Mohammad Mosaddegh changed Iran and the world. He
challenged the mighty British Empire, which then conspired with Uncle Sam to
get rid of him. This 1953 original sin led to the 1979 Iranian Revolution and
is the fundamental reason for US-Iran tensions.
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| flags of USA and Iran © danielo / shutterstock.com |
The recent protests in
Iran are a product of many compounding factors. It is indubitably true that
women want greater freedoms. What is often left unsaid that economic pain is
driving these protests. Much of this pain is caused by US sanctions against
Iran.
During these protests, some have chanted slogans in favor of
the Pahlavi dynasty. Sadly, these protesters do not realize that both father
Reza Shah and son Mohammad Reza Shah would have shot them dead or arrested and
tortured if they were in power.
In our previous article,
we analyzed Mohammad Mosaddegh and the golden age of Iranian democracy. For a
12-year spell from 1941 to 1953, Iran experienced freedom, reforms and the
exercise of popular sovereignty. Mosaddegh cleaned up corruption and improved
the economy. He invested in health, unemployment insurance and infrastructure.
Mosaddegh also initiated programs to address women’s rights. However, this
Iranian statesman is most noted for leading the nationalization of the oil
industry.
The British Strike Back
The British had a monopoly over Iran’s oil since its
discovery in 1908. Nationalization of the oil industry made Mosaddegh their
worst enemy and British agents began working to oust him. They used every
possible means to undermine his policies and question his competence. They
resorted to disinformation, bribery, blackmail, murder and riots.
In June 1953, the British succeeded in winning over American
support by painting Mosaddegh to be a socialist. By now, the US was paranoid about
the spread of communism. The British also promised Americans a share of the
oil. Nationalization was also a bad precedent for other
countries and went against the interests of American oil companies. The US was
also disappointed that Mosaddegh did not show any interest in
the formation of the Baghdad Pact, yet another anti-Soviet military alliance of
the Cold War.
Hence, the US agreed with the British to launch “Operation
Ajax.” Its goal: remove Mosaddegh from power. Now, the CIA dispatched one
of its stars to Tehran. This swashbuckler was Kermit
Roosevelt and he worked with close coordination with MI6 for regime
change in Iran.
Together, the Americans and the British bribed politicians,
military officers, government officials, warlords, and reporters. They also
hired mobsters and hoodlums to pretend to be communists. These fake communists
attacked people, broke into stores, torched buildings and used profanity as
part of their shock and awe tactics to discredit Mosaddegh.
These tactics did not quite work. Mosaddegh remained wildly
popular. When this Iranian statesman called for a referendum to dissolve
the Majles (the Iranian parliament), he got 99% of
the vote. However, the British and the Americans were infiltrating many
powerful interest groups in Iran. The plot against Mosaddegh was thickening. In
August 1953, even as Mosaddegh remained immensely popular,
he was unaware that many of his enemies,
including some in his own party, were conspiring with the British and the
Americans to oust him.
One Coup Fails but the Second Succeeds
On August 16, 1953, the Shah dismissed Mosaddegh. He
appointed General Fazlollah Zahedi, a CIA
agent, as prime minister. Some close associates of the Shah have taken the
view that this was unnecessary. Mosaddegh would have resigned had the Shah
asked him to do so.
Zahedi and his cronies began arresting Mosaddegh’s top
aides. Mosaddegh saw Zahedi’s appointment as a military coup and refused to
step down. The prime minister summoned loyal military officers to his defense.
They arrested the party Zahedi had sent to capture Mosaddegh.
The Shah fled the country and Zahedi took refuge with the
CIA. The CIA-led, MI6 first coup attempt
miserably failed. Mosaddegh felt so confident that he did not take the
opportunity to speak to
the nation about the coup. This turned out to be a historic blunder.
The CIA and MI6 did not give up. They carried on their
anti-government activities and instigated violence in the streets. Fearing
communist attacks, Iranians withdrew to their homes. After three days of
rioting, Ayatollah Abul-Qasem Kashani reportedly warned Mosaddegh
about a coup attempt to oust him. Mosaddegh dismissed the warning with
his aloof reply, “I am supported by the Iranian nation.”
The very next day, large crowds suddenly appeared in the
streets in support of the Shah. On this historic day of August 19, 1953,
Mosaddegh was caught unawares. The second coup attempt
succeeded. Zahedi came out of hiding and arrested Mosaddegh. On hearing about
Mosaddegh’s fall, the then British prime minister Anthony
Eden said that after a long time he finally slept well.
After the coup, Mosaddegh was put on trial as
a traitor in a military court. Fearing popular reaction, Mosaddegh’s statements
in his defense were all censored. Mosaddegh was sentenced to solitary
confinement to begin with and then house arrest for the remainder of his life.
At the age of 84, he died in 1967 while still in house arrest.
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| Mohammad Mosaddegh in court martial |
Personal Memories and Consequences of the Coup
One of the co-authors still remembers the day of the coup.
He was with his father doing errands in central Tehran. At midday, everything
seemed peaceful. Suddenly, all hell broke loose. People appeared in trucks
chanting, “Death to Mosaddegh, long live the Shah.” The co-author’s father
instinctively cursed the British for engineering this ruckus. The very next
day, Iranians such as the co-author’s father, friends and family knew that the
CIA and MI6 had engineered the coup because Zahedi thanked the US for its
support.
In the US and in Britain, the people did not realize the
role the CIA and MI6 had played for years. They assumed that organic street
protests led to Mosaddegh’s fall. One co-author has been in the US since 1965.
He is married to an American. He has had numerous discussions with fellow
Americans who resolutely believed that the US could never do as dastardly a
deed as overthrow a democratically elected government through a coup.
The US mass media took the same line as uninformed American
citizens. In 2003, The New York Times supported the Iraq War.
In 1953, this venerable publication supported the coup against Mosaddegh. Time
Magazine went further and claimed that “this was no military coup,
but a spontaneous popular uprising.”
In 2013, such claims were proved patently false. The
CIA admitted that
it carried out the 1953 coup with the approval of the highest levels of the US
government. The British have yet to issue a mea culpa but numerous retired MI6
and CIA officers have remarked to the other co-author that this coup turned out
to be a historic blunder. These officers maintain that this 1953 coup had
unintended consequences and led directly to the 1979 revolution.
It turns out that the coup was planned, coordinated and
directed by Cyprus-based MI6 agent Norman
Darbyshire. The CIA’s Roosevelt merely executed Darbyshire’s plans. The
1953 coup was the CIA’s first exposure to covert operations that caused regime
change. Since then, the CIA has
replicated it in numerous other countries.
The dissolute Shah rewarded the US generously for installing
him on the throne. In October 1954, Iran signed the Consortium
Agreement, giving the “US, British, and French oil companies” 40% ownership
of its nationalized oil industry. The management of the consortium was led by
American oil companies for 25 years and many consider it to be “the largest commercial deal ever
put together.”
Surprisingly, the Islamic
Revolution took over the country in February 1979 about 7 months
before the agreement was due to expire. In January 1979, one of the major
concerns of the world leaders at the Guadeloupe summit
was the flow of oil from Iran as revolution erupted in the country. The US and
Britain had profited handsomely from the 1953 coup and the 1979 revolution was
an unnecessary headache.
Why MI6 and the CIA Succeeded
Given Mosaddegh’s popularity, a question recurs repeatedly:
Why did the coup succeed?
Mosaddegh was unlucky. The communist Tudeh Party was at
least as powerful as Mosaddegh’s National Front. Tudeh could have come out on
the streets to prevent the unrest and the coup. However, Joseph Stalin’s death
in March 1953 left Tudeh in disarray.
Just as the Shah was the lackey of the West, the Tudeh Party was controlled
directly by Stalin. With the Soviet strongman dead, Tudeh was rudderless and
useless.
In addition to bad fortune, Mosaddegh himself was to blame.
He was an idealist who could be exceedingly naïve when it came to realpolitik.
Mosaddegh believed deeply in democracy but failed to realize that many of his
enemies did not. When he was informed about legislators, officials and military
officers plotting a coup, Mosaddegh’s reaction was to ask for proof. Naturally,
such proof was hard to come, which lulled this venerable Iranian statesman into
a false sense of complacency.
Mosaddegh’s championing of freedom of religion annoyed many
conservatives. In particular, it strained relations with his most powerful
religious and patriotic supporter Kashani.
This support was crucial for Mosaddegh because Kashani commanded a powerful
base that could have countered those plotting a coup. To make matters worse,
Mosaddegh ignored Kashani’s warning a day before the coup.
Mosaddegh lost some of his secular supporters because they
feared communism. Furthermore, some parliamentarians were upset with the prime
minister for dissolving the Majles. A few switched sides and
supported the coup.
Mosaddegh fatally did not seize the moment after the first
coup. This attempt was reported on the radio but the prime minister did not
give a public address disclosing all the facts. He did not summon the masses to
his defense. Mosaddegh was a sick man during much of his premiership and,
particularly, at the time of the coup. He had lost touch with the masses, key
interest groups and many members of his own party. Mosaddegh also failed to
realize that success today gives no guarantee of success tomorrow.
Mosaddegh was a touch too credulous in trusting the US. He
expected Uncle Sam to be an honest broker between Iran and Britain. During his
visit to the US, the then president Harry Truman arranged for Mosaddegh’s
medical care. Relations between the US and Iran continued to be cordial even
when Dwight D. Eisenhower became president.
As fear of communism rose in the US, Eisenhower turned
against Iran. The sweet prospects of access to Iranian oil also facilitated
this change of heart. Given the US stress on capitalism and securing oil for
its energy-hungry economy, it was inevitable that Washington would look extremely
unfavorably upon nationalization of the oil industry. Mosaddegh did not realize
the stakes on the geopolitical chessboard and was unprepared to counter the
foreign powers.
Originally published by Fair
Observer on February 12, 2023.
