IRAN: Gift Horse

Seldom have the Russians—Czarist or Communist—given their Persian neighbors anything but trouble. In the past half-century, they have invaded the country six times, looted its Caspian caviar and its Treasury. Only the collective wrath of the infant U.N. made the Russians desist from setting up a little soviet in Azerbaijan province right after World War II. A year ago, in the last days of Mossadegh, the Communist Tudeh Party almost took over Iran. After all this, to Teheran's amazement and consternation, Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Lavrentiev last month promised a "great Russian favor": the return of 300 Iranians detained in...

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