Questioning Foreign Loans
November 16, 1951 — U.S. Editorial

The Mossadegh Project | November 30, 2020                    


This commentary on U.S. foreign aid was the lead editorial in The Detroit Free Press on Nov. 19th, 1951. The Times Record of Troy, New York also published (swiped?) it on Nov. 19th.




We Asked For It

Whether or not Mossadegh gets, or should get, the $120,000,000 loan he requests, what is there surprising in his asking for it?

The Truman administration has proclaimed that it will resist communism everywhere in the world with dollars, and, if necessary, with arms and men. Anywhere from a fourth to a third of the French and Italians vote Communist; yet they have little difficulty in wheedling billions out of this country. Why shouldn’t Iran, foe of communism but threatened by it, ask for a slice of the Christmas cake? What is more, when Iran’s young and progressive Shah was recently over here, President Truman promised to back his reforms with American aid.

The fact is that Mr. Truman has made so many promises of this kind that rich as we are, we couldn’t meet all the demands they have inspired without impoverishing ourselves. We have bought no reliable friends by this prodigality. Where we have denied some countries what we have given to others, we have made enemies.

An administration that realized that the true goal of foreign policy is to promote American security and protect the American way of life would never have advertised a global bargain counter and invited all the world to scramble for it.


“If I sit silently, I have sinned”: A guiding principle
The untold story behind Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh's famous quote “If I sit silently, I have sinned”

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Related links:

Mossadegh Due To Explain Stand on Oil | AP, November 14, 1951

Is There a Chance Iran May Be Planning a Real Bargain? | Ludwell Denny, Nov. 1951

“Broken Weekend” May Break British-Iranian Deadlock | J.E. Jones, August 9, 1951



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

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