1953 Iranian coup d'état

The 1953 Iranian coup d état deposed the democratically elected government of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq. The United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) overthrew the government of the popular Prime Minister Mosaddeq at the request of, and with minor support from the British government. In what the CIA called Operation Ajax, the U.S. enabled Mohammed Reza Pahlevi to become an all-powerful monarch, who went on to rule Iran with an iron fist for 26 years until he was overthrown in 1979. Two years earlier, in 1951, Mosaddeq, backed by his nationalist supporters in the Iranian parliament and throughout Iran, had angered Britain with his argument that Iran should begin profiting from its vast oil reserves instead of allowing profits to continue to flow to Britain. In 1951, Iran's Parliament, the Majlis, nationalized Iran's oil industry and then elected Mosaddeq to be prime minster. Since 1913, the oil industry in Iran had been controlled exclusively by the British government-controlled Anglo- Iranian Oil Company, the UK's single largest overseas investment. The ejection of the British staff of the Anglo- Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) from the now nationalized refineries in Iran triggered the Abadan Crisis, bringing the UK and Iran close to war.[8] Britain accused Mosaddeq of violating the legal rights of the AIOC and mobilized a worldwide boycott of Iran's oil that plunged Iran into financial crisis. The British government tried to enlist the United States in planning a coup, but President Harry S. Truman refused. His successor, Dwight D. Eisenhower, however, allowed the CIA to embark on its first covert operation against a foreign government.

Klappentext

The 1953 Iranian coup d'état deposed the democratically elected government of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq. The United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) overthrew the government of the popular Prime Minister Mosaddeq at the request of, and with minor support from the British government. In what the CIA called Operation Ajax, the U.S. enabled Mohammed Reza Pahlevi to become an all-powerful monarch, who went on to rule Iran with an iron fist for 26 years until he was overthrown in 1979. Two years earlier, in 1951, Mosaddeq, backed by his nationalist supporters in the Iranian parliament and throughout Iran, had angered Britain with his argument that Iran should begin profiting from its vast oil reserves instead of allowing profits to continue to flow to Britain. In 1951, Iran's Parliament, the Majlis, nationalized Iran's oil industry and then elected Mosaddeq to be prime minster. Since 1913, the oil industry in Iran had been controlled exclusively by the British government-controlled Anglo- Iranian Oil Company, the UK's single largest overseas investment. The ejection of the British staff of the Anglo- Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) from the now nationalized refineries in Iran triggered the Abadan Crisis, bringing the UK and Iran close to war.[8] Britain accused Mosaddeq of violating the legal rights of the AIOC and mobilized a worldwide boycott of Iran's oil that plunged Iran into financial crisis. The British government tried to enlist the United States in planning a coup, but President Harry S. Truman refused. His successor, Dwight D. Eisenhower, however, allowed the CIA to embark on its first covert operation against a foreign government.