1953, Iran: Coup Returns Shah in "Operation TPAJAX"

By David Walsh

     The U.S. and British governments were behind the 1953 overthrow of Iran's democratically-elected government of Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh.  This coup removed a leading proponent of nationalizing the oil industry and restored Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.  On April 16, 2000, the New York Times published an extensive article, outlining the nuts and bolts of CIA's role in the affair.

      According to the CIA's own history, written in 1954 by Donald Wilber, one of the coup's planners, the idea was proposed to the CIA by British intelligence in 1952.  British interests had retained control of Iran's oil fields after WWII through the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.  The Iranian parliament's decision to take over the oil industry, a struggle identified with Mossadegh, infuriated U.K. officials.

      The U.S. and British governments saw in the Mossadegh regime, and popular forces behind it, a threat to their interests.  While unable to restore colonial rule that prevailed before WWII, they were working out new political arrangements to enable them to maintain their economic dominance.

      In 1953, an Iranian general approached the U.S. embassy about supporting a coup.  CIA chief Allen Dulles authorized $1 million to "bring about the fall of Mossadegh."  An initial plan was drawn up at a gathering of U.S. and British intelligence officials in Cyprus.  The CIA began distributing propaganda in Tehran, including anti-government cartoons, and "planting unflattering articles in the local press."

      In June, British and U.S. officials finalized their plan at a meeting in Beirut.  Kermit Roosevelt, grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt, went to Iran to oversee its implementation.  On July 11, President Dwight Eisenhower signed off on the plan.

      The CIA's primary difficulty was convincing the shah to join the plot.  General Norman Schwarzkopf, father of the Gulf War commander, was enlisted to gain the shah's cooperation.

      One of the CIA's dirty tricks was to have agents pretend to be Iranian Communists and threaten Moslem leaders with "savage punishment if they opposed Mossadegh."  The house of at least one prominent religious leader was bombed by CIA agents posing as communists.

      On August 3, Roosevelt had a "long and inconclusive session with the shah," during which he told the latter "that failure to act could lead only to a communist Iran or to a second Korea."  Eight days later, the shah signed decrees dismissing Mossadegh and installing General Zahedi as head of government.

      The coup was scheduled for August 15, but it was compromised when Mossadegh learn-ed of the plan and pro-shah forces sent to arrest the prime minister were imprisoned.  Tehran radio announced that a coup attempt had failed.  Roosevelt and the CIA, however, continued to believe that the coup could succeed.

      CIA press manipulation played a role.  Coup plotters planted stories in the Associated Press about the signed decrees and the dismissal of Mossadegh.  Kenneth Love of the New York Times wrote an article about the decrees, when shown the shah's statements by a CIA agent posing as the U.S. embassy's press officer.

      Pro-shah forces began their counterattack, planning a new coup attempt for August 19.  A leading cleric from Tehran was sent to the holy city of Qum to "call for a holy war against Communism."  Key army officers visited army garrisons to convince commanders to join the uprising.

      On August 19, the army swung into action.  "There were pro-shah truckloads of military personnel at all the main squares," says Wilber.  The central telegraph office fell and telegrams were sent throughout the country urging support for the shah.  Tehran radio fell into the army's hands and pro-shah speakers broadcast the coup's success.  Mossadegh and others were arrested.  Persecution of the Tudeh party and others began in earnest.

      Wilber wrote: "It was a day that....carried such a sense of excitement, satisfaction and jubilation that it is doubtful whether any other can come up to it."  The day marking the beginning of a 26-year nightmare for the Iranian people under one of the cruelest regimes on earth, evoked "excitement" and "jubilation" in the chief representative of the U.S. .  All the chatter, past and present, about 'democracy' and the 'free world' collapses in the face of this response.

      The shah's regime was a central component of U.S. strategy in the Middle East over 25 years.  Iran was a key and dependable oil producer; a chief source of oil for Israel and South Africa.  The U.S. military and the CIA operated bases in Iran to gather intelligence against the USSR.  The shah's military was used against national liberation struggles in the Persian Gulf region.  U.S. advisers trained the hated SAVAK secret police, who arrested, tortured and murdered thousands.  U.S. presidents Kennedy, Nixon and Carter all feted the shah or were feted by him.

Source: "Report details CIA role in overthrow of Iranian government in 1953," World Socialist Web Site, April 19, 2000.

www.wsws.org/articles/2000/apr2000/iran-a19_prn.shtml

For more details, read declassified doc-uments at National Security Archives web site

www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB28/index.html

Shah Mohammed Reza

SAVAK, the dreaded Iranian secret police, was set up by the shah in the late 1950's with CIA help.  The CIA held seminars "based on German torture techniques from WWII," said Jesse Leaf, chief CIA analyst in Iran (1968-1973).

Source: Seymour Hersh, New York Times, Jan. 7, 1979.