Informative look at the history of why Iran (and the rest of the Middle East) hates the US. We were seen as a friend up until the events of 1953, when the CIA led an overthrow of prime minister Mohammed Mossadegh, smothering Iran’s infant democracy in its cradle. Of course, the coup was justified at the time as being the only way to keep Iran out of the hands of the Soviets… but perhaps the greater reason was that the British were pretty pissed off at Mossadegh for nationalizing their oil company, and encouraged the Americans stepped in. 

The background of the coup starts with the Qajar Shahs who led Iran for over a century. They were super corrupt dictators, ruling only for their benefit. They routinely sold incredible country-wide concessions to foreign companies for a pittance, ie. 60 years exclusive rights to all petroleum extraction for £15k. The Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC, now known as BP) was the prime source of British oil through both world wars, and an incredible profit source. The Iranians eventually got fed up with getting the short end of the stick in this and other deals, and sentiment against the British was very poor. Over a generation, they stumbled into a democracy, and with Mossadegh finally had a figure to stand against the British.

After the nationalization of AIOC and numerous breakdowns in negotiations, the British seized the opportunity to convince newly-elected Eisenhower’s Dulles brothers of the danger of communism in the region. The coup attempt was greenlit. Kermit Roosevelt (grandson of TR) was a cool dude with a cool plan that came together really well. After getting the Shah to agree to (illegally) order Mossadegh’s removal, an initial botched attempt was portrayed as Mossadegh moving against the Shah rather than vice versa. This seeded a second attempt a few days later, featuring plenty of paid mobbers (including, strangely enough, circus strongmen and acrobats) vigorously expressing their support of the Shah.  Quick instructions on how to execute a coup: tell everyone it has already happened.  If enough people believe you, then you’re done!

KR explicitly told the Dulles brothers in his briefing – “now don’t think you can do this whenever you want!” But that’s exactly what they ended up doing, moving on very soon to Guatemala. They actually tried to recruit KR for that task, but he declined and actually left the CIA a few years later, to a relatively mundane business career. I think he was proud of his role directing the coup and how everything came together (a real hail mary, then spike-the-football ending), but seems like he must have felt some sense of guilt for killing off Iranian democracy. Even if it was “for the greater good” of fighting the Cold War.

The aftermath: BP plus American oil companies took over. They did start splitting profit 50-50 with Iran. Well…with the Shah, anyway. Unfortunately that money did not go towards the people very much, but rather to the military and secret police. Disappointment and anger at the Shah directly led to the Islamic revolt.  When the Shah fled, the alarmed Iranians took over the Embassy – because the last time the Shah fled (at the time of the first botched attempt on Mossadegh), that’s where KR and the CIA did their dirty work. Kinda makes sense now why they wanted to keep it under control this time!

Quote in the last chapter nicely summarizes the influence of the 1953 coup:

The world has paid a heavy price for the lack of democracy in most of the Middle East. Operation Ajax taught tyrants and aspiring tyrants there that the world’s most powerful governments were willing to tolerate limitless oppression as long as oppressive regimes were friendly to the West and to Western oil companies. That helped tilt the political balance in a vast region away from freedom and toward dictatorship.

Published August 16, 2026August 17, 2026