1953 Iranian Coup Essay

Researchers who are studying the 1953 Iranian Coup, or operation AJAX as it is known, have speculated and often wondered what the involvement of the United States CIA and British Intelligence truly was. Why did this have to have taken place in the first place is often asked. What was so critical in this sphere of the world that made the world powers of the United States and Great Britain deem it necessary to get rid of the lawfully elected prime minister at the time, Mohammad Mossadeq, and impart their own choice for this position while propping up the Shah? This was a time when the British Empire was unraveling. Newly elected British prime minister Winston Churchill, “was committed to stopping his country’s empire from unraveling further.” (Kinzer) Truman was far from convinced of the British line and fear mongering that Mossadeq was a communist. He did not hold the belief that Mosaddeq was a radical or someone you could not deal with. Nobody in the United States really believed that Mossadeq was a

This was a democratically elected official that for reasons essentially of greed was deemed unacceptable to the powers that be in the British and American governments. This coup and its actions have been well known and written about for over 65 years, including President Barack Obama acknowledged the United States' involvement in a 2009 speech given in Cairo. “Until the Eisenhower administration the US government was in favor of Mossadeq, as they viewed his government as a balance to Soviet influence in the area. But Eisenhower’s administration was weary of nationalism in the third world, sympathetic to “oil interests” and concerned with what it perceived as the spread of communism. Due to this policy shift, the CIA agreed to help MI6.” (coldwar.org) The changing of administrations from Truman to Eisenhower greatly affected this whole