Fig. 9: A Student learns how to serve the man of the house. President Truman's Point IV Program in"1r9n. Jhe Home Tabriz. Iran 19S4. Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00282 by guest on 28 September 2021 Z. Pamela Karimi Policymaking and Housekeeping President Truman's Point IV Program and the Mal<ing of the Modern Iranian House. Mandates improve Iran's domestic life. The activities of this department The post-WWII period is generally considered one of the were supervised by the U.S. Division of Education and Training, most pivotal in the modernization of many Middle Eastern and were part of President Truman's Point IV Program for countries. Since the early 19505, intervention by the American Iran. The Point IV Program was established to promote U.S. foreign policy and to assist with government in the Middle East has led to changes not only the development of certain economically underdeveloped countries. The Program's sector in the cultural patterns of life and economic structures, but in Iran was meant to improve Iranian industry, communication, also in developments within the realm of architecture - both transportation, general services, housing, and labor. The urban and domestic. Iran offers a perfect means to examine process was carried out through joint operations involving the substance of this process, because as Douglas Little in American officials and various ministries, agencies, and his book American Orientalism reminds us, "nowhere in the institutions of Iran." Each year roughly one-eighth of the Middle East did the United States push more consistently for amount given to each Western European country as part of reform and modernization after 1945 than Iran, and nowhere the Marshall Plan was dedicated to Iran to support housing did America fail more spectacularly."' "What is going on in and education programs. Iran," said President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, "is about the best thing going on anywhere in the world."^ Armin Mayer, Makeovers Johnson's ambassador in Tehran at that time, also confirmed By establishing Home Economics schools in Iran's major cities, that "the Shah is making Iran [a] show-case of modernization American authorities planned to help young Iranian women in this part of the world."' But how did this showcase come refine their domestic skills, improve the quality of their food into existence? The dramatic expansion of American political and cooking methods, consider their family's health and and economic influence in Iran after the Second World War hygiene, and develop "good taste" in decorating and furnishing has been thoroughly analyzed. In contrast, the concurrent their homes. These training programs recommended a hygienic intensification of the cultural presence of the United States in and practical arrangement for living rooms and kitchens that this region is under-researched. would create labor-saving houses.^ This "new housekeeping" Relying on first-hand written reports, visual documents, presumably took less time, was less tedious, and turned the charts, compiled and maps by American officials in 1954 housewife into a "professional" worker. A great portion of the and currently housed at the visual archives of the Library program focused on the kitchen, the center of household labor of Congress, I consider the nature and consequences of an (Fig. 1 & 2). By using time charts, meal plans, and inventories, American post-WWII mission in Iran that established a women would become plant managers. The ramifications of Home Economics Department, which aimed at promoting the project were, however, far more extensive. Changes in homemaking educational programs for women to help family structure, gender relations, habits of consumption, 29 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00282 by guest on 28 September 2021 and the encouragement of a consumer culture were the most from Iran." The loss of this oil could slow or overturn Western important aspects of the program. European economic revitalization. More importantly, these While educational programs brought new ideas to Iran, oil resources would be considered necessary in case of war they also carried out politically oriented economic strategies. with the Soviet Union. Similarly, the Soviet Union's ability Indeed, the changing idea of the house was a microcosm of to succeed in a global war would be extensively enhanced by the changing Iranian society in the 1950s. To paraphrase a U.S. control of Iranian oil." military planner. Cornel Harold Haskins, it was not just for Given the requirement that Iran be kept independent humanitarian reasons nor even for any idealistic democratic without provoking a clash with the Soviet Union, the Truman principles, worthy as these may be. that the United States was administration hoped that a "quiet diplomacy" would produce forced to take an interest in Iran.^ We must remember that the desired results. The ideas of the Point IV Program and the the Point IV Program took place within a larger socio-political consequent homemaking programs were certainly spread by atmosphere that resulted from the cooptation of Iranian this so-called quiet diplomacy. Point IV's Division of Education authorities in early of by the U.S. government the years the and Training began its work by putting a program of Home Cold {here I referring to the CIA Coup in Iran, which War am 1953 Economics into a girls' school in the city of Tehran. Later, a resulted in the overthrow of Dr. Mossadegh's government and similar program was introduced in other major cities (Fig. 4). the of the Shah).' empowerment The ultimate goal of this project extended beyond temporary In all likelihood, the Point IV Program was meant to changes in the Iranian residential space and was to make protect the Iranian society from social tendencies that could long-term household improvements. That is why educational bring about a socialist movement similar to that of the USSR programs played an important role in the process of (Fig. 3).' This notion is particularly important, considering transformation of the Iranian domestic space. The preliminary that by 1951 economic and political relations between Iran and proposal of the Point IV Program makes this process clear. the Soviet Union were already established, and a demarcation In putting forward the Program's bill at the meeting of the agreement was signed in Tehran by a Soviet-Iranian joint Committee of Foreign Affairs to the House of Representatives commission. This Soviet-Iranian rapport caused Associate in 1949. Acting Secretary of State James Webb said, "the Justice William 0. Douglas of the U.S. Supreme Court, in his program has larger goals and is meant to be the beginning of travels to Iran in 1950, to express the hope that "we [the a movement that can reach far into the future and, in time, U.S.] will write their [Middle Easterners] history instead of change civilization profoundly for the better."" At the same letting Soviet Russia do it."' U.S. policy makers believed that meeting. Willard L. Thorp, Assistant Secretary of State for the most critical challenges confronting Iran were economic Economic Affairs, made it clear that the program was directly modernization and land reform, without which Iran would geared toward a change in the societal structure. He said, remain "an incipient China."'" But why was preventing Iran from falling into the Soviet When one is toildng about underdeveiopment, one is not sphere so crucial? The economic recovery of Western Europe just toildng about the fact that there are no machines was fueled by cheap Middle Eastern oil, much of which came in the area that are not industrialized. One is talldng Fig 3 "Point 4 Declared Number i Hope for Peace" , THE TASHlNtiVo'H •* FOST __ JfpnA,. ,V,r 16. tW " Point 4 Declared No. 1 Hope for Peace, By John W. Bill 1 '"'"' «rlcut.ur». r«I.ra.(i™, Lu«ff«rt 'm"r','^„r'''' """'W'"'^ """»""" IByvrid puce ihii™i"/n'i'hrt -'"'^i *<' * toinp*r«tl««l)i lo-j ^BfML (tta ihc Minnrnj pj^'l"'I>*'>"«* conlrlbuClon of UiU «»( ^HMfK Dodd. Unlud NallDni'"^- "" uaclInK ibnud a( nnilll WTCS??"' ,^"'^"*- ImluioB.. could <bo» mttloa la! ^"""M (ram 1 briimii ^^(»»j„.,..,L. madlllani *Jmail atoM*.' 30 Fig. 1 & 2: The kitchen laboratory at a school in Isfahan Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00282 by guest on 28 September 2021 about a number of interrelated factors which all put Home Economics Department and the attachee of the U.S. together make up a more advanced society ... You achieve Department of Education," the introduction of Western economic developments not just with the things that relate domestic furnishing and Western models of living also "gave a specifically and directly to productive techniques, but with real opportunity ... to raise the level of living for the country as fundamental things that bear on the capacity to produce: a whole." King reports. namely education ... organization and so forth.^' The same basic needs were found everywhere ... After countless interviews, much digging into grass root needs, Based on this commentary, it is no coincidence that education close observation of girls' schools of secondary level and played an important role in cultural changes undertaken homes of the destitute, the very poor, and the average and by the Point IV Program. The homemaking programs in Iran the wealthy, I was able to dream a dream and was ready to were modeled after instructions that, by the 1950s, had try to make that dream come true.'''' existed in the U.S. for over half a century. In the U.S., the Issues of the design and decoration of the house were a homemaking educational programs dated back to the late fundamental aspect of the training process that directly 1870s.