The Crying Game

December 17, 1951 — U.S. Editorial


The Mossadegh Project | March 27, 2014                       


This non-syndicated piece ran in the editorial section of newspapers across America between around December 17, 1951 and January 12, 1952.




Tears Are New TV Vogue

One of our politicians broke down and cried during a speech the other day. That’s what television will do. Those news films of Iran’s Premier Mossadegh in tearful action on his home grounds have been getting around.

We had rather hoped that the vogue wouldn’t catch on. We were especially encouraged when Mossadegh, with fine restraint, managed to curb the flow from his lachrymal glands all during his American stay.

But politicians like to experiment with new techniques. And, no question about it, Mossadegh has got one.

Of course, it really hasn’t been tested at the polls yet. Iran has an election coming up before long, and then we’ll see how Mossadegh’s salty precipitation pays off. It might be wise for own fellows to hold off until then. And they’d better give some thought, too, to what these crying spells can do to their TV make-up.


Rather than use the original editorial, The Courier-Post of Camden, New Jersey published their very own revised and retitled version on Dec. 26, 1951:




Tearful Technique

Politicians enjoy experimenting with new techniques, and the one made famous, or notorious, by Premier Mossadegh of Iran is surely a new one.

Though Mossadegh restrained himself from crying in public during his lengthy stay in the United States, the news films of him in tearful action in his own capital have been widely circulated.

And the effect apparently is contagious. One of our politicians broke down and cried during a speech the other day.

Let’s hope Mossadegh’s style doesn’t become the vogue. Those who use it had better shun television, because what tears can do to their TV makeup is a caution.



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Related links:

A Bad Break is Feared | The Knickerbocker News, October 17, 1951

Mossadegh A Hero? | The Evening News of the Tonawandas, November 26, 1951

Premier Mossadegh’s Faulty Logic | U.S. editorial, October 20, 1951



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

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