In “All the Shah’s Man” by Stephen Kinzer, Kinzer mentioned about a coup that happened in 1953. The British was controlling the oil industry that got nationalized by Mossadegh. The British decided to ask the Americans for help to overthrow Mossadegh. They planned the coup thoroughly. They asked the Shah for cooperation and to sign the documents that helped them remove Mossadegh from his position as prime minister. The coup was led by Kermit Roosevelt. The British and America planned to use the propaganda to weaken Mossadegh politically, convinced the shah to support them, and bribed parliament members to help them out. Mossadegh got weaker and lost his publicity and power towards the end. Prime Minister of Iran, Mohammed Mosssadegh, nationalized the oil industry that the British have been controlling for a long time. The British was not happy with what Mossadegh was doing. Thus, the British wants to overthrow Mossadegh and replace him with a better prime minister that will cooperate with them more. As Kinzer stated, “British agents began conspiring to overthrow Mossadegh soon after he nationalized oil industry.” However, Mossadegh figured out their plans and decided to order “the British embassy shut” (3). In …show more content…
According to Kinzer, “the coup bought the United States and the West a reliable Iran for twenty-five years” (215) meaning that the coup only helped Iran for only twenty-five years. After Mossadegh surrendered and got replaced by the new Prime Minister, Fazlollah Zahedi. Zahedi started to think like Mossadegh, he believed that he should be free to run his own governments. (198) Then he got sent abroad to Geneva by the Shah. The Shah finally gained power back. The United States sent over $1 billion aid to Mohammad Reza Shah. However, Shah turned Iranians against him. Shah was soon overthrown. (202) Kinzer ended the chapter with “Operation Ajax has left a haunting and terrible legacy”