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    "ocrText": "5/15/548 Reel 4, Track 2, Page 1\nin the view\nMR. NITZE:\nYou raised earlier the difference/batween the British and ourselves; I think\nyou could define it in this way basically: that it is obvious that the\ncourse of action which the British decided to pursue in Iran of letting the\nsituation deteriorate until the Iranians were willing to yell\n?\nand ask Anglo-Iranian to come back. That created certain risks; the British\nwere aware of this, as we were. The British had so much at stake here,\nboth in terms of prestige and balance of payments, earnings in the oil\ncompany, that they were willing to take greater risks than we. And of course\nwe, having spent billions of dollars through the Marshall Plan and Greek-\nTurkish aid program, in order to protect ourselves against similar risks,\nhaving the rich man's psychology of really being much more cautious and aware\nof danger and wanting to guard ourselves against it than the British, who\n&\nhave less to protect, were not willing to take that risk. It has turned out\ncould\nthat Iran did not fall, but we, who were responsible, have failed\nUS. GOVERT\nto take some action in light of the risks that we ran? If Iran had fallen,\nwe would have spent the rest of our lives explaining why we hadn't done\nanything, and the Russians would have been at the north end of the Persian\nthe Gulf at\nGulf looking across/ixm the oil fields of Saudi Arabia at Kuwait. We weren't\nwilling to risk as much as the British were.\nMR. HARRIMAN:\nThey had pride to protect, which they thought would affect them in other\nareas and in the Middle East generally. There is one thing of interest,\nthough, when you talk about comparing the Turks. The Turks take great pride\nin the fact that they have always fought and kept the invader out; the\n-and this to some extent explains Mossadegh--the Iranians\nIranians/take pride in the fact that thay have always survived--they have\nalways lost but they have always survived every invasion. And they don't\nfight; they just let people come into the country and take them over.\nAnd that attitude is one which partially explains Mossadegh; it's an Iranian\ntrait. They don't get up and fight. It was perfectly extraordinary-the\nincidents in history in which we would have said they were yellow dogs they"
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