But while many Americans may say, “So, what do we care what happens to whom in Iran?” we have a serious interest. Under our Point Four program of aid to poor and hungry areas of the world, $658,000,000 was earmarked for Iran. We have had economic and military missions there. The idea was to keep that little country (population 18,000,000) out of the Russian orbit. This was important because Iran has a lot of oil and we’d hate to see the Communists get hold of it for military purposes especially. But the one Mohammed (Mossadegh, that is) has been leaning strongly away from our side toward the Russians. He was mainly responsible for Iran’s break with the British that virtually closed down the big oil fields and shut off exports of about 30,000,000 tons annually to western nations. Because we have been recognized as friends of the British (though not reaping any profits from the oil) Mossadegh and his boys have been stirring up a lot of anti-American sentiment lately, and despite all the help we have given to the country, Iranians have been parading around with signs saying, “Yanks go home!” and other inhospitable remarks.