediate neighbor of Soviet Russia, in the East-West cold war.

We had found Mossadegh a particularly balky and obstinate nationalist in our attempt to mediate the Iranian seizure of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. Yet we perservered in our dealings, despite the terms of the Mutual Security act, in the hope that in this extremity a compromise could be achieved that would at least enable Iran to resist aggression from Soviet Russia.

The resultant agreement provides such a compromise. The state department announced the pledges received in an exchange of notes Wednesday and last Jan. 4 “meet the situation.”

Therefore the end result has been achieved, and the prime interests of the West in this area are served without sacrificing the sovereignty and prime interests of Iran.

What have we learned? That we can not bull and blunder among proud and independent peoples of the world no matter how defenseless their positions. The Communists have made propaganda capital out of our mistakes of the past. We should learn from our painful, painstaking experiences and evolve a diplomacy adequate to the challenges of the times. That is the lesson of Iran for the United States and it is a very important lesson indeed.