CIA & Overthrow of the Iranian Government

In 2000, the New York Times published an extensive article outlining the role of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in the 1953 overthrow of the Iranian government of Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh, a leading proponent of nationalizing the oil industry in Iran (Walsh). It had long been know that the American and British governments were behind the coup, which restored the Shah Mohammed Reza Pazhlavi to power. The timing of the article is interesting, since it is known that the U.S. and Iranian governments were, at the time the document was released, trying to effect some sort of rapproachment. A month before the document was released, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had announced the lifting of a ban on the import of Iranian luxury goods, She said that the U.S. government wanted a new relationship with Teheran. She acknowledged the role of the U.S. in the 1953 coup, saying it was clearly a setback for Iran's political development, and it was easy to see why many Iranians continue to resent the American intervention in their internal affairs.

The overthrow of Mossadegh was a turning point in modern Iranian history, and is a persistent irritant in Iranian-U.S. affairs (Walsh). The article blames the anti-American strand in Iranian government policy following the coming to power of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979 on the earlier coup and America's long history of supporting the shah. The shah's regime was a central component of U.S. strategy in the M

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gion (Walsh). Although there was no way to restore the colonial rule that had prevailed before the war, the great powers were working on new political arrangements that would allow them to maintain their economic dominance. The proximity of the USSR also played a role in their thinking. The plans for a coup were boosted in March 1953 when an Iranian general approached the U.S. embassy about support for an army-led coup. In April, CIA chief Allen W. Dulles, authorized $1 million to be spent to bring down Mossadegh. An initial coup plan was drawn up when British and U.S. intelligence officials met in Cyprus in May 1953. The CIA began distributing "gray propaganda" in the streets of Tehran, with anti-government cartoons, and they planted unflattering articles in the local press. In June, 1963, British and American officials finalized their coup plan at a meeting in Beirut (Walsh). President Roosevelt's grandson, Kermit Roosevelt, went to Iran to oversee the implementation of the coup. The most trouble the CIA had was in convincing the shah ro go along with the idea, and they sent General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, father of the Persian Gulf general, to help get the shah to cooperate. The British also tried to persuade him. On

Category: Government - C