Letter from Senator Edwin Johnson to Matthew Connelly, with a Reply from Joseph Short, with Attachments and Related Material
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134-B
August 16, 1951
Dear Senator Johnson:
Matt Connelly has asked me to reply to your letter of
July thirtieth in which you ask for information concerning this
Government's policy toward Iran with which to reply to a letter
from one of your constituents, Mr. D. B. Summers of Walsenburg,
Colorado.
The quotation to which Mr. Summers refers is correct.
x101. - E
He may be interested in the full text of the President's message
x134
to the Prime Minister of Iran, which I enclose.
As you know, there has been a great public demand in
Iran for nationalization of the oil properties heretofore adminis-
x56
tered by a British Company. The oil of Iran is of vital importance
X48
in the economy of the free world and any sustained interruption of
its flow would be detrimental to our security interests. We are,
therefore, anxious to do everything possible to assure a continued
flow of oil from Iran. Furthermore, the situation created by the
"unhappy dispute" between the Iranian Government and the British
oll interests in Iran has been, in the President's words "full of
dangers" because of the precarious position of Iran in relation to
x 220
the Soviet Union. We certainly do not want to see Iran overrun
by the Soviet Union. Nor do we want to see a revolution which
x 263
might lead to communist domination.
The United States has always recognized the right of a
sovereign country to nationalize industry or resources within its
X 172
borders provided that when such action is taken, adequate, prompt
and just compensation is made by the government concerned to
American companies whose properties have been taken.
In the light of these facts the President was able to
say that "we were happy to see that the British Government has on
its part accepted the principle of nationalization. Such ac-
ceptance by the British Government provides the only basis for
a
resolution in Iran of a situation which threatens to deprive the
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