Joseph Kraft’s column (March 5), “America Should Be Detailing Its Constructive Role in Iran,” is a good example of the self-righteous misreading of the world situation that continually gets the United States into trouble overseas.

By downplaying the atrocities of the Shah of Iran, minimizing the role the United States played in establishing and supporting his regime, and presenting our interventions as a response to the old saw of Soviet expansionism, Kraft crudely attempts to rewrite history to prove the United States right.

Unfortunately for Kraft and other purveyors of America-the-always-right, there is no moral justification for our actions in Iran. The sole reason we have even bothered with Iran is to bolster oil company profits. In 1953, when a threat to those profits arose in the form of a popular (i.e. people-oriented) government, we put the shah back on the throne.

We tolerated enormous repression of the Iranian people in order to promote stability for those profits. Only when we as a people admit the existence of past and present mistakes and treat other countries and nations as people like ourselves, will it be possible to establish fair and mutually beneficial relations with the rest of the peoples of the world.

JOSHUA HARRISON
Del Mar [San Diego]

Congratulations are in order for Kraft for being one of the first to point out the constructive role the United States has played in post-World War II Iran. It was the intervention of President Truman that prevented the annexation of Azerbaijan by Russia in 1946. [Harry Truman] Likewise the Point Four program was of the greatest help in raising the living standards of the Iranians.

Naturally these actions, which were helpful to Iran, are ignored by the religious fanatics who are determined to extirpate all evidences of Western liberal thought. This drive to eliminate all democratic ideology, not our alleged “crimes” is behind the hatred for the United States.

As for Mohammed Mossadegh, whom the CIA admittedly helped to overthrow, he would have been no more democratic than any other Marxist government, which is none at all.

It is unfortunate that these positive acts by the United States are never mentioned by either President Carter or the State Department. [Jimmy Carter] But then, what can be expected from a President who “changed” his mind about Russia a few weeks ago?

JACK MARGOLIN
Marina del Rey