Slim Pickins’
August 27, 1951 — The Citizen-Advertiser

The Mossadegh Project | June 2, 2016                      


Lead editorial in The Citizen-Advertiser newspaper of Auburn, New York.




The Much-Maligned Mr. Mossadegh

Premier Mohammed Mossadegh of Iran must feel he is a much-maligned man. Everybody is picking on him.

Though in poor health, he led the oil discussions with the British and held out in his country’s behalf against the most persuasive arguers Britain and the U.S. could send. As thanks for his efforts he was yesterday denounced in his own parliament. It just seems he can’t do anything right.

Mossadegh’s trouble stems from trying to please everyone. Probably against his own better sense he drove the British out of Iran, for near as he could tell that was what the Iranian people wanted.

Now it turns out they weren’t sure what they wanted. One of their most influential legislators took the floor in the Majlis (lower house) yesterday and said:

“We nationalized our oil to put an end to poverty, not to endanger our independence. If we had known our action might lead the country to destruction we would have never taken such a step.” [Jamal Emami, arch-foe of Mossadegh]

Iran is having all the pangs of a nation getting its first taste of civilization. The measure of prosperity which the British-run refineries brought was to the Iranians a golden egg; what they demanded was the goose that laid it. Now they have killed her and need someone to blame for it. Premier Mossadegh is conveniently around.


Truman and Mossadegh’s First Messages on Iran Oil Dispute (1951)
President Truman and Premier Mossadegh's First Messages on Iran Oil Dispute (1951)

Search MohammadMossadegh.com



Related links:

British Satirist Nate Gubbin’s Demeaning Mossadegh Mockery (1951)

Waiting Game In IranThe Knickerbocker News, November 28, 1951

Aussie Writer Peter Russo probes ‘the miseries of Mossadeq’ (Jan. 19, 1952)



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

Facebook  Twitter  YouTube  Tumblr   Instagram