You know, some days are not just historical events – they become a “collective wound” on a nation’s memory. August 19, 1953, is one of those days. The day when the Iranian people’s hope to run their own country was overthrown with direct intervention by the United States and Britain.
The story began with a simple but great decision:
**Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh**, the legitimate and popular prime minister, decided to **nationalize Iran’s oil**. That meant that this great source of our wealth would no longer be under British control. The same company named the “Anglo-Iranian Oil Company” (later becoming BP!).
But the British could not digest this. So they brought in the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and British intelligence service (MI6).
🕵️ Operation Ajax: Engineering the Fall
At that time, the coup was codenamed **TP‑AJAX**. Who was behind it?
Churchill from London, Eisenhower from Washington, and Allen Dulles (then CIA director) from Langley.
A budget of about one million dollars (a huge sum at the time) for a simple goal:
Bring back the Shah and overthrow Mossadegh.
How did they do it?
– They bought newspapers and journalists to write against Mossadegh;
– They paid some army officers to stage the coup at the right moment;
– They filled the streets with artificial chaos;
– They spread frightening rumors;
– They even attacked the homes of clerics and cinemas, then blamed the government.
A precise but bloody spectacle.
🎯 What was the result?
The legitimate government fell.
The Shah returned according to the CIA’s blueprint, with America’s guarantee.
Iran’s young democracy was destroyed, and the country entered decades of dictatorship.
Oil was again divided among Western companies…
But the people were left with the memory of a broken hope.
A memory that has not faded from our minds to this day: the day when independence was sacrificed so that colonial interests could survive. 💔
📚 Suggested sources for further reading:
– Stephen Kinzer, *All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror*
– Ervand Abrahamian, *The Coup: 1953, the CIA, and the Roots of Modern U.S.-Iranian Relations*
– Mark J. Gasiorowski, *U.S. Foreign Policy and the Shah: Building a Client State in Iran*
– Bijan Jazani, *30-Year History of Iran from Coup to Revolution*
– Declassified US State Department documents (released in 2017)
