Operation Ajax

[yochanan]

In the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, the administration of U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower orchestrated the overthrow of the democratically-elected administration of Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq and his cabinet from power. The support of the coup was carried out, using widespread bribery in a covert operation by Kermit Roosevelt, Jr. for the CIA.

The coup re-installed Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in the primary position of power, and was motivated by the desire for preserving Western control of Iran's oil infrastructure. In 2000, former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, during the administration of President Bill Clinton, admitted that the coup was a "setback for democratic government" in Iran.

The idea of overthrowing Mosaddeq was conceived by the British who asked U.S. President Harry Truman for assistance. He refused. The British raised the idea again to Dwight D. Eisenhower who became president in 1953. The new administration agreed to participate in overthrowing the elected administration.

British and American actions plunged the country into decades of dictatorship and economic hardship which it is only just beginning to pull itself out of.

Many leading politicians and geopolitical commentators have drawn parallels between the motives behind the illegal occupation of Iraq and the Iranian coup of 1953.