In 1953, the United States’ CIA and Great Brittan’s M16 staged a Coup D’état against, then Prime Minister of Iran, Mohammad Mossadegh. He valued each individual citizen and prided himself in aiding the impoverished and focusing on the development of his country, as opposed to focusing on the further advancement of the western world. Mohammad Mossadegh was very popular in Iran, both among politicians and his citizens; however, he was highly criticized by western leaders.
World leaders in Great Brittan didn’t want Mossadegh to have any sort of power because he had long desired to nationalize the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. Mossadegh and British diplomats argued over the rights of Iranian oil for years. Mossadegh argued that the oil was a natural resource, the most abundant in Iran, therefore it was rightfully property of the people of Iran. He also saw the deal as an opportunity to create wealth and prosperity in his country. The British argued that Iran had contractually agreed to allow them to run the company decades prior and the contract had yet to cease. Additionally, Britain had been getting the oil dirt cheap and was selling it at 30 times the price they paid. According to Mossadegh, the British were exploiting Iran for their oil and land. The British claimed they were only trying to help Iran, yet they refused to help Iranians learn to run the factory and ensured that no British citizen would help them.
The United States was mostly pressured to take part in the coup by
In his book All the Shah’s Men, Stephen Kinzer tells the story behind the coup that took place in Iran in 1953 and how US-Iranian relations were impacted as a result. To give a full picture of the events that transpired before the coup, Kinzer goes above and beyond and recounts the history of Persia going back to the founding of the Achaemenid Empire in 550 BC, giving the reader an excellent overview of the long history of the region. He then goes on to recount the root causes and events that led up to the coup and then covers the coup itself. Kinzer then devotes the last 40 pages going over the events that happened after the coup and the consequences that both nations have suffered for it. Kinzer’s point of view on this subject was obvious
All the Shah’s Men by Stephen Kinzer details the 1953 American-orchestrated coup in Iran. Iran was under British economic control, but as it modernized, Iranians began fighting for their own control. Their fledgling democracy was working to modernize, until the UK and the US decided to interfere to protect Britain’s colonial holdings from Soviet influence. Because the US was not interested in protecting a British business, British politicians emphasized the threat the USSR held to Iran, leading to Americans inserting themselves into a nation’s politics in which they had no place. They successfully orchestrated a coup, however, the negative, long-term, anti-Western results overwhelm any positive effect. All the Shah’s Men by Stephen Kinzer paints a picture of the results of action without adequate attention to future results.
“The Shah, who had been in exile, contacted the United States and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) put together Operation AJAX to drive Mossadegh from Iran and put himself back in power.” The Shah also followed up on the United States idea and he started a unique police group that was officially called SAVAX. The CIA trained these people and they were not really big fans of the Iranian people. This group had special skills that one police officer normally wouldn’t have, all of the members of SAVAX also had the talent of spying which was used for listening in on the Iranian citizens.
The 1953 coup in Iran undoubtedly led to a politically destabilized nation and negatively affected the Iranians opinion of a democratic country. From the beginning, the U.S. has always supported democracy, until they sided with Reza Shah. Reza Shah was a tyrant and evidently very fond of using brutality and violence to attempt to make the citizens of Iran fear him to such an extremity that they would not consider
In her essay, Shareen Brysac tells the story of the 1950 coup of the Iranian government through a particular lens which paints Persians as too simple-minded to see the overthrow coming; while also implying that the CIA coup of the Mossadegh was a result of the Cold War and not US interest. On the other hand, Ervand Abrahamian asserts that the US has actually been hiding information about the Coup because people wouldn’t want to really know what is going on, furthermore he views the overthrow of Mossadegh as a strategic move to protect US oil interest in Iran, because as doctor Varzi explains in her note to the reader, he was advocating for the nationalization of Iranian oil. Furthermore, she discusses how the rule of the Shah who was attempting
On August 19, 1953, the American CIA helped to overthrow a democratically elected prime minister in Iran-Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh, who was elected in 1950-and restored the Shah to his Monarchical leadership position (“A short account of 1953 Coup”). The Shah was a modernizer for Iran in many respects, promoting the growth of a modern economy and a middle class, and championing women's rights. He outlawed the hijab, which is the full-body veil that women are to wear, according to Islamic law; encouraged education for women up to and including at the university level; and championed employment opportunities outside the home for women. The Shah was restored to his Monarchical leadership position
In 1953 American intelligence agencies helped royalists led by the Shah seize power from the Prime Minister in a coup de tat. After the coup the Shah made the country into an absolute monarchy. The United States helped the Shah tighten his grip on power over the next twenty-five years, training his special police and providing financial and military aid. During this period the Shah used the secret police to purge opponents and ruled with an iron fist. While he did bring significant reform to Iran, including modernizing the country, many were resentful of his ties to the West and angrily saw the reforms as attempts at Westernization. Popular support remained tepid and eventually led to protests and a coup in 1979.
In 1908, oil was discovered in massive quantities in Iran. Ever since, Iran has attracted a great deal of attention from other countries. In 1953, the United States felt that Iran was moving ever closer to Russia. To keep Iran out of Russian hands, the CIA overthrew Iran’s prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, and placed the Shah, Reza Shah Pahlavi, in place as dictator. However, the Shah was greatly disliked by innumerable Iranians because they felt he went against Islam and he let his secret police, the SAVAK, brutally control the people. In 1963, they openly rebelled. The revolutionaries were subdued forcefully and the leader of the rebellion, Ruhollah Khomeini, was exiled and sent to Iraq. This was the start of Iran’s Islamic Revolution. The people began to rebel more and more often until, on January 16, 1979, the Shah raced away to Egypt. On January 30, 1979, thousands of Iranians cheered for Ruhollah Khomeini as he came back to Iran after fourteen years as an exile. Then there was a major question: should the United States, the Shah’s former ally, allow him to enter the country? According to Vice President Walter Mondale, Jimmy Carter “went around the room, and most of us said, ‘Let him
The American public was so captivated by the Iran Hostage Crisis because they were blindsided by this radical action and their knowledge of America’s involvement in Iran was limited. The media played a major role in influencing their emotions and they already had trouble trusting the American government. This unknown involvement began in 1943 when President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin met in Tehran to discuss how to remove the British and Soviet military forces from Iran because Iran wanted to be its own nation. The United States aided the young Shah, the ruler of Iran, and his government with military weapons and loans. Over time, Prime Minister Mossadegh, of Iran, gained more and more power until he was the true ruler of Iran and the Shah was just a figurehead. The United States, fearing the spread of communism, devised a secret plan for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), to over throw Prime Minister Mossadegh.
Oil was the key to world power for Britain (Kinzer 48). Britain realized, after discovering what turned into the Anglo-Iranian
The importance of democracy took a backseat to economics and national pride when the CIA orchestrated an elaborate coup to overthrow the government of Dr. Mohammad Mosaddeq. In the beginning of the Cold War, the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran, Mohammad Mosaddeq, passed the oil nationalization agreement, which nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) and its holdings in Iran. The CIA, with assistance of MI6, planned, funded and implemented Operation TPAJAX, a covert CIA operation. CIA collaborated with Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, to overthrow Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq and the elected government of Iran. The TPAJAX plan consisted of two components a political and a military element. The political component of TPAJAX created an artificial campaign of destabilization to accumulate, in a sanctuary, by clergy-led crowds inside the Majles enceinte where a censor motion and bribing of deputies would cause the fall of Mosaddeq through parliamentary procedures. The military component of TPAJAX was only a contingency to maintain the desired outcome against resistance by Tudeh or Mosaddeq supporters. The CIA orchestrated the 1953 Coup of Iran to overthrow Mosaddeq; primarily to maintain existing western control of Iranian oil, thus preventing the collapse of Great Britain’s economic system and alleviating the risk of an Iranian government strongly influenced by the Soviet Union.
Many descendants of Muzzaffar continued to rule after him, and although the Iranian people eventually were able to nationalize some industries, the oil belonged to the British. This is really where all of the conflict begins concerning the oil, and the hatred that Iranians have for foreign
In early 1951, the nationalization of Iran’s oil industry by Mosaddegh was the trigger for the United Kingdom to begin discussion with the United States to overthrow Mosaddegh and return the power to the shah. When the coup attempt was thwarted, the CIA decided to call off continuing with the operation because they did not want it to get traced back to the United States. However, Kermit Roosevelt believed that the United States should not be done interfering with Iran, and
Iranian hostility of United States can be traced back to the 1950s. The United States supported any regime that was not communist, even though they would be considered very unpopular with the people of their country. Because of this, Iran became an anti-communist country and the Shah became an ally of the United States. In 1950 the Shah left Iran when Mohammed Mossadegh was elected Prime Minister. After Mossadegh election, he used his authority and nationalized the oil industry in the country. This incident generated fear in the United States. The state department felt that communists could abuse this anarchy and Iran could turn against the United States. The Shah, who had been removed from power, contacted the United States and the Central
The American government is known to promote democratic values throughout the world. Though the ideals America was fighting for during the Cold War, the government still managed to participate in the overthrow of democratically elected Prime Minister, Mohammed Mossadegh. Mossadegh threatened to nationalize Iran’s oil in 1951 and later gained the support of the Iranian government. The British companies had many investments in Iranian oil. It is with the approval of nationalization that the economies of both British and Iran were ultimately harmed. The British government requested the help of the US so that they could perform a coup to overthrow Mossadegh. With suspicions of Mossadegh supporting communism, and being supported by the Tudeh Party, the United States government was willing to sacrifice their democratic ideologies and credibility in the region for the insurance of an anti-communist leader. This would prove to cause problems that still resonate in today’s political and military negotiations in this region.