From what has been made public so far of the continuing correspondence between Premier Zahedi and President Eisenhower, it may safely be concluded that several tens of millions of dollars in additional American aid will shortly be dispatched to Iran. [Premier Fazlollah Zahedi, President Dwight D. Eisenhower]

Under the Mutual Security Program, through which most of this country’s foreign aid is transmitted, $147,000,000 is appropriated for the Middle East in the current budget. But this money, even though not ear-marked among specific countries, nevertheless must be spent on projects that provide long-run economic betterment, such as roads, irrigation and power. What Iran needs, in good part, is simply the cash money to pay the wages due its officeholders, service men and the like. Otherwise, the new regime might plunge headlong into the abyss of bankruptcy, and the ensuing pandemonium would be the answer to an atheist Russian’s prayer.

These are basic facts, recognized very widely. There is still some possibility that a minority fraction of American public opinion will begrudge Iran this crucial help. Some people are against anything that involves taxpayer money and a nation out of sight beyond the horizon. With such persons, a reminder might be useful of another basic fact: the enormous difference in Europe today wrought by American aid in the years when it was known as the Marshall plan. It is not too much to say that in the absence of such aid, economic collapse and political debility would probably have occurred in nation after nation. How Soviet Russia would have profited by such a situation requires practically no imagining.

Are we, in Iran, “buying friendship”? If so, only incidentally to the main purpose, which is very much another thing. The United States is, rather, taking the much easier, and cheaper, way of withstanding Communist aggression. It is assuring survival for an Iranian Government which is not only our friend already but very possibly the last friend we could hope for in that troubled land.