Significant unsigned handwritten manuscript in pencil and ballpoint by John F. Kennedy, seven pages, 8 x 10.5, no date but dating to JFK's time in the House of Representatives, circa 1951. Handwritten draft on foreign policy, in which Kennedy discusses the complicated international power struggle that was taking place in Iran in the 1940s and 1950s leading up to the 1953 CIA-assisted coup that overthrew Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh.
In small part: "All of these different conflicts are concentrated in ancient Persia, now Iran, located in the center of the Muslim world—bordering Russia on its north—Turkey on its West—flanking Afghanistan, Pakistan and northern India on its east...And most recently Russia has been anxious to protect the source of its large oil supplies...only 125 miles from the Iranian border...Thus the dispute between the Anglo-Iranian Company & the government of Iran took place in an area which the Soviet Union had conditionally sought to control and involved not only Western Europe & Great Britain's major source of oil—but...also had the entire security of the Middle East...The fact is that the Mossadegh will never offer the British a deal good enough so that they feel they can accept. The British, I think, have always organized this so their efforts have been directed towards trying to replace M. which has convinced M. that the British will continue to meddle in the internal affairs." At the head of the page written in ballpoint, Kennedy sketches a tiny drawing. In fine condition, with a few small edge chips and tears.
Kennedy was correct and, two years after he delivered this speech, Mosaddegh and his democratically elected government was overthrown in a joint effort by British and American intelligence agencies, forever altering the relationship between Iran and the United States. Kennedy touched on several of these themes in a speech given at the Massachusetts Federation of Taxpayers Association's annual meeting in Boston, Massachusetts April 21, 1951.
Consignor notes that this originates from the estate of Robert Luddington, who worked as an interior designer for various Kennedy homes over the course of 60 years.
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