Iran/1953 coup d'état

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Event.png Iran/1953 coup d'état (coup) Rdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
1953 coup d'etat.jpg
Date15 August 1953 - 19 August 1953
LocationIran
PerpetratorsCIA, MI6, Seven Sisters
Deaths500
Interest ofNorman Darbyshire, Charlotte Denett, Ann Lambton, Monty Woodhouse
DescriptionThe first large scale regime change carried out by the CIA.

Operation Ajax, headed by Kermit Roosevelt was the CIA's first large scale regime change operation - the first of many.[1]

Official narrative

The official narrative was for many years that MI6 and the CIA had nothing to do with the coup. As news leaked out, this changed, and nowadays the story is that it was "covertly organised by MI6 and the CIA"[2]. Averell Harriman went to Iran to negotiate an Anglo-Iranian compromise, asking the Shah's help; his reply was that "in the face of public opinion, there was no way he could say a word against nationalisation".

Problems

The coup's trigger is agreed to have been the nationalisation of the oil industry announced by Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1951. Charlotte Dennett notes that the coup was planned since this date and so the role of the Seven Sisters should not be underestimated.[3] As with the ensuing 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état, US "national security" appears to have overlapped very largely with the private commercial interest of the rich elite who were in a position to command the CIA. To see the coup as organised by MI6 or the CIA is therefore probably a mistake.

 

Related Quotations

PageQuoteAuthorDate
1951“The oil cartel or deep state initiated in 1951 a process [to remove Mossadeq from power] that the American public state only authorised [through the CIA] two years later”Peter Dale Scott2015
Bilderberg/1954“Americans saw that firm Western action in Persia, Berlin, and Korea had produced successful results and they therefore believed in continuing a firm policy.”1954
Iran“Two years after Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh nationalized Iran’s oil industry that had been controlled by the company now known as British Petroleum a coup happened in Iran. “If nationalisation in Iran of oil was successful, this would set a terrible example to other countries where U.S. oil interests were present,” explains Ervand Abrahamian, Iranian historian and author of Oil Crisis in Iran: From Nationalism to Coup d’Etat and The Coup: 1953, The CIA, and the Roots of Modern U.S.-Iranian Relations. While the CIA has historically taken credit for Mosaddegh’s overthrow, “the British have not admitted their leading role,” notes Iranian filmmaker Taghi Amirani, whose documentary film Coup 53 uncovers the influence of MI6 agents who sought to preserve their imperial-era access to Iranian oil and pulled in the Americans by promising a “slice.” Seventy years later, says Amirani, “We are still living with the ripples of this disastrous event”Democracy Now!2023

 

Related Document

TitleTypePublication dateAuthor(s)Description
Document:The Coup in Iran 1953book extract12 February 2007Mark Curtis
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