Iran And The CIA - 1953
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Iran And The CIA - 1953
Ronald Kessler (Author of "The Terrorist Watch: Inside The Desperate Race To Stop The Next Attack") gives expert video advice on: Where did the idea for the 1953 Iranian coup d'etat originate?; How was Operation AJAX carried out by the CIA?; What was the outcome of Operation AJAX? and more...
Where did the idea for the 1953 Iranian coup d'etat originate?
This was an idea that originated with the Brits, but is something that the whole U.S. government was involved in. It was an effort to topple the Iranian leader Mosaddeq. The idea was that they were trying to impede world supplies to the U.S. It was the way that things were done in those days. The problem is that when the CIA would topple a government, which it also did in Guatemala, very often it was replaced by a worse government. So it was sort of a very short-sighted effort, and I think we've learned that actions like that are, really not, very good ideas.
How was Operation AJAX carried out by the CIA?
A major technique that was used in Operation AJAX to bring down the government in Iran was to ferment riots and demonstrations by paying off people to demonstrate and create the impression that the people in general were behind this coup d'etat.
What was the outcome of Operation AJAX?
Well, Mossadeq was toppled, but in the end we got Khamani and now we have an even worse regime. So it's a lesson in not interfering to topple a government because in the end we could get someone worse. If a country really is a threat to us, we now have learned that we have to take military action. That's what we did in Iraq, perceiving them to be a threat, but to simply try to topple a government to try to get a better one doesn't necessarily work.
What were repercussions of Operation AJAX?
In the case of AJAX, we ended with a worse government. We ended up with Khomeini, and now we have an even worse situation, where they don't believe that the Holocaust existed.