September 20, 1951 — Pittsburgh Press
| The Mossadegh Project | October 7, 2024 |
The Pittsburgh Press newspaper in Pennsylvania ran this editorial after Henry Grady’s resignation and departure from Iran, to be replaced by Loy Henderson. Consider it a direct sequel to their July editorial Is Grady the Goat?
Caught in the Middle
HENRY F. GRADY, our retiring ambassador to Iran, left that country yesterday, a bitter and frustrated man.
A couple of months ago it was reported from Teheran that Mr. Grady was being forced out by British pressure on our State Department.
At the time, Mr. Grady—a former assistant Secretary of State and a specialist in foreign trade relations—disclaimed any intention of resigning.
But it was known that British government and oil officials were critical of his efforts to mediate the oil controversy. They thought the American ambassador had hurt their bargaining power by publicly urging them to make concessions to
Iran.
The White House subsequently announced that Mr. Grady had asked permission to resign, and that
President Truman would grant the request
“at the appropriate time.” W. Averell Harriman, more sympathetic to the British side, was to try his hand at mediation.
At the Teheran airport yesterday—where he got a stark send-off—Mr. Grady appears to have unburdened himself to newsmen. He was described as “somewhat bitter” toward the
State Department and
Mr. Truman for sending him into retirement at this stage.
In Mr. Grady’s view, the State Department failed to back him up. He had urged the department to do all it could to induce the British to grant the Iranians a bigger share of oil profits before the nationalization law was passed.
But the British policy all along has been to try to ride out the storm, hoping that it could force out the stubborn Premier Mossadegh by putting a tight economic squeeze on Iran. So naturally, the British wanted no part of Mr. Grady’s
recommendations. And our State Department, you may be sure, wouldn’t think of pressing them.
The departing Mr. Grady had one other grievance. He had gone to Iran from Greece where, as U.S. Ambassador he had seen a million dollars a day spent under the Truman program of saving Greece from Communism. It had proved an effective
weapon.
In Iran, he was to have set up a similar economic assistance program with largely the same objective. But after a year nothing like as much aid as Greece got was forthcoming. And a $25 million American loan was inexplicably withheld.
Which accounts for some more of Mr. Grady’s frustration.
Since the British were bent on winning the oil dispute by holding the threat of bankruptcy over Iran, it may be wondered whether British policy was the determining factor in watering down American economic aid.
In any case the British policy, with or without American help, has backfired and the Iranian crisis undoubtedly is speeding to some dreadful climax. The disillusioned Mr. Grady can hardly be blamed if he now suspects he has been made
the goat in still another of our efforts to appease the British Foreign Office.
Related links:
Dean Acheson’s Press Statement on Iran Oil Crisis (June 27, 1951)
Happy Talk | The Pittsburgh Press, February 1, 1953
Grady to Report U.S. Must Lead In Middle East (Sept. 1951)
MOSSADEGH t-shirts — “If I sit silently, I have sinned”
