1953 Iranian Coup
The 1953 Iranian coup, codenamed Operation Ajax by the CIA and Operation Boot by MI6, was a covert British-American operation that overthrew Iran's democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh and restored the Shah's absolute power. Mosaddegh's crime was nationalizing the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (now BP). The coup is the foundational grievance behind Iran's hostility to the United States.
In 1951, Mosaddegh nationalized Iran's oil industry, ending a deal that gave Britain 84% of revenues from Iranian oil while Iran kept only 16%. The British government, furious at losing what was then the world's most valuable oil operation, went to the Eisenhower administration with a proposal. Framing Mosaddegh, a secular nationalist and democratically elected Prime Minister, as a communist threat, they secured CIA and MI6 support for a coup.
On August 19, 1953, mobs hired by CIA officer Kermit Roosevelt Jr. took to the streets of Tehran. The army sided with the Shah. Mosaddegh was arrested, tried for treason, and spent the rest of his life under house arrest. The Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was reinstated and ran an increasingly brutal police state until 1979, backed continuously by American military and intelligence support.
The 1953 coup is why Iranian leaders, especially in the IRGC, refuse to negotiate with Washington in good faith. Every time America offers cooperation, Iranians remember 1953: that a democratically elected government making fair demands was destroyed because Western oil interests found it inconvenient. It is the event that makes the 'Great Satan' narrative credible to millions of Iranians who would otherwise have no reason to hate America.
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Frequently asked questions
What was the 1953 Iranian coup? ＋
The 1953 coup was a CIA and MI6 operation that overthrew Iran's democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. His offense was nationalizing Iranian oil, ending a deal where Britain kept 84% of revenues. The US and UK replaced him with the Shah, a brutal monarch who ruled until 1979 and was despised by the Iranian people.
How does the 1953 coup still affect US-Iran relations? ＋
The coup is the foundational grievance in Iranian political culture. It proved to Iranians, and especially to the IRGC, that America will overthrow democratic governments when oil or strategic interests demand it. Every US offer of negotiation is filtered through this memory, making genuine trust essentially impossible until the US formally acknowledges what it did.