US Foreign Policy Toward Iran During the Mussadiq Era

This chapter examines the US policy toward Iran during the Mussadiq era. Before World War II the United States had little strategic or economic interest in Iran, and relations between the two countries were cordial but distant. By early 1950 US officials had become alarmed about political conditions in Iran, with one describing Iran as "dangerous and explosive" and another warning that it might become a "second China". In September 1951 British officials began to implement a plan to invade southwestern Iran and seize the oil fields. When US officials were told about this plan, President Harry S Truman notified British Prime Minister Clement Attlee that the United States would not support an invasion and urged him to resume negotiations. Dwight Eisenhower entered office in January 1953, and the administration harbored bold plans to restructure US foreign policy in ways that would more effectively contain the Soviet Union.