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    "localId": "218719292",
    "label": "Correspondence Between President Harry S. Truman and Howard Cowden",
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    "id": "218719292",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Correspondence Between President Harry S. Truman and Howard Cowden",
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    "productionDates": [
        {
            "logicalDate": "1951-11-01",
            "month": 11,
            "year": 1951
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{
    "seq": 2,
    "pageIndex": 0,
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    "ocrText": "12/\n11/5\nConsumers COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION CO-OP\nH.\nP.O. Box no. 2359\nHOWARD A COWDEN\nPRESIDENT\nKensas CITY 13, MISSOURI\nNovember 2, 1951\nThe Honorable Harry S. Truman\nPresident of the United States\nWashington, D. C.\nDear Mr. President:\nLast July 12 I submitted to you by telegraph a proposal for settling the\nIranian crisis through establi shment of an international cooperative. My\nconcern over the explosive factors in that situation has remained constant and\nactive in the intervening months. As secretary=treasurer of the International\nCooperative Petroleum Association, which has endorsed my proposal, I have had\nthree conferences with Premier Mossadegh. In two of these meetings I was ac-\ncompanied by Albin Johansson, Swedish cooperative leader and president of the\naforementioned International Cooperative Petroleum Association. Mr. Johaneson\nincidentally made a special trip from Sweden to meet with Mossadegh and others,\nincluding Sir Gladwyn Jebb of Great Britain.\nLast week I conferred with Assistant Secretary of State George C. McGhee,\nand while Mr. McGhee was guarded in what he told me, I came away convinced\nthat our State Department has lacked vision and boldness in this situation.\nWhether it was right or wrong in the beginning, the government of Iran has\nstruck out on a course that it cannot retrace. Britain, as some British\nleaders were tardy in recognizing, can never be restored to its former status\nin Iran. Meanwhile, a critical oil shortage is spreading through the western\nworld; Iran is precariously near the internal upheaval that the oil shutdown\nis bound to bring about; and world communism stands patiently by, waiting for\nthe day when it can pick up the pieces of another fallen government.\nThis is no time to think in traditional channels. It is no time to put pri-\nvate vested interests in the other Middle Eastern countries ahead of anything\nthat might save the Moslem world for the West in the spreading global struggle.\nSettlement of the issue along traditional lines would likely mean loss of face\nfor Iran or Britain, and face-saving seems important to both.\nMy cooperative proposal offers a \"middle way. It would require both Iran and\nBritain to give ground. But the ground-giving would be in the name of a brave\nattempt to put world peace ahead of nationalistic aims. I think that, with\nUnited States leadership, this plan, with some modifications, could eventually\nwin acceptance in both countries directly involved. But more than that, it\nwould put our government on record in support of a plan that is democratic in\nCCA\nAFFILIATED NATIONAL COOPERATIVES, INC., U.S.A. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATIVE TRADING AGENCY, LONDON, ENGLAND\nINTERNATIONAL COOPERATIVE PETROLEUM ASSOCIATION, NEW YORK AND LONDON"
}