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Remembering a CIA Coup in Iran that Never Was

(Tablet) Peter Theroux - As Columbia University professor Hamid Dabashi writes in his book Iran: A People Interrupted: "As Iranians never get tired of repeating (for this is the defining trauma of their modern history), the CIA, aided by British intelligence, mounted, paid for, and executed a military coup, overthrew the democratically elected government of [Mohammed] Mosaddeq, and brought the corrupt Mohammed Reza Shah back to power." This encapsulation of the events of August 1953 contains four untruths. First, the CIA did not mount or execute a coup. Second, Mossadegh was not democratically elected. Third, the shah was not yet corrupt. Fourth, he was not brought back to power, because he had never left it: Having survived an attempt on his life in 1949, Mohammed Reza chose to wait out Mossadegh's fall in Baghdad and Rome but never abdicated. Constitutionally, appointing prime ministers in imperial Iran was the sole prerogative of the shah. In 1951 the shah chose Mossadegh as prime minister, the parliament consented, and the shah appointed him. Between 1953 and 1979, the shah would appoint and dismiss 10 more prime ministers, including Mossadegh twice. No one describes these changes as coups.
2023-03-09 00:00:00
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