Secrets of History: the CIA in Iran

By-James Risen
(New York Times)
April 16, 2000

The Central Intelligence Agency's secret history of it's covert operation to overthrow Iran's government in 1953 offers an inside look at how the agency stumbled into success, despite a series of mishaps that derailed it's original plans. Written in 1954 by one of the coup's chief planners, the history details how the United States and British officials plotted the military coup that returned the Shah of Iran to power and toppled Iran's elected Prime Minister, an ardent Nationalist.

The Document Shows That:

• Britain, fearful of Iran's plans to nationalize it's Oil Ministry, came up with the idea for the coup in 1952 and pressed the United States to mount a joint operation to remove the Prime Minister.
• The CIA and SIS, the British Intelligence Service, handpicked Gen. Fazlollah Zahedi to succeed Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh and covertly funneled $5 million to General Zahedi's regime two days after the coup prevailed.
• Iranian's working for the CIA and posing as Communists harassed religious leaders and staged the bombing of one Cleric's home in a campaign to turn the Country's Islamic Religious Community against Mossadegh's government.

The Shah's cowardice nearly killed the CIA operation- fearful of risking his throne, the Shah repeatedly refused to sign CIA-written royal decrees to change the government. The agency arranged for the Shah's twin sister, Princess Ashraf Pahlevi, and Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the father of the Desert Storm Commander, to act as intermediaries to try to keep him from wilting under pressure. He still fled the Country just before the coup succeeded.

The document shows that Washington and London shared an interest in maintaining the West's Control over Iran's Oil.

The operation, code-named TP-AJAX, was the blueprint for succession of CIA plots to foment coups and destabilize governments during the Cold War- Including the agency's successful coup in Guatemala in 1954 and the disastrous Cuban Intervention known as the Bay of Pigs in 1961.

In more than one instance, such operations led to the same kind of long-term animosity toward the United States that occurred in Iran.

http://www.globalpolicy.org/empire/history/2000/0416ciairan.htm