U.S. and Iranian relations, especially in the Middle East, are quite tense as most are aware. Although, these tensions are not a recent development. The groundwork for this tension was laid 12 presidents and almost 70 years ago. We recently took a look back at how Egypt, and their cotton, helped the Union win the Civil War. In this article we are going to take another look back in time, to 1953, when the U.S. had a hand in creating the current instability in the Middle East.

The 1950’s were an interesting time in the United States. World War II was completed, the economy was booming, people were moving to the suburbs, and the US held the most powerful military in the world. Having a strong economy, booming industry and automobile markets, and running the equipment of the largest military in the world all had one thing in common. Oil. 12 years earlier oil was discovered by an American company in a far away, poor, desert country full of tribes and pilgrims. This place, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, hadn’t even been a country but for a few years. In 1951 the Arabian American Oil Company struck oil at the Safaniya Oil Field, the largest offshore oil field in the entire world.

The British had a jump start on the Americans in the search for oil. Having the largest Navy in the world around the turn of the century, the British needed large amounts of oil to keep the ships running. They made the first significant oil find in the Middle East when they struck oil in 1908 in Iran. Thus the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company was created and the British were drilling for and pumping oil in Iran.

By the 1950’s, oil had taken its place as king. The West controlled almost all of the Middle Eastern oil. 1950 the U.S. agreed to share profits after Saudi Arabia requested it. A 50/50 split of the profits was agreed upon. When Iran made the same request of the British, they would not give in to their pressure. In 1951 Mohammad Mossadegh was elected Prime Minister of Iran. As a result of Great Britain’s refusal to share in oil profits with Iran, he completely nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, with the government of Iran taking over full control. England requested the U.S.’help to restore the company back under British control, but Harry Truman and the U.S. elected not to help.

That all changed with Dwight Eisenhower being elected President in 1952. Eisenhower, a hero general of WWII, was a fierce anti-communist. The British made the same appeal to Eisenhower for help that they had made to Truman. By this time, British and CIA intelligence had information that Mossadegh had communist leanings and could be taken over by the Soviets. England also wanted their cheap oil back, as well as the U.S.’S help in keeping the Soviets away from the Persian Gulf, where most of the U.S.’s, England’s, and the worlds oil flowed from.

With Mossadegh coming to power in Iran, he also set out to weaken the power of the Shah, or king, of Iran. The Shah of Iran was Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. Pahlavi had always been a friend of the United States and western powers. With Mossadegh now in charge, the Shah’s influence and power was severely limited, even to the point where he would flee the country for long periods of time.

So in 1953 the U.S. and the British set out to overthrow Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh and restore the rule of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. Both world powers believed that restoring the monarchy in Iran would be much friendlier to western interests during the upcoming Cold War, as well as keeping them supplied with Middle Eastern oil. This Coup or Iranian regime change was laid at the feet of the CIA station chief in Iran. That person was one Kermit Roosevelt, the grandson of former U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt.

The plan was titled “Operation Ajax”. Kermit was funneled millions of dollars by the CIA to influence the populace, the religious leaders, and the military to support the Shah and turn against Prime Minister Mossadegh. Early in the operation, Shah Pahlavi did not support a potential coup when the plan was presented to him, but things quickly changed. Mossadegh issued a decree dissolving the Iranian Parliament and giving himself and his appointed cabinet all the power. This pretty well stripped the Shah of all remaining power he once held. At this point he finally agreed to the plan.

Kermit and his fellow operatives were able to conduct several activities with the stacks of cash they had been handed. The majority of the funds were used for bribes. The CIA decided to use the military to stage the coup, therefore an appropriate military predecessor for Mossadegh had to be identified. One was found in General Fazollah Zahedi and his followers. Funded through the foreign intelligence services, he agreed to help overthrow the Prime Minister.

The bribe money was then used in several different areas focusing on the public. Iran already had some public tension inside the country. Mossadegh’s government was heading more towards a democratic government. Some in the population agreed with that, but many wanted a religious Islamic government in place ruled by the Ayatollahs. The Shah had even dismissed Mossadegh once in 1952, just the previous year, but reinstated him after much public outcry. Kermit and the CIA were able to seize the opportunity revolving around this public discourse. They were able to bride prominent businessmen, news organizations to run several anti-Mossadegh stories, and street thugs and individuals to stir up public protests and riots. Even bussing them in from different towns to the capital of Tehran.

As a result, fierce protests broke out between the paid protesters, pro-Shah groups, religious hard-liners; and those favorable to Mossadegh and his party members. On August 15th , 1953, Kermit set in motion the plan for the Iranian military to take over the government. Unfortunately for the CIA, Mossadegh got wind of the plan, and started having prominent military leaders arrested. The plan to reinstate the Shah looked doomed. The U.S. government in turn sent a cable to Iran on August 18th to shut down the plan and withdraw from the country. They did not want the U.S. tied to the coup, and decided it was time to forget the plan rather than have their involvement be exposed by a second failure.

According to released CIA documents, Roosevelt received this cable, but after all the hard groundwork he had laid for months, chose to ignore the instructions and give Operation Ajax one final shot to be completed. General Zahedi had gone into hiding and escaped the arrests, so Kermit felt hope was still alive to achieve their goals. On August 19th , more violent protests irrupted. They involved destruction, vandalism, and looting, resulting in a few hundred deaths. Later in the day General Zahedi and his army entered the city to squelch the protests, and in doing so took over all the government buildings. They then had Prime Minister Mohammad Mossedegh arrested on treason charges.

At that time the U.S. officials with Shah Pahlavi had him sign decrees dismissing Mossadegh as Prime Minister, and another decree appointing General Fazlollah Zahedi as the new Prime Minister of Iran. And the Shah was reinstated and entered Iran once again. The monarchy had been restored.

As a result of the successful coup, it set into motion a series of feelings and events that would last for decades. In the immediate future, the British were able to regain their oil facilities and the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company began pumping once again. The next year in 1954 they changed their name to British Petroleum or BP. The Shah also signed over 40% of Iran’s oil fields to U.S. companies, allowing them to enter into the Anglo-Iranian company, as well as the profits finally being shared with Iran. These funds helped Iran get out of their economic crisis.

Mossadegh was arrested and jailed for three years. He later died under house arrest where he spent the rest of his life after imprisonment. The U.S. was able to have the Shah and Iran as a Middle Eastern communist buffer and big ally during the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s Cold War. The U.S. sent Iran millions of dollars in military and economic aid during those three decades. Iran never did become the communist country that many feared it could, but the coup fueled a strong underlying sense of nationalism that simmered just below the surface for decades.

With the U.S. experiencing their first successful coup and regime change of another country, they were then confident enough to stage future coups in Guatemala, Indonesia, and Cuba in the coming decades. In 1979 that strong underlying sense of Iranian Nationalism would spring up stronger than ever. In 1979 public outcry for the removal of the Shah and for a government of Islamic law was seen and heard throughout Iran. The monarchy was dissolved in early 1979, ending 2,500 years of continuous Persian monarchy rule. The Shah fled the country and was eventually admitted to the United States to undergo cancer treatment. On November 4th, 1979 revolutionaries stormed the U.S. Embassy holding hostages there until 1981. In December Ayatollah Khomeini established Iran as an Islamic Republic and appointed himself the 1st Supreme Leader of Iran.

Since this point in time, U.S. and Iranian relations have been strained or non-existent. They are still furious with the “Great Satan” due to our meddling in their affairs and putting in place what they saw as a U.S. puppet leader in the Shah. While the U.S. and Iran certainly have vast value and religious differences, those are often not the reason for Middle Eastern hatred as the media often portrays it. Religious differences are an easy argument, whereas deeper issues such as regime change and support for Israel are often the real cause for Iranian hatred. With Iran and Israel currently having conflicts in Syria, and the U.S. dealing with Iranian proxy armies in Syria and Iraq, it doesn’t seem like this problem will be resolved quickly. Hopefully it isn’t another 70 years of open conflict and hostility.

Sources:
Allen-Ebrahimian, Bethany, “64 Years Later, CIA Finally Releases Details of Iranian Coup”, foreignpolicy.com, 6-20-17
Dehghan, Saeed Kamali; Norton-Taylor, Richard, “CIA admits role in 1953 Iranian Coup”, theguardian.com, 8-19-13.
History.com, “CIA-assisted coup otherthrows government of Iran”
Kinzer, Stephen, “All The Shah’s Men”, 2003
McQuade, Joseph, “How the CIA toppled Iranian democracy”, theconversation.com, 6-24-17
Nytimes.com, “Key Events in the 1953 Coup”, 2000