The Palm Beach Post’s Front Page Rib-ticklers
| Arash Norouzi The Mossadegh Project | April 10, 2023 |
The Palm Beach Post newspaper in West Palm Beach, Florida featured a “thumbnail editorial” on its front page, right up there on the masthead. Here’s a collection of some of those throwaway lines on Iran.
April 16, 1951
THUMBNAIL EDITORIAL
Iranian Red riots may turn world’s eyes from Far East to the tinder box of the Middle East before long.
[Korean War reference]
May 21, 1951
THUMBNAIL EDITORIAL
If the West doesn’t watch out, a worldwide “oil explosion” is likely in Iran . . . with Soviet Russia chuckling inwardly.
[Oil was nationalized on April 28, 1951]
May 22, 1951
THUMBNAIL EDITORIAL
Little Iran is making loud and belligerent noises at Britain and US. Could it be the vodka talking?
[Innuendo apparently implying oil nationalization was Soviet-backed or inspired, though Iran also had its own vodka industry.]
June 4, 1951
THUMBNAIL EDITORIAL
Truman’s latest ‘letter writing’ kind of got mixed up between Iran and England in a regular ‘comedy of errors.’
[Letters to Attlee and Mossadegh were mixed up, conjuring memories of when Truman wrote a hostile letter to a music critic]
June 11, 1951
THUMBNAIL EDITORIAL
Little Iran may have her back up against the West, but she also has ‘told off’ neighbor Russia after a Soviet protest.
October 10, 1951
THUMBNAIL EDITORIAL
Look at all those chickens coming home to roost in Britain. In the vernacular, somebody ‘laid an egg.’
[Iran and England were then facing off at the United Nations]
February 1, 1952
THUMBNAIL EDITORIAL
Iran has repaid our Point Four aid with a slap in the face. Let’s see, now, what’s Point Five?
[Technical assistance program to underdeveloped countries]
April 25, 1952
THUMBNAIL EDITORIAL
Wonder if Mr. Truman’s ‘ultimatum’ to Stalin, which lasted only three hours here, is still working in Iran.
[Response to news reports that in 1946 Pres. Harry Truman gave Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin an ultimatum to evacuate Azerbaijan]
August 4, 1952
THUMBNAIL EDITORIAL
Let’s hope that a good job of air conditioning is not required to cool those hot heads of Iran.
[Riffing on the extreme summer heat in Iran]
March 1, 1953
THUMBNAIL EDITORIAL
If ‘Weeping Willie’ Mossadegh is ousted as Iran’s premier, we’re willing to let ‘em have our Johnny Ray.
[Reacting to No’he Esfand, with a reference to the ‘Cry’ singer.]
March 2, 1953
THUMBNAIL EDITORIAL
Since Communism thrives on disorder, is Iran about to become a Red satellite?
[No’he Esfand again]
August 19, 1953
THUMBNAIL EDITORIAL
Isn’t it peculiar that wherever violence flares in the world these days, there are always Communists around?
[top headline: Communist Mobs Battle Iran Troops]
August 21, 1953
THUMBNAIL EDITORIAL
Iran’s Premier Mossadegh has finally got himself in a situation worth weeping and fainting about.
[post-coup giggles]
August 25, 1953
THUMBNAIL EDITORIAL
Just as an experiment how about sending Laniel to Iran and appointing the shah premier of France?
[Joseph Laniel, French Premier]
December 22, 1953
THUMBNAIL EDITORIAL
Mossadegh sentenced to three years “solitary.” They should at least give him some rugs to chew on.
[This actually ran on the bottom of the front page. The headline at the top was "Shaking Mossadegh Given Three Years As Traitor To Iran"]
June 30, 1954
THUMBNAIL EDITORIAL
The turnover in Guatemalan regime is so fast we wouldn’t be surprised to hear the next one speaking French.
[top headline: Armistice Ends Fighting In Guatemala]
Related links:
Potomac Fever | Novelist Fletcher Knebel on Iran (1951-1953)
Iran According To Ed Sullivan (1951-1954)
William Ritt: You’re Telling Me! | Humor Column’s Iran Takes (1950’s)
MOSSADEGH t-shirts — “If I sit silently, I have sinned”
