Mohammed Mossadegh Research Paper

All the Shah’s Men by Stephen Kinzer details the 1953 American-orchestrated coup in Iran. Iran was under British economic control, but as it modernized, Iranians began fighting for their own control. Their fledgling democracy was working to modernize, until the UK and the US decided to interfere to protect Britain’s colonial holdings from Soviet influence. Because the US was not interested in protecting a British business, British politicians emphasized the threat the USSR held to Iran, leading to Americans inserting themselves into a nation’s politics in which they had no place. They successfully orchestrated a coup, however, the negative, long-term, anti-Western results overwhelm any positive effect. All the Shah’s Men by Stephen Kinzer paints a picture of the results of action without adequate attention to future results.

Ibtihaj Muhammad is the first female Muslim Olympian, and is an American sabre fencer for Team USA. She plans to wear a hijab when competing at the Rio Olympics.

Looking back to 1953, the nation was at a much different place. However, the decisions that were made in 1953 greatly impacted the nation’s involvement in terrorism today. Stephen Kinzer, author of All The Shah’s Men, addresses how the United States’ role in the 1953 CIA coup in Iran leads up to modern terrorism that can be seen in society currently. Additionally, Kinzer is a very credible source considering he has worked in more than fifty countries and is an award-winning foreign journalist. Furthermore, Kinzer has been the New York Times bureau chief in multiple different countries; some being Berlin, Managua, Nicaragua, and Istanbul. With that being said, Kinzer has a vast amount of knowledge regarding the nation’s role in foreign affairs. According to Kinzer, the 1953 CIA coup in Iran politically destabilized the nation, led to the rise of modern terrorism, and immensely affected the CIA’s reputation. This paper examines Kinzer’s arguments with the assessment that the nation involving itself in foreign affairs undeniably leads to unintended consequences.

The Coup 53 has just taken place tonight, over a course of a few days. It is the first successful overthrow of the government of Iran, done by the CIA. The U.S. has been apart of this affair, supposedly to stop the nationalization of the oil fields. They kept this their center reason for helping accomplish this, but they say they want to help us Iranians get an Islam centered government. This could be the beginning of the Islamic Revolution! Most of the information is confidential, but some has now been uncovered. The name of this operation is TP-AJAX and it has all the ‘in's-and-out's’ of the CIA’s plans. Some heard that British intelligence had played a part in planning this overthrow. This shows that Washington and London do want a part

The American public was so captivated by the Iran Hostage Crisis because they were blindsided by this radical action and their knowledge of America’s involvement in Iran was limited. The media played a major role in influencing their emotions and they already had trouble trusting the American government. This unknown involvement began in 1943 when President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin met in Tehran to discuss how to remove the British and Soviet military forces from Iran because Iran wanted to be its own nation. The United States aided the young Shah, the ruler of Iran, and his government with military weapons and loans. Over time, Prime Minister Mossadegh, of Iran, gained more and more power until he was the true ruler of Iran and the Shah was just a figurehead. The United States, fearing the spread of communism, devised a secret plan for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), to over throw Prime Minister Mossadegh.

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Citizens of Iran were infuriated by the calamitous coup d’état and overthrowing of Mossadeq. Dr. Mohammed Mossadeq was deemed by Iranian people as a hero.

By 1951 Mohammad Mossadegh had established himself firmly in the political scene in the mountainous country of Iran. Mossadegh ran for the office of Prime Minister with just one campaign promise: to free Iran from the British imperial yoke (Gavin, 1999, p.64). He had also built his political strength, based largely on his call to nationalize the concession and installations in Iran of the British-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (Risen, 2000, p.10). Mossadegh embodied the fierce nationalistic pride felt by so many Iranians, this brought Mohammad Mossadegh an easy victory (Gregory,1951,p.31). On May Day 1951, after three days of raging Pro-Mossadegh rioting, Mossadegh announced that the Majlis had passed the Nationalization Act, despite strong opposition by many members of the Majlis (Gavin,1999, 65). By this time Mossadegh's power had grown so great that the Shah (monarchy) was virtually forced to appoint him Premier. Even after being appointed to the Premiership, popularity continued to skyrocket for Mossadegh. Mossadegh's popularity, growing power, and intransigence on the oil issue were creating friction between the prime minister and the Shah.

In the eyes of many Iranians, the Iranian Revolution started before 1979. After the 1953 coup driven by the U.K and U.S ( specifically the C.I.A) the well liked prime minister Dr. Mossadeq was arrested. Reinstated in Mossadeq's place was Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, AKA the Shah. The 1979 Revolution was then led by Ayatollah Khomeini who found many problems with the Shah’s rule of Iran, beginning with the Shah’s reform program. Key drivers of the 1979 Revolution were Iranians' growing frustration with economic inequality, the Shah's suppression of political opposition and widespread resentment of the government's close ties to the United States and Britain.

The complexity of America’s relationship with Iran increased steadily beginning in 1908, when Iran struck oil. The Shah, the king or emperor of Iran, after taking the place of his young predecessor Reza Shah Pahlavi with the help of the CIA, led Iran into a period of extreme wealth and prosperity, the likes of which the Iranian people had never experienced. However, with the growth of wealth in Iran came the growth of Iranian resentment towards the West, specifically the United States. The Iranian’s resented the uneven distribution of wealth that they felt existed and the United State’s influence in “westernizing” their society. In 1963, this growing hatred led to a conflict with the Islamic clergy. The conflict was quickly settled by the Shah, but he was unaware that this dispute was the beginning

Mossadegh completely altered Iran by letting the Iranian people experience freedom within a democracy.9 In 1951, he was named Time Magazine’s man of the year and was referred to as the “Iranian George Washington,” as he gave them the gift of democracy.10 The people loved him because as soon as he took power, he set about making reforms; he granted women more rights than they had ever received in Iran and permitted religious freedom.11 Mossadegh also appealed to the Iranian people as he, unlike prior Shahs, was neutral in foreign policy. He made negotiations with foreigners illegal, which was controversial in Iran because it would destroy its economy. In 1952, Mossadegh appointed a new chief of war and head of staff. This granted him control of Iran’s entire military, which Pahlavi had been building up.12 He also tended to the requests of the people by nationalizing the AIOC, at the expense of the British. This initially made the Iranian people happy because they would get more jobs and revenue for Iran. However, there were no trained professionals to work the oil machines because

In August of 1953, a CIA action by the name of “Operation Ajax” overthrew Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh and effectively replaced him with the country’s monarch, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (Kinzer 6). In 1951, Mossadegh had nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, putting the United States and United Kingdom in danger of losing sixty percent of the known oil reserves in the world at the time (Kinzer 91). To counter this move, American and British leaders crafted a covert plot to overthrow Mosaddegh and put Pahlavi in power (Kinzer 6). The plot succeeded, creating an oil consortium no longer threatened by nationalization (Kinzer 203). However, while oil may have been the primary motivation for the coup, American cultural ideas and hegemonic

Back in 1950, when Mossadegh was Prime Minister of Iran, he nationalized Iran 's oil industry, reducing the European influence throughout the nation over the oil commodity. This sparked great fear throughout the United States; they feared the communists would turn the Iran democracy against them. After three years in exile, in 1953 Shah Mohammed

The [Bush] administration found it consistently difficult to get the measure of Tehran. Bush depicted it as a “nation held hostage by a small clerical elite that is repressing and isolating its people,” but the reality was far more complex. (482)

The American government is known to promote democratic values throughout the world. Though the ideals America was fighting for during the Cold War, the government still managed to participate in the overthrow of democratically elected Prime Minister, Mohammed Mossadegh. Mossadegh threatened to nationalize Iran’s oil in 1951 and later gained the support of the Iranian government. The British companies had many investments in Iranian oil. It is with the approval of nationalization that the economies of both British and Iran were ultimately harmed. The British government requested the help of the US so that they could perform a coup to overthrow Mossadegh. With suspicions of Mossadegh supporting communism, and being supported by the Tudeh Party, the United States government was willing to sacrifice their democratic ideologies and credibility in the region for the insurance of an anti-communist leader. This would prove to cause problems that still resonate in today’s political and military negotiations in this region.