[[Persia|Iran]] | [[CIA]] | [[United States of America]] | [[Shell]] | [[TotalEnergies SE]] | [[MI-6, Secret Intelligence Service (SIS)|MI-6]] | [[Mohammad Mosaddegh]] | [[Sir Winston Churchill]] | [[President Eisenhower]] | [[AIOC]] | [[Abadan Crisis]] | [[Kermit 'Kim' Roosevelt Jr.]] | [[Dean Acheson]] | [[Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi]] | [[1950s]] | [[1953 Iran Coup d'etat]] | [[Operation Boot]] # The CIA Coup That Created Modern Iran ## **What It Was** Operation Ajax (August 1953) was a joint CIA-MI6 covert operation that overthrew Iran's democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh and consolidated power under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Executed for approximately $1 million, it's considered the CIA's most "successful" coup—and one of America's greatest foreign policy disasters. ## **The Background: Oil, Nationalism, and Empire** ### **The Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC)** Since 1908, Britain controlled Iranian oil through AIOC (later BP). The arrangement was colonial robbery: - **Iran received 16%** of oil profits - **Britain took 84%** - British government owned 51% of AIOC—oil profits funded the Royal Navy and British Empire - Iranian workers lived in slums while British executives enjoyed luxury compounds - AIOC refused to open books to Iranian auditors ### **Mosaddegh Rises** **Mohammad Mosaddegh**: Elderly aristocrat, Swiss-educated lawyer, passionate Iranian nationalist. Elected Prime Minister in 1951 on a platform of **oil nationalization**—taking back Iran's resources from British control. **May 1, 1951**: Iranian parliament voted unanimously to nationalize AIOC. Mosaddegh's argument: "The oil resources of Iran, like its soil, its rivers and mountains, are the natural wealth of this country and belong to the Iranian nation." **British Response**: Fury. Churchill's government (returned to power in 1951) considered military invasion but lacked post-WWII capacity. Instead: - Naval blockade preventing Iranian oil exports - Froze Iranian assets in British banks - Orchestrated international boycott of Iranian oil - Sabotaged Iranian refinery operations - Began plotting Mosaddegh's overthrow ### **The American Position (Initially)** **Truman Administration (1945-1953)**: Supported Mosaddegh as democratic reformer standing against British imperialism. Saw him as bulwark against communism, not threat. **Eisenhower Administration (January 1953)**: Changed everything. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and CIA Director Allen Dulles (brothers, both with corporate ties to oil companies) viewed Mosaddegh through Cold War lens: - His National Front coalition included the communist Tudeh Party - Economic crisis from British blockade created instability - Instability = opportunity for Soviet influence - Dominoes could fall across Middle East **The Pitch**: MI6 agent Christopher Woodhouse convinced CIA the operation wasn't about **protecting British oil profits** (Americans didn't care) but **preventing communist takeover** (Americans cared deeply). CIA bought it. ## **The Operatives** **Kermit "Kim" Roosevelt Jr.**: CIA Near East Division chief, Theodore Roosevelt's grandson, Harvard-educated, supremely confident. Led the operation from Tehran. **Norman Schwarzkopf Sr.**: Father of Desert Storm commander, helped organize Iranian military officers. (The Shah trusted him from earlier cooperation.) **MI6 (British Intelligence)**: Provided intelligence networks, contacts, and operational support. This was their operation first—CIA provided muscle and money. **The Rashidian Brothers**: Iranian assets who controlled networks of newspapers, politicians, clergy, and thugs. Key intermediaries. **General Fazlollah Zahedi**: Retired military officer chosen to replace Mosaddegh. Previously imprisoned by British for Nazi sympathies during WWII—not exactly democratic champion. ## **The Plan** ### **Phase 1: Propaganda** CIA funded massive disinformation campaign: - **Newspapers**: Bought editors and reporters to publish anti-Mosaddegh articles portraying him as communist, atheist, mentally unstable - **Clergy**: Paid influential mullahs to denounce Mosaddegh from pulpits as anti-Islamic - **Pamphlets**: Distributed fake communist propaganda threatening Islam to scare religious conservatives - **Cartoons**: Mocked Mosaddegh as weak, senile, Soviet puppet ### **Phase 2: Destabilization** Create chaos to justify military intervention: - **False flag violence**: Hired thugs (including circus strongmen, street gangs) to riot while claiming to be Mosaddegh supporters - **Bomb mosques**: Stage attacks blamed on communists to turn religious leaders against Mosaddegh - **Economic sabotage**: Worsen British blockade effects through market manipulation ### **Phase 3: The Coup** **August 15, 1953 (First Attempt)**: - Roosevelt convinced Shah (weak, indecisive monarch) to sign royal decree dismissing Mosaddegh - Colonel Nematollah Nassiri delivered decree to Mosaddegh's home - **Mosaddegh refused**—had advance warning, arrested Nassiri instead - Pro-Mosaddegh crowds filled streets celebrating apparent victory - **Shah fled to Rome in panic** **CIA headquarters ordered Roosevelt to abort**. He refused. **August 16-18**: Roosevelt frantically re-mobilized assets: - Spent remaining money bribing military commanders - Organized massive street demonstrations - Spread rumor Shah was returning (false—he was hiding in Rome) - Paid mobs to clash with each other, creating violent chaos **August 19, 1953 (Success)**: - Morning: Pro-Shah demonstrations erupted across Tehran (orchestrated/paid by CIA) - Noon: Crowds grew to tens of thousands (mix of genuine Shah supporters and paid protesters) - Afternoon: Military units loyal to General Zahedi surrounded Mosaddegh's home - Evening: After nine hours of fighting, Mosaddegh fled over back wall - Night: Zahedi declared himself Prime Minister on radio **August 22**: Shah returned from Rome to cheering crowds (many paid). Mosaddegh arrested, tried for treason, sentenced to three years prison, then house arrest until death (1967). ## **The Cost** **Financial**: $1 million CIA budget plus unknown British contribution. Total likely $2-5 million—cheapest regime change in history. **Human**: 200-300 killed in August 19 street fighting. Thousands arrested afterward. ## **The Immediate Aftermath** **Oil Settlement (1954)**: New "consortium" gave: - 40% to AIOC (renamed BP) - 40% to American companies (Gulf, Texaco, Mobil, Standard Oil, Socony-Vacuum) - 14% to Royal Dutch Shell - 6% to French company - **Iran received 50% of profits**—better than before, but oil still controlled by foreigners **The Shah's Dictatorship**: - **SAVAK** (secret police) created with CIA/Mossad training—tortured thousands - Political parties banned - Press censored - Opposition crushed - Corruption endemic - Oil wealth concentrated among elite **U.S. Support**: America became Shah's guarantor—billions in military aid, training, diplomatic backing. Iran became "policeman of the Persian Gulf." ## **The Long-Term Catastrophe** ### **The Iranian Revolution (1979)** After 26 years of dictatorship, Iranians overthrew the Shah. **Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic Republic** blamed America for: - Installing the Shah (1953) - Supporting his dictatorship (1953-1979) - Training SAVAK torturers - Blocking Iranian democracy **November 4, 1979**: Iranian students seized U.S. Embassy, holding 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. Explicitly cited the 1953 coup as justification. ### **Consequences Cascade** **Regional Destabilization**: - Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988): 1 million dead - Hezbollah creation (1985): Iranian proxy in Lebanon - Anti-American terrorism normalized - Iranian nuclear program (response to vulnerability) **Sectarian Conflict**: Iran (Shia theocracy) vs. Saudi Arabia (Sunni monarchy) proxy wars across Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon. **Trust Destroyed**: Iranians concluded democracy means nothing if America dislikes the result. Bred cynicism about Western "democracy promotion." **CIA Overconfidence**: Ajax's success convinced CIA coups were easy: - **Guatemala (1954)**: Successful coup, genocidal aftermath (200,000+ killed) - **Congo (1960)**: Assassination of Lumumba, decades of dictatorship - **Cuba (1961)**: Bay of Pigs disaster—Castro had real popular support, unlike Mosaddegh - **Chile (1973)**: Pinochet coup, thousands tortured/killed The "Ajax model" worked against fragile democracies, failed against revolutionary movements. ## **Declassification and Admission** **2000**: State Department released documents confirming CIA/MI6 role. **2013**: CIA officially acknowledged Operation Ajax for first time, releasing internal history admitting "the military coup that overthrew Mosaddeq and his National Front cabinet was carried out under CIA direction as an act of U.S. foreign policy." **Too Late**: By then, three generations of Iranians had grown up hating America for the coup and supporting the Shah. The admission changed nothing. ## **The Lessons Ignored** **Short-term Success, Long-term Disaster**: Ajax "worked"—Mosaddegh fell, Shah returned, oil flowed. But it created the conditions for the 1979 Revolution, which created modern anti-American Islamism, which destabilized the entire Middle East. **Democracy Denied**: Iranians chose Mosaddegh democratically. CIA decided Iranian democracy threatened Western interests, so democracy had to go. This taught the world that America supports democracy only when it produces convenient results. **Blowback**: CIA invented the term "blowback" to describe unintended consequences of covert operations. Ajax is the textbook case—the operation's success planted seeds of catastrophic failure 26 years later. **Imperial Hubris**: Roosevelt and his CIA colleagues never questioned their **right** to overthrow foreign governments, only their **capability**. This assumption—that American interests justify any intervention—continues today. ## **Why It Matters** Every U.S.-Iran crisis since 1979 traces back to August 1953: - Embassy hostages (1979-1981) - Beirut barracks bombing (1983) - Iran-Contra affair (1985-1987) - Khobar Towers (1996) - Nuclear negotiations (ongoing) - Proxy conflicts across Middle East For $1 million and ten days of work, Kim Roosevelt created **70 years of hostility** and helped birth modern Islamist terrorism. That's Operation Ajax's legacy: proof that you can win tactically and lose strategically, that covert operations have consequences decades after the operatives retire, and that overthrowing democracies creates enemies that last generations. --- Before going into the operation, Ajax had to have the approval of the President. Eisenhower participated in none of the meetings that set up Ajax; he received only oral reports on the plan; and he did not discuss it with his Cabinet or the NSC. Establishing a pattern he would hold to throughout his Presidency, he kept his distance and left no documents behind that could implicate the President in any projected coup. But in the privacy of the Oval Office, over cocktails, he was kept informed by Foster Dulles, and he maintained a tight control over the activities of the CIA Throughout the crisis, the "communist danger" was more of a rhetorical device than a real issue—i.e. it was part of the cold-war discourse ...The Tudeh was no match for the armed tribes and the 129,000-man military. What is more, the British and Americans had enough inside information to be confident that the party had no plans to initiate armed insurrection. At the beginning of the crisis, when the Truman administration was under the impression a compromise was possible, Acheson had stressed the communist danger, and warned if Mosaddegh was not helped, the Tudeh would take over. The (British) Foreign Office had retorted that the Tudeh was no real threat. But, in August 1953, when the Foreign Office echoed the Eisenhower administration's claim that the Tudeh was about to take over, Acheson now retorted that there was no such communist danger. Acheson was honest enough to admit that the issue of the Tudeh was a smokescreen - Dean Acheson