ANALYSIS
Anniversaries have a way of concentrating our minds on important events, but most Americans paid little attention to a certain date in history when it crossed their calendars this month.
On Aug. 19, 1953, the CIA toppled Iran’s democratic prime minister Mohammad Mossadegh and installed the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, an event whose consequences continue to haunt U.S.-Iran relations to this day.
For Iran, the detested shah’s rule, backed by billions of dollars in U.S. military aid, led to an Islamic Revolution in 1979. For the U.S., the 1953 coup was the first such operation pulled off by the new CIA, which under the next eight years of the Eisenhower administration conducted dozens of covert operations in 48 countries, according to historian Alfred McCoy. Meddling in the internal affairs of other nations would become standard U.S. procedure during the Cold War following the “success” of 1953.
In this episode of History As It Happens, Eurasia Group oil historian Gregory Brew discusses the remarkable series of events that led to Mossadegh’s demise and the consequences for Iranian politics in the aftermath.
“This year does mark the 70th anniversary of the coup against Mohammad Mossadegh.… The coup is an infamous incident in U.S.-Iranian relations. It has a complicated, contested legacy particularly among Iranians but also among scholars and historians.… It’s also a flashpoint in the early Cold War,” said Mr. Brew, the author of “The Struggle For Iran: Oil, Autocracy & the Cold War, 1951-1954.”
History As It Happens is available at washingtontimes.com or wherever you find your podcasts.
