The overwhelming majority of Iranians are neither Moslem nor Communist fanatics. They are illiterate and poverty-ridden peasants without any clear political conscience. Tell them their lot is well night intolerable, and they will instantly agree. Their basic attitude is one of hatred of government. The government to them is a symbol of oppression; it is the tax collector who squeezes the poor and the grafter who mulcts the state. Wide sections of the population are ripe for communism.
— “Iran Kept in Turmoil by Oil and Communism”
by Michael Clark
The New York Times
April 29, 1951
