Shah Pahlavi
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gillette had big factory there
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https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/173944
chase manhat david rockefeller?
rebroadcast hr long interview
https://kpfa.org/episode/voices-of-the-middle-east-and-north-africa-august-11-2017/
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booktv 1/20
Stephen Kinzer, "All the Shah's Men"Stephen Kinzer discussed his book, "All the Shah's Men: An American Coup…
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat
1953 Iranian coup d'état
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| 1953 Iranian coup d'état | 1953 Iranian coup d'état |
|---|---|
Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, deposed by coup |
Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, deposed by coup |
| 15–20 August 1953 | The overthrow by the U.S. administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, and replacement by Gen. Fazlollah Zahedi on 19 August 1953. |
| Belligerents | Belligerents |
[ | [ [ |
| Commanders | Commanders |
 Fazlollah Zahedi |
](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:State_Flag_of_Iran_%281925%29.svg) Supporters of 
](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:State_Flag_of_Iran_%281925%29.svg) Supporters of 
](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:State_Flag_of_Iran_%281925%29.svg) The 1953 Iranian coup d'état, on August 19, 1953 (and called the 28 Mordad coup d'état in Iran), was the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh.
The intelligence agencies of the United Kingdom and the United States supported and financed the coup.[1]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat#cite_note-0) The crushing of Iran's government launched 25 years of dictatorship under Mohammad-Rezā Shāh Pahlavi, who relied heavily on U.S.-trained secret police SAVAK[2]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat#cite_note-1) and U.S.-supplied weapons to hold on to power until he was overthrown in February 1979.[3]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat#cite_note-2) "For many Iranians, the coup demonstrated duplicity by the United States, which presented itself as a defender of freedom but did not hesitate to use underhanded methods to overthrow a democratically elected government to suit its own economic and strategic interests", the Agence France-Presse reported.[4]
In 1951 with near unanimous support of Iran's parliament, Mosaddegh nationalized the British-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC). "The 1933 agreement under which it was operating was widely regarded as exploitative and an infringement on Iran's sovereignty.[5]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat#cite_note-4)[^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat#cite_note-spectre-5)6]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat#cite_note-spectre-5) Iran's oil was the British government's single largest overseas investment.[7]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat#cite_note-6) Moreover, the AIOC had consistently violated the terms of the 1933 agreement and was reluctant to renegotiate, even as Iran's movement for nationalization grew in the late 1940s.[8]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat#cite_note-7) Even though AIOC was highly profitable, "its Iranian workers were poorly paid and lived in squalid conditions." The AIOC, which was 51 percent owned by the British government, bankrolled disruptive tribal elements in Iran, some politicians and clergy with the purpose of bringing down the government. Iranians blamed Britain for most of its problems and public support for nationalization was strong.[9]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat#cite_note-8) Despite Mosaddegh's popular support, Britain was unwilling to negotiate its single most valuable foreign asset, and instigated a military blockade of Iran and worldwide boycott of Iranian oil to pressure Iran economically.[10]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat#cite_note-9) Initially, Britain mobilized its military to seize control of the Abadan oil refinery, the world's largest, but Prime Minister Attlee opted instead to tighten the economic boycott.[11]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat#cite_note-10) With a change to more conservative governments in both Britain and the United States, Churchill and Dwight D. Eisenhower decided to overthrow Iran's government.[12]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat#cite_note-11)
The U.S. spy agency tried to persuade Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to dismiss Mosaddegh, and at first he refused. The Central Intelligence Agency pressured the weak monarch while bribing street thugs, clergy, politicians and Iranian army officers to take part in a propaganda campaign against Mosaddegh and his government.[13]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat#cite_note-12) At first, the coup appeared to fail when, on the night of August 15–16, 1953, Imperial Guard Colonel Nematollah Nassiri was arrested while attempting to arrest Mosaddegh. The Shah fled the country the next day. On August 19, a pro-Shah mob, paid by the CIA, marched on Mosaddegh's residence.[14]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat#cite_note-13) Mosaddegh was arrested, tried and convicted of treason by the Shah's military court. On December 21, 1953, he was sentenced to solitary confinement in a jail cell in Central Teheran for three years, then placed under house arrest for the remainder of his life.[15]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat#cite_note-14)[^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat#cite_note-15)16]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat#cite_note-15)[^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat#cite_note-16)17]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat#cite_note-16) Mosaddegh's supporters were rounded up, imprisoned, tortured, or executed. The minister of Foreign Affairs and the closest associate of Mosaddegh, Hossein Fatemi, was executed on Oct. 29, 1953 by order of the Shah's military court. [18]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat#cite_note-17) "The triumphant Shah (Pahlavi) ordered the execution of several dozen military officers and student leaders who had been closely associated with Mohammad Mossadegh... Soon afterward and with help from the CIA and the Israeli intelligence agency,**Mossad**, the Shah created a secret police force called Savak, which became infamous for its brutality."[19]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat#cite_note-18)
In the wake of the coup, Britain and the U.S. selected Fazlollah Zahedi to be the next prime minister of a military government. Pahlevi made the appointment but dismissed him two years later. Pahlevi ruled as an authoritarian monarch for the next 26 years, until he was overthrown in a popular revolt in 1979.[20]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat#cite_note-19) The tangible benefits the United States reaped from overthrowing Iran's elected government was a share of Iran's oil wealth.[21]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat#cite_note-20) Washington supplied arms to the unpopular ruler, Pahlavi, and the CIA trained SAVAK, his repressive police. In *Foreign Policy* magazine, former CIA agent Richard Cottam wrote that "The shah's defense program, his industrial and economic transactions, and his oil policy were all considered by most Iranians to be faithful executions of American instructions."[22]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat#cite_note-21) The coup is widely believed to have significantly contributed to the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which deposed the Shah and replaced the pro-Western royal dictatorship with the anti-Western Islamic Republic of Iran.[23^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat#cite_note-Middle_East_Studies_1987.2C_p.261-22)---
^david ^rockefeller ^req ^shah ^come ^to ^US ^for ^Rx
^panama
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Oil nationalization and the 1953 coup
Main article: 1953 Iranian coup d'état
By the early 1950s, the political crisis brewing in Iran commanded the attention of British and American policy leaders. In 1951 Dr. Mosaddegh was appointed Prime Minister and committed to nationalizing the Iranian petroleum industry controlled by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. Under the leadership of the nationalist movement of Dr. Mohammed Mosaddeq, the Iranian parliament unanimously voted to nationalize the oil industry – thus shutting out the immensely profitable Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), which was a pillar of Britain's economy and provided it political clout in the region.
At the start of the confrontation, American political sympathy was forthcoming from the Truman Administration. In particular, Mossadegh was buoyed by the advice and counsel he was receiving from American Ambassador in Tehran, Henry Grady. However, eventually American decision-makers lost their patience, and by the time a Republican Administration came to office fears that the Communists were poised to overthrow the government became an all consuming concern. Shortly prior to the 1952 presidential elections in the US, the British government invited Kermit Roosevelt, Jr., of the CIA to London to propose collaboration on a secret code named "Operation Ajax" to force Mosaddegh from office.[5]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad-Rez%C4%81_Sh%C4%81h_Pahlavi#cite_note-4)
Under the direction of Kermit Roosevelt, Jr., a senior Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer and grandson of former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, the American CIA and British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) funded and led a covert operation to depose Mosaddegh with the help of military forces loyal to the Shah. Referred to as Operation Ajax.[6]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad-Rez%C4%81_Sh%C4%81h_Pahlavi#cite_note-5) The plot hinged on orders signed by the Shah to dismiss Mosaddegh as prime minister and replace him with General Fazlollah Zahedi – a choice agreed on by the British and Americans.
Despite the high-level coordination and planning, the coup initially failed, causing the Shah to flee to Baghdad, then Rome. As was his inclination in his later political life, the Shah was riddled with indecision when confronted by a political crisis. After a brief exile in Italy, the Shah returned to Iran, this time through a successful second attempt at a coup. A deposed Mosaddegh was arrested, subjected to a show trial, and sentenced to three years of solitary confinement in a military prison, followed by house arrest for life. Zahedi was installed to succeed Prime Minister Mosaddegh.[7]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad-Rez%C4%81_Sh%C4%81h_Pahlavi#cite_note-Pollack_72-3-6)
Before the first attempted coup, the American Embassy in Tehran reported that Mosaddegh's popular support remained robust. The Prime Minister requested direct control of the army from the Majlis. Given the situation, alongside the strong personal support of Eden and Churchill for covert action, the American government gave the go-ahead to a committee, attended by the Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, Director of Central Intelligence Allen Dulles, Kermit Roosevelt, Ambassador Henderson, and Secretary of Defense Charles Erwin Wilson. Kermit Roosevelt returned to Iran on 13 July 1953, and again on 1 August 1953, in his first meeting with the Shah. A car picked him up at midnight and drove him to the palace. He lay down on the seat and covered himself with a blanket as guards waved his driver through the gates. The Shah got into the car and Roosevelt explained the mission. The CIA provided $1 million in Iranian currency, which Roosevelt had stored in a large safe – a bulky cache, given the exchange rate at the time of 1000 rial to 15 dollars.[8]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad-Rez%C4%81_Sh%C4%81h_Pahlavi#cite_note-7)
The Communists staged massive demonstrations to hijack the Prime Minister’s initiatives. The United States had announced its total lack of confidence in him; and his followers were drifting into indifference. On 16 August 1953, the right wing of the Army reacted. Armed with an order by the Shah, it appointed General Fazlollah Zahedi as prime minister. A coalition of mobs and retired officers close to the Palace attempted what could be described as a coup d’état. They failed dismally and the Shah fled the country in humiliating haste. Even *Ettelaat*, the nation’s largest daily newspaper, and its pro-Shah publisher, Abbas Masudi, published negative commentaries on him.[9]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad-Rez%C4%81_Sh%C4%81h_Pahlavi#cite_note-8)
During the following two days, the Communists turned against Mosaddegh. They roamed Tehran raising red flags and pulling down statues of Reza Shah. This frightened the conservative clerics like Kashani and National Front leaders like Makki, who sided with the Shah. On 18 August 1953, Mosaddegh hit back. Tudeh Partisans were clubbed and dispersed.[10]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad-Rez%C4%81_Sh%C4%81h_Pahlavi#cite_note-9)
Tudeh had no choice but to accept defeat. In the meantime, according to the CIA plot, Zahedi appealed to the military, and claimed to be the legitimate prime minister and charged Mosaddegh with staging a coup by ignoring the Shah’s decree. Zahedi’s son Ardeshir acted as the contact between the CIA and his father. On 19 August 1953, pro-Shah partisans - organized with $100,000 in CIA funds - finally appeared and marched out of south Tehran into the city center, where others joined in. Gangs with clubs, knives, and rocks controlled the streets, overturning Tudeh trucks and beating up anti-Shah activists. As Roosevelt was congratulating Zahedi in the basement of his hiding place, the new Prime Minister’s mobs burst in and carried him upstairs on their shoulders. That evening, Ambassador Henderson suggested to Ardashir that Mosaddegh not be harmed. Roosevelt gave Zahedi US$900,000 left from Operation Ajax funds.
To many, U.S. actions further solidified sentiments that the West was a meddlesome influence in Iranian politics. In the year 2000, reflecting on this notion, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright stated:
"In 1953 the United States played a significant role in orchestrating the overthrow of Iran's popular Prime Minister, Mohammed Mossadegh. The Eisenhower Administration believed its actions were justified for strategic reasons; but the coup was clearly a setback for Iran's political development. And it is easy to see now why many Iranians continue to resent this intervention by America in their internal affairs."[11]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad-Rez%C4%81_Sh%C4%81h_Pahlavi#cite_note-10)
The Shah returned to power, but never extended the elite status of the court to the technocrats and intellectuals who emerged from Iranian and Western universities. Indeed, his system irritated the new classes, for they were barred from partaking in real power.[12]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad-Rez%C4%81_Sh%C4%81h_Pahlavi#cite_note-11)