Crude, Blood, Turmoil: Story of US First 'Successful' Overseas Regime Change

Newly declassified CIA documents emphasize the agency’s significant role in the 1953 coup d’etat in Iran. While the CIA-led operation is still regarded by Washington as a “success,” it actually led to dire consequences for both Iran and America, RIA Novosti contributor Vladimir Ardayev wrote.
Washington has a long record of regime change operations, RIA Novosti contributor Vladimir Ardayev writes; however, each time the US meddled in foreign state affairs, it then had to cope with the whirlwind it had sown.
Last week the US State Department released declassified documents shedding light on the role Washington played in the 1953 coup against the Iranian government of Mohammad Mosaddegh.

“The uprising of Aug. 19, 1953, in Tehran, organized by CIA agents with the participation of Muslim clergy led to the replacement of the legitimately-elected cabinet headed by Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh with the government of General Fazlollah Zahedi — the protégé of Western intelligence services,” Ardayev wrote.

The journalist pointed out that at that time Washington pursued two goals: first, to prevent the rise of the Tudeh, the Communist Party of Iran; second, to abolish the nationalization of the oil industry in Iran that endangered the interests of the UK, America’s strategic ally.
Although the two goals were closely interconnected the oil issue obviously dominated the agenda, the journalist pointed out.
In the 20th century Middle Eastern crude remained a major factor determining the West’s policy in the region, Ardayev wrote, adding that American and British corporation had for decades controlled hydrocarbon reserves in the Middle East.
However, in the middle of the 20th century the Gulf realms exerted pressure on oil corporations demanding a larger share of oil revenues.

“When the US firm in Saudi Arabia bowed to pressure in late 1950 and agreed to share oil revenues evenly with Riyadh, the British concession in Iran came under intense pressure to follow suit. But London adamantly refused,” Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian of Foreign Policy magazine wrote.

The UK’s refusal prompted then Prime Minister of Iran Mohammad Mossadegh to nationalize Iran’s oil industry in early 1951.
In response, Britons began mulling over the regime change operation to oust the democratically elected Iranian prime minister together with US intelligence services.
The oil issue became the trigger of the chain of events that resulted in the CIA-orchestrated coup in Iran. Simultaneously, Washington and London sought to prevent the rise of Communists in the Middle Eastern country.

“Ever since the assassination of General Razmara in March 1951, and the subsequent impasse and diplomatic break with Britain over the oil negotiations, the Iranian situation has been slowly disintegrating. The result has been a steady decrease in the power and influence of the Western democracies and the building up of a situation where a Communist takeover is becoming more and more of a possibility,” a memorandum from CIA Director Dulles to US President Eisenhower written on March 1, 1953, read.

© AFP 2017/ STRINGER / INTERCONTINENTALE  Picture released On October 1951 of Iranian Prime minister Mohammed Mossadegh sitting on a wheelchair, in an hospital of New York.
 Picture released On October 1951 of Iranian Prime minister Mohammed Mossadegh sitting on a wheelchair, in an hospital of New York. © AFP 2017/ STRINGER / INTERCONTINENTALE 

To complicate matters further, following the diplomatic break with London, Mossadegh made an attempt to build bridges with the Soviet Union. The potential USSR-Iranian alliance prompted deep concerns among American and British policymakers.

“The new Soviet regime has not only agreed to a doubling of Soviet-Iranian trade but has also joined in negotiations for a general settlement of outstanding issues between the two countries. These developments have raised the possibility that Mossadegh might bolster his popular prestige by obtaining concessions from the USSR and have indirectly lessened the pressure on him to curry favor with the US,” a CIA document dated Aug. 12, 1953, read.

To tackle the problems of the “Communist threat” and the Soviet influence in Iran, Washington had worked out a detailed plan, Ardayev noted.
The plan envisaged military, economic, diplomatic and psychological measures. In addition, it described so-called Special Political Operations “directed toward counteracting and reducing Tudeh influence.”
These operations included anti-Tudeh propaganda, “psychical attacks,” administrative and security actions against the party (with the assistance “certain [Iranian] political and military leaders”), publishing anti-Tudeh material in the press and etc.

The CIA involved Iranian “religious leaders” and “strong tribal elements” to fight both against the Communists and the Mossadegh government, Ardayev emphasized.

 Allen Dulles, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, leaves the hearing room on Nov. 27, 1957, after giving closed door testimony before the senated preparedness subcommittee. Dulles told what Sen. Stuart Symington (D-Mo) called a sad and shocking story of the missile competition with Soviet Russia.

Allen Dulles, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, leaves the hearing room on Nov. 27, 1957, after giving closed door testimony before the senated preparedness subcommittee. Dulles told what Sen. Stuart Symington (D-Mo) called a sad and shocking story of the missile competition with Soviet Russia.

However, it was only a prelude to the CIA-led coup d’état, he noted, referring to the notorious Operation Ajax of August 1953.
The operation was launched on Aug. 15, 1953. Although the Americans convinced Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to depose Mossadegh, the latter managed to stop the coup at the initial phase.
It prompted the CIA to abolish the operation.

“Operation has been tried and failed and we should not participate in any operation against Mossadegh which could be traced back to US…. Operations against Mossadegh should be discontinued,” a newly declassified cable written on Aug. 18, 1953, read.

However, the aforementioned cable was ignored by Kermit “Kim” Roosevelt Jr., a top CIA officer in Iran and a grandson of former US President Theodore Roosevelt.
Roosevelt, who was in charge of Operation Ajax got in touch with one of the coup leaders, General Fazlollah Zahedi, and instigated mass protests with the assistance of Iranian religious and tribal leaders. Thus, the CIA seized the initiative from Mossadegh and completed the regime change operation.

“As a result of the coup, the monarchy in Iran was restored, the democratically elected leader of the country was imprisoned, the nationalization of the oil industry was abolished,” Ardayev emphasized.

The Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, gestures during a press conference at the Trianon in Versailles, near Paris, France on June 27, 1974.
The Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, gestures during a press conference at the Trianon in Versailles, near Paris, France on June 27, 1974.

It appeared that the major goals of the US-British conspiracy were achieved.
Alas, the situation led to a chain of undesirable consequences.

“After toppling Mossadegh and defeating the Communists, the organizers of the coup also suppressed other liberal forces in the country,” the journalist highlighted. “As the clergy gained more and more power in Iran, the anti-Western sentiment began to grow.”

“In 1979, it resulted in the Islamic revolution, the seizure of the US embassy, and the suspension of diplomatic relations between Iran and the United States,” Ardayev wrote.
So, what is the lesson of the “successful” 1953 coup?

Whether one likes it or not, the whirlwind of a 38-year long bitter confrontation between Washington and Tehran was sown in 1953, when the natural course of history in one country was forcibly interrupted and altered by another country — the United States, Ardayev stressed.

10 thoughts on “Crude, Blood, Turmoil: Story of US First 'Successful' Overseas Regime Change”

  1. Pretend That Didn’t Happen
    Back in the ‘40s and early ‘50s when my younger brother and I were living in the country and had no one else to play with, we engaged in elaborate reenactments of the cowboy movies Dad took us to. We didn’t try to replicate the plots, just assumed the characters. I was Roy Rogers, which meant Dougie had to be Gene Autry.
    These immersive performances would often go on all day, and Mom would usually play along. “Better git in here to the chuckwagon,” she might call us for lunch, or, “If yer fixin’ t’ herd them cattle, you’d better git some good grub in yer bellies first.” We loved that she enlivened the drama – except when we found her performance too over the top even for us. Then I’d say to Dougie, “Pretend that didn’t happen,” and we’d resume as if the offending line reading had never occurred. Or if I blew a line, say, or the story took a wrong turn: “Okay, pretend that didn’t happen.”
    That worked for us, and apparently the mainstream media think it works for them too as they pretend to keep us “informed.” “Okay, pretend the House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations didn’t conclude in ’79 that Kennedy was probably assassinated as the result of a conspiracy.”
    “Pretend that a conspiracy by the mafia and the government to assassinate Martin Luther King wasn’t supported in the verdict of a 1998 wrongful death court case brought by the King family. After all, that finding of a Memphis jury was later rejected by the United States Department of Justice, due to insufficient evidence.” Imagine that.
    “Okay, pretend that 19 Muslim hijackers with box cutters took control of four airliners and outfoxed the world’s most sophisticated air defense system to bring down two skyscrapers in virtual free fall – to say nothing of the third which also collapsed into its own footprint without benefit of airplane contact soon afterwards. Then, when our air defense should have been on the highest possible alert, a guy who’d never piloted an airliner flew undetected to the nation’s capital and executed a maneuver that experienced pilots say is impossible, to plow into the first floor of the most heavily defended building in the world. Without even scraping the lawn.”
    As the world spirals ever more completely into chaos it behooves all of us to try to learn what’s really going on, but where are we to turn for true and unbiased information? I recently read an informative, well-written article in The New Yorker (Mar. 6: “Active Measures” – the magazine subtitled it “Trump, Putin and Russia’s Grand Strategy”) that it took three seasoned writers to assemble, but when I’d finished it I had to ask myself, so how much of this is true? How can you honestly report on world events while pretending a massive 9/11 cover-up hasn’t been going on since the Twin Towers and WTC Building 7 were brought down by some kind of controlled demolition? Much of the world knows this, and the mainstream media know that it knows, yet they continue their deceitful, traitorous game of let’s pretend. Well, that’s how they get paid, of course, and that’s why many in the alternative media call them “presstitutes.”
    So like most readers anxious to be informed, I daily peruse particular websites in the “alt media,” news sources which I believe to be knowledgeable, honest and reasonably reliable. Of course with all the nonsense and disinformation spewed out on the Internet, I can’t assume anything is true even after cross-checking it on multiple sites, but at least I’m given an alternate view of reality to counter-balance the distorted picture the paid megaphones of the deep state (a term that has surfaced since 9/11) want to implant. And how ludicrous of them to scream, “Fake news! Fake news!” when it’s always been the mainstream media dragging the world into wars killing millions with their own brand of fake news.
    The msm calling the alt media the sole purveyors of fake news isn’t the pot but the [out]house calling the kettle black.

  2. https://projects.propublica.org/docdollars/
    [https://static.propublica.org/rails/assets/docdollars/cash-8c22b00d5475412eda77c69bc9a12a71f01936b7c0ad631d7e765bf5e71ea286.svg]
    Dollars for Docs – ProPublica projects.propublica.org Dollars for Docs. By Charles Ornstein, Lena Groeger, Mike Tigas, and Ryann Grochowski Jones, ProPublica. Updated December 13, 2016
    ________________________________

  3. Is it normal that reading this — even after 40 odd years, one feels both deep anger and deep regret at the same time? Anger at US arrogance and uncouth ignorance and absence of common respect for the sovereignty of other nations– surely US leaders are the brashest ego maniacs on the planet! The actions they bring to bear on their people– loathsome and beyond the despicable– in fragrant disregard of international law– ever serving and furthering its own interest on virtually every nation on the planet — to a lessor or often draconian degree.
    From farming stock myself, aware of the challenges rural landowners face, for years I received a newsletter from an American rural landowners organisation– but unsubscribed, as I cannot believe how blind to the enemy within these people remain — Putin, Russia, Syria and Iran, regarded as the axis of evil. I am sore puzzled about it. Maybe I lack understanding of it all… dunno, but seems like the US government has brainwashed most of its citizens to believe they truly are the only worthwhile nation on the planet — actually needs no other nation– would actually prefer to wipe them off the face off the planet.
    Sorry, but how can Americans remain so obtuse– so plain thick? — Have they truly got no idea of what looks set to be helluva bad news coming their way? Not brought to them by a foreign power, but the ruthless and corrupt power within their own gates?

      1. Your response is appreciated … Sometimes just reading the musings of another voice of sanity, makes the day brighter again… You know Shapie, at times one gets so stale with all this ‘official drivel’ (as Martha Gellhorn so aptly called it) — its so dreadfully dirty, so low and immoral– devoid of even a the minutest grain of common decency– never mind even basic honesty– These people’s behave like alien monsters– one can liken them to some invasive and deadly poisonous scum polluting both humankind and the planet.
        Much as you perhaps may view it negatively– I am watching earth changes with close attention and almost daily– because I have come to believe that only some massive catastrophic natural disaster could prove to be the catalyst returning humanity to the spiritual drawing board. Just my little opinion.

    1. As my fellow Americans tell me “I don’t care and I don’t want to know.” and that’s their mantra. They’ve had it too good for too long. That’s gradually changing now, with the Rockefeller plan to lower Americans into the poverty pit. David Rocketsmeller has made many statements to that effect. Money owes no allegiance to anything and negates any moral imperatives. USASTRATCOM 32D20

  4. I thought Hawaii was America’s first succesful regime change. If not for American meddling, Hawaii would be an independent country today.

  5. https://geopolitics.co/2017/06/26/crude-blood-turmoil-story-of-us-first-successful-overseas-regime-change/
    “The uprising organized by CIA agents with the participation of Muslim clergy” …. “muslim clergy” = FREEMASONS. They may be muslim, but they are also fully FREEMASON. Freemasons hide behind the veneeer of religion when they are not a religion at all but a militant guerilla force – like all these other fake religions cropping up like utah lds, scientology, l ron hubbard, crowley’s OTO/AA and other fake appendage degrees, jack parsons being reverred as an occult god at nasa, etc etc.
    A big secret is that intel agencies are staffed COMPLETELY by freemasons. Now that hollywood is failing, they all moved into the intelligence agencies to control and push their zionist narrative. Trolls and shills on the internet are all PAID GOVERNMENT AGENTS sat in their cubicles at GCHQ, or european embassies, or that new centre trump and saudis opened up where they were holding a giant luciferian orb…Also, people wonder how these intelligence netwrosk get to be so big and opprssive. Ie the CIA openly advertises jbos on its website, but noone actually ever gets them. So where is this huge network coming from? FREEMASONRY. Freemasonry is the front/entranceway into the intelligence community and all intel agent are freemasons. The ones that arent are the ones leaking to the press.
    The average Masonic shill even takes PRIDE nowdays of admitting they were behind the french and american revolutions among others, and glorify george washington et al, which a lot of misguided patriots still orgasm over, but we can clearly conclude that the revolutions were all for nothing. They did not bring “liberty and eqalitere and fraternieh” they brought false dualistic dhicthomy, growing double standards, and a masonic hegemony in service to the new world order.
    And again, misguided patriots think we “lost” the constitution and revolutionary america. But I am contenting that the whole thing was a giant CON/TRICK from the start to establish a freemasonic country as a base for the new world order – cos thats all france and america is these days – with the whole patriotic/independence angle being mere BRANDING to cover up the trueintention, which we can clearly see nowadays… Their genocide propaganda they called “manifest destiny”. Their recruitment of cannon fodder they called “patriotic rebellion against a tyrannical regime” (when the US is now far more tyrannical just like israel has become the nazis they were “supposedly” rebelling against). Their masonic imperialism (construction of huge alters to lucifer) being “benevolent settlements ordained by God” (ie have u noticed how Trump says “god bless you, god bless america” at every speech to try cater to religous and patriotic delusions). This is exactly what israel is doing now all over the middle east; they say jersusalem is their “birthright promised to them by god”, that genocide of palestinians is ok becuase they are “perpetetual victims jsut acting out in defense against dictators like assad”, etc etc. It’s all a fake narrative to get you to buy into the freemason/jew agenda of jew world order domination.
    The nations most run by freemasons are the nations most serving the jews/zionists/israel and the war machine: UK, USA, Israel, and Sweden.
    Freemasons, zionists, and the cabal are all the same thing. Israel may be the head, and the obedient taxpayers may be the feet, but Freemasonry is the SPINE, without it, the whole system falls. Trump is a freemason. He’s always flashing his masonic handsigns, and masons take secret oaths to pledge allegiance to their zionists gods first and foremost, not the people or concepts of peace.

    1. Yup!– And who are the freemasons, if not Zionists? — The so-called Illuminati. As you say, they come in all colours– all races, as Joe Biden said– You don’t have to be Jewish to be Zionist! No this unholy and un-Godly cabal,- council of 300– blah blah — they have no allegiance to any nation– only to their archaic global agenda.

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