President Truman’s letter intended for Prime Minister Attlee of Great Britain was delivered to Premier Mossadegh of Iran. The letters were similar but not identical. [Harry Truman to Clement Attlee. Truman wrote simultaneously to Mohammad Mossadegh.]

Our Mr. Hughes reports from Tehran that the Iranians suspect this is a sly trick perpetrated to show that Mr. Truman was speaking sharply to Mr. Attlee.

Well, perhaps it was, but we are here to inform the Iranians that our government does not have to plan such things. It has an instinct for doing them.

At the moment the government is putting out rules which it says are designed to hold down the cost of living. The same government is paying out money to support the prices of things which go to make up the cost of living.

Also, the government is telling bankers not to make loans for expansion of non-essential businesses. But the Reconstruction Finance corporation has just revealed that it has been making loans to finance the very activities which the government does not want the private bankers to finance.

If we wanted to dip into recent history, we could mention the potatoes which were dumped, the eggs which were put into caves and the rules designed to curb the planting of crops while the government was spending money to open up more farm lands.

It is noteworthy that the Iranians thought this a trick. There is no report that the British think it is anything but an embarrassing mix-up. In the first place, they know us better than the Iranians. In the second place, they have a government which takes actions which cannot always be called models of consistency.

If Premier Mossadegh thinks this is a trick, let him come to the United States and view our scene, just let him stay here a week and see if he can fathom all the things that are going on.

On the other hand, he had better not. He faints easily and this is no place for a man with that kind of a nervous system.

[Come Autumn 1951, Mossadegh would spend five weeks in the United States. He never fainted.]