As tension between the United States and Iran grows knottier seemingly by the day, commentary on the situation is often historically shortsighted, characterizing the Iranian revolution of 1979 — which established the Islamic Republic — as essentially unique. The overthrow of the shah, however, came 26 years after the CIA orchestrated a coup against Mohammed Mossadeq, Iran's democratically elected prime minister. The excerpt below is from a secret CIA history of its operation and was made public in 2000, thanks to a Freedom of Information lawsuit brought by the National Security Archive, an independent research institute and library at The George Washington University. As calls for military action against Iran grow louder today, it is useful to learn more about what happened under similar circumstances yesterday.
By the end of 1952, it had become clear that the Mossadeq government in Iran was incapable of reaching an oil settlement with interested Western countries; was reaching a dangerous and advanced stage of illegal, deficit financing; was disregarding the Iranian constitution in prolonging Premier Mohammed Mossadeq's tenure of office; was motivated mainly by Mossadeq's desire for personal power; was governed by irresponsible policies based on emotion; has weakened the Shah and the Iranian Army to a dangerous degree; and had cooperated closely with the Tudeh (Communist) Party of Iran. … No remedial action other than the covert action plan set forth below could be found to improve the existing state of affairs.
It was the aim of the TPAJAX project to cause the fall of the Mossadeq government; to reestablish the prestige and power of the Shah; and to replace the Mossadeq government with one which would govern Iran according to constructive policies. Specifically, the aim was to bring to power a government which would reach an equitable oil settlement, enabling Iran to become economically sound and financially solvent, and which would vigorously prosecute the dangerously strong Communist Party.
–—From Clandestine Service History: Overthrow of Premier Mossadeq of Iran: November 1952-August 1953, written by Dr. Donald Wilber in March 1954
Source: nsarchive.org.
This article appears in Mar 7-13, 2007.