The official podcast of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) “The Langley Files: CIA’s podcast” recently had an episode about Operation Argo and gave some background to the CIA and the coup in Iran in 1953 against the democratically elected government of Mohammad Mosaddegh
A few minutes in, the CIA historian Brent openly declares the Coup happened because “President Eisenhower made the decision to stage a covert action in Iran in 1953 to remove the prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, and the reason he did that was because Mosaddegh had nationalised Iran’s oil” the host then states that “Most CIA covert actions … actually not only didn’t counter democratically elected or popularly elected governments but in many cases actually bolstered them we should acknowledge though that this is, therefore, a really significant exception to that rule”.
This idea of the US bolstering democratic governments is completely untrue. The CIA’s support for fascism with the Junta of Greece and Chile or the Grey Wolves of Turkey clearly didn’t bolster the nation’s democratic governments. The CIA was created with the primary task of fighting democratic mass movements that threatened private capital, mainly Socialism and Communism.
The podcast episode does not go into any more detail about Iran as it’s more beneficial to keep people ignorant than to try and explain the absolutely diabolical acts of the CIA in Iran.
The Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) was the most profitable British business in the world and instead of the profits from the oil going to the desperately poor nation of Iran to build roads, schools, hospitals and other vital infrastructure it actually went to the British government. The growth of Arab nationalism led to the Arabian-American oil company agreeing to a 50-50 split in profits with the Saudi government in December 1950. This led to some in the Iranian Government proposing a similar idea to the British Foreign Office and the AIOC but they rejected the idea.
This growing sense of anti-imperialism in the Arab world and the unflinching attitude of the British led to the Iranian parliament agreeing to nationalise the AIOC in March 1951. However, Mossadegh did try to placate the British. He offered 25% of the net profits to the British, guaranteed the safety of British jobs and much more but this was all rejected. The British started an international blockade and boycott and it froze Iranian assets which practically stopped Iran’s oil exports.
However, the economic warfare didn’t work since the nationalisation was incredibly popular among the Iranian proletariat which meant there was no going back. The British, with the help of the CIA, decided they needed to overthrow Mossadegh.
The defacto head of the CIA Middle East division Kermit Roosevelt had assured the Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi that both Winston Churchill and Dwight Eisenhower would provide any military and political support needed for the overthrow of Mossadegh. This would culminate with the Shah issuing a royal decree dismissing Mossadegh as prime minister on the 14th of August 1953 and replacing him with Fazlollah Zahedi, a collaborator with the Nazis during World War 2. However, Mossadegh did not resign as he declared only the parliament could dismiss him. Mossadegh then made a radio announcement denouncing the attempted coup.
This utterly embarrassing failure led to the Shah fleeing to Rome. This was not the end however as on the 19th of August the CIA-sponsored protests led to a military coup which practically gave the Shah unchecked power. He would become the United States’ closest ally in the Middle East. Some liberals tend to look at the Shah’s regime and view it kindly for its progressive treatment of women which is in stark contrast to the current regime of Ayatollah Khamenei. However, this is incredibly ignorant. The regime of the Shah saw the creation of SAVAK, the Iranian secret police, renowned for human rights abuses. As Amnesty International noted in 1976, “[N]o country in the world has a worse record of human rights than Iran” A description of their activities shows the brutality of SAVAK. “they would start … breaking bones, pulling out fingernails, forcing hands into hot ovens, drilling into the living skull and scores of other brutalities–in the end, when the victim had gone mad with pain and become a smashed, bloody mass, they would proceed to establish identity. Name? Address?”
