A reader writes:
Your post "The Old Republican" had a great quote from Eisenhower:
"Though force can protect in emergency, only justice, fairness, consideration and cooperation can finally lead men to the dawn of eternal peace."
This is a wonderful sentiment but even Eisenhower himself didn’t live up to it. On April 28, 1951 a certain Mohammed Mossadegh was named Prime Minister of an increasingly secular and liberal Iran, riding the wave of nationalism and anti-imperialism. Fearing that Mossadegh’s government would not be strong enough to withstand either the soft or hard power of its neighbor, Soviet Russia, Eisenhower ordered the go-ahead for Operation Ajax, a US-British operation to depose the duly-elected Prime Minister of what, until that moment, was considered a friend of the US.
I know you know all this, but it bears repeating. The degree to which this single act of interventionism affected the history of Iran/US relations probably can’t be overstated. If the US had assisted Iran in the way Truman had wanted, which, ironically, could be described as being through "justice, fairness, consideration, and cooperation," can you imagine what the Middle East would look like today?
The Dish 