Event
The 1953 coup in Iran
Overthrow of Prime Minister Mossadegh on 19 August 1953, in an operation the CIA called TPAJAX.
- Dates
- 19 Aug 1953
- Also known as
- Operation TPAJAX, Operation Ajax
- Wikidata
- Q593774
Connections 10
interventions
- British government Aug 1953 its intelligence service, MI6, backed the plan; a CIA historian cites MI6’s Tehran chief as saying the idea came from the Foreign Office Primary record 12
- Central Intelligence Agency Aug 1953 ran the operation, by its own internal history’s account According to Central Intelligence Agency Primary record 3
- Kermit Roosevelt Jr. Aug 1953 on-the-ground manager of the plan Primary record 12
- Mohammad Reza Pahlavi Aug 1953 his order naming Zahedi prime minister was copied and circulated in Tehran Scholarship & press 1
involved
- Mohammad Mossadegh overthrown Primary record 4
- Dwight D. Eisenhower was sent the report of an “unexpected strong upsurge of popular and military reaction” on 19 August Primary record 5
- Central Intelligence Agency its historian argues the CIA’s role “was significant”; Amos Perlmutter, quoted by him, held it “not very significant” Primary record 2
followed from
-
Nationalization of Iran’s oil, 1951
According to Central Intelligence Agency
Primary record
3
In the CIA history’s account the link runs through the Cold War risk, not through oil itself.
appears in
- The Battle for Iran told in the CIA’s own internal history Primary record 3
located in
Timeline 5 dates
- Aug 1953 British government intervened in The 1953 coup in Iran
- Aug 1953 Central Intelligence Agency intervened in The 1953 coup in Iran According to Central Intelligence Agency
- Aug 1953 Kermit Roosevelt Jr. intervened in The 1953 coup in Iran
- Aug 1953 Mohammad Reza Pahlavi intervened in The 1953 coup in Iran
- 19 Aug 1953 The 1953 coup in Iran
Proof 5 sources
-
CIA Confirms Role in 1953 Iran Coup (Electronic Briefing Book No. 435), National Security Archive, George Washington University, 19 Aug 2013.
Scholarship & press
The blank spots on Iran involve the CIA- and MI6-backed plot to overthrow the country's prime minister, Mohammad Mosaddeq.
on-the-ground manager of the U.S.-U.K. coup plan.
Coup operatives made copies of the document and circulated it around Tehran to help regenerate momentum following the collapse of the original plan.
This map shows the disposition of bands of "ruffians," paid to demonstrate by coup organizers, early on August 19, 1953.
-
“Zendebad, Shah!”: The Central Intelligence Agency and the Fall of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadeq, August 1953 (CIA History Staff, Scott A. Koch), Central Intelligence Agency, 1998.
Primary record
According to C.M. Woodhouse, MI6's Chief of Station in Tehran, the idea of overthrowing Mossadeq came from the Foreign Office, not British intelligence.
Without Kermit Roosevelt's leadership, guidance, and ability to put some backbone into the key players when they wanted to quit, no one would have moved against Mossadeq.
CIA's role was significant.
role in these climactic events was not very significant
The pro-Shah sentiments of the Tehran crowds on 19 August 1953 were genuine.
-
The Battle for Iran (CIA History Staff, written in the mid-1970s; excised release 1981; this version released 2013), Central Intelligence Agency.
Primary record
the military coup that overthrew Mosadeq and his National Front cabinet was carried out under CIA direction as an act of U.S. foreign policy, conceived and approved at the highest levels of government.
It was the potential of those risks to leave Iran open to Soviet aggression--at a time when the Cold War was at its height
the military coup that overthrew Mosadeq and his National Front cabinet was carried out under CIA direction
-
Preface, Foreign Relations of the United States, Iran, 1951–1954 (retrospective volume on covert operations), U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, 2017.
Primary record
the overthrow of Iranian Prime Minister Dr. Mohammad Mosadeq on August 19, 1953
-
Memorandum From Acting Director of Central Intelligence Cabell to President Eisenhower, August 1953 (FRUS Iran 1951–1954, doc. 295), U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, Aug 1953.
Primary record
An unexpected strong upsurge of popular and military reaction
Page history 1 change
- Add 55 stories, each checked against its sources96e92fe6
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