IT’S NO coincidence at all that twenty-four hours after President Eisenhower told Premier Mossadegh of Iran not to expect further American economic aid, newspapers in that country predicted early signing of a non-aggression pact with Soviet Russia. [source?]

Mr. Eisenhower is said to have told Mossadegh that the United States disapproves the vast leeway Communism enjoys in Iran, and that American loans depended on an early settlement of the British oil dispute. [Dwight D. Eisenhower did not mention Communism at all in his reply]

To foresee Mossadegh’s immediate reaction is no trick at all. He would immediately inspire reports of the deal with Russia, or actually carry it out, to keep American handouts coming.

Whatever the case, the result is diplomatic blackmail. It is also a lesson in elementary human relations long ago learned by plain Americans but evidently still incomprehensible to American officialdom:

You can’t buy friendship, loyalty or cooperation. But you certainly buy resentment, envy and hostility.

[After the U.S.-backed coup, the Shah nudged the U.S. into granting aid by announcing Iran was willing to accept money “from anybody”]