Tehran men celebrating the coup
The Iranian coup d’etat which occurred on today’s date in 1953 had a profound impact on both the Iranian people and the United States. While the negative impacts of the coup were felt by the Iranian people from the beginning, the US really didn’t feel the impacts until the 1979 Iranian Islamic revolution and the taking of the US hostages. The coup is known in Iran as the 28 Mordad (the date on the Iranian calendar) coup was the overthrow of (check this out) democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran Mohammad Mosaddegh and was orchestrated by the British and US Intelligence agencies in an operation known as ‘Operation Boot’ by the British and project TPAJAX or AJAX . The US role in the coup was not fully acknowledged by the CIA until 2013 when according to Wikipedia….
…. the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) admitted that it was involved in both the planning and the execution of the coup, including the bribing of Iranian politicians, security and army high-ranking officials, as well as pro-coup propaganda.[11][12] The CIA is quoted acknowledging the coup was carried out “under CIA direction” and “as an act of U.S. foreign policy, conceived and approved at the highest levels of government.
Iranian Prime Minister Mosaddegh was an author, administrator, lawyer, prominent parliamentarian, his administration introduced a range of progressive social and political reforms such as social security, rent control, and land reforms.Mosaddegh was even named man of the year in 1951 by Time! But the position of the US changed in late 1952 after Dwight Eisenhower was elected President. In late November and December of 1952 British intelligence officials suggested to American intelligence that Mosaddegh should be ousted. Why? Yep, that old bugaboo,communism and the fear, as related to the US by British PM Winston Churchill, that despite Mosaddegh’s known disgust with socialism, he would become dependent on the pro-Soviet party in Iran causing the country to increasingly turn towards communism.
That fear was enough to allow Allen Dulles the director of the CIA to approve $1 million to be used “in any way that would bring about the fall of Mosaddegh”! Here according to Wikipedia is how the coup played out in the August days of 1953…..when the Shah….
As a precautionary measure, he flew to Baghdad and from there hid safely in Rome. He actually signed two decrees, one dismissing Mosaddegh and the other nominating the CIA’s choice, General Fazlollah Zahedi, as Prime Minister. These decrees, called Farmāns, were specifically written as dictated by Donald Wilber, the CIA architect of the plan, and were designed as a major part of Wilber’s strategy to give the impression of legitimacy to the secret coup, as can be read in the declassified plan itself, which bears his name. Tehran strongman Shaban Jafari played a major role in Mossadegh’s overthrow.
Soon, massive protests, engineered by Roosevelt’s* team, took place across the city and elsewhere with tribesmen paid to be at the ready to assist the coup. Anti- and pro-monarchy protesters, both paid by Roosevelt,[61] violently clashed in the streets, looting and burning mosques and newspapers, leaving almost 300 dead. The pro-monarchy leadership, chosen, hidden and finally unleashed at the right moment by the CIA team, led by retired army General and former Minister of Interior in Mosaddegh’s cabinet, Fazlollah Zahedi joined with underground figures such as the Rashidian brothers and local strongman Shaban Jafari,[63] to gain the upper hand on 19 August 1953 (28 Mordad). The military joined on cue: pro-Shah tank regiments stormed the capital and bombarded the prime minister’s official residence, on Roosevelt’s cue, according to his book. Mosaddegh managed to flee from the mob that set in to ransack his house, and, the following day, surrendered to General Zahedi, who was meanwhile set up by the CIA with makeshift headquarters at the Officers’ Club. Mosaddegh was arrested at the Officers’ Club and transferred to a military jail shortly after.[64] On 22 August, the Shah returned from Rome.
* Roosevelt is Kermit Roosevelt Jr, the chief of the CIA’s Near East and Africa division grandson of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, who came to Tehran to direct the coup..
The coup led to the formation of a military government under General Fazlollah Zahedi, which allowed Mohammad-Rezā Shāh Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran (Persian for an Iranian king) to effectively rule the country as an absolute monarch. He relied heavily on United States support to hold on to power until his own overthrow in February 1979.
All of this gets us where we are today, with relations that are to say the least strained with Iran and maybe rightfully so……you can check out the full stories of both Mosaddegh and the coup d’état at these Wikipedia links…..
Links
Mohammad Mosaddegh
1953 Iranian coup d’état
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi