Author
Synopsis
In this extensively researched and provocative long-form post, German analyst Ole (@DerCheapi) dismantles one of the most enduring narratives in modern Middle East history: the claim that the CIA and MI6 orchestrated a coup in 1953 to overthrow Iran’s “democratically-elected” prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, installing the Shah as a puppet and sowing the seeds of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Drawing on declassified CIA documents (including the Wilber report and “Zendebad, Shah!”), constitutional history, and primary sources, Ole argues that Mossadegh was neither democratically elected nor a genuine democrat. He suspended elections, ruled by emergency decree, dissolved parliament via a non-secret referendum, and betrayed allies including the women’s suffrage movement.
Ole contends that the initial CIA-backed operation (TPAJAX) failed completely on 15 August 1953, after which internal Iranian actors – military networks loyal to General Zahedi, outraged clergy fearing communism, bazaar merchants, and popular backlash – drove the actual events of 19 August. Oil nationalisation was not reversed after Mossadegh’s removal – a 50/50 profit-sharing consortium was established, and full operational control later returned to Iran in 1973. Ole concludes that the “CIA coup” myth persists because it serves Western guilt narratives, leftist anti-imperialism, political appeasement, and the Islamic Republic’s propaganda by shifting blame from 1979 to 1953.