The 1953 Iranian "Coup"

I’ve seen a couple of instances in the news recently about how in 1953, the United States “engineered a coup, crushing a moment of democracy in Iran”. As a student of history, allow me to explain what occurred.

Mohammad Mosaddegh was duly elected Prime Minister of Iran in 1951. One of his first acts was to seize the assets of foreign oil companies in Iran. His domestic policies began to drive the Iranian economy into the ground. He became highly unpopular. He thus convinced the Iranian Parliament to grant him emergency powers. He thus began to jail his political opponents. At the same time, Mosaddegh started an alliance with the Soviet Union which led to Iranian communists infiltrating the military, attacking Mossaddegh opponents, and stifling political dissent. Eventually, the Iranian Communist Party became Mosaddegh’s foot-soldiers. As his popularity continued to plummet and members of his own party began resigning in mass from Parliament, Mosaddegh rigged an election referendum that dissolved Parliament. He then assumed complete dictatorial power over Iran. The Shah (the ruling monarch) attempted to use his constitutional authority to have Mossaddegh removed from power. Instead, Mossaddegh ignored the Shah’s constitutional authority (and thus the Iranian Constitution) and began arresting Shah supporters. The Shah himself was forced to flee to Iraq. Now dictator over all of Iran but having his supporters reduced to only Soviet-backed communists, Mossaddegh sent his foot soldiers out to arrest more political opponents and beat back the growing national protests against his dictatorial rule. Fearing that Iran was about to completely fall into the Soviet bloc with another communist dictator as supreme leader, the U.S. approached the Shah and loyal military leaders and helped organize and support the move that eventually led to Mosaddegh’s removal from power.

This is how the U.S. “engineered a coup, crushing a moment of democracy in Iran”.