Iran and the U.S., Part One: Four Days in August

What It Covers

The 1953 CIA-orchestrated coup that overthrew Iran's democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, examining how American and British intervention to control Iranian oil fundamentally reshaped US-Iran relations for decades.

Key Questions Answered

• •Covert operation tactics: CIA agent Kermit Roosevelt executed a multi-step coup plan including bribing Iranian press to print anti-Mosaddegh propaganda, recruiting Islamic clergy with strategic payments, and hiring two opposing mobs funded by the same source to create chaos.
• •Oil nationalization conflict: Britain controlled over 80% of Iranian oil revenues while Iran received only 10-12% under an exploitative deal. When Mosaddegh nationalized the oil industry in 1951, Britain recruited US help to overthrow him after President Truman initially refused.
• •Failed first attempt lessons: The initial midnight coup on August 15, 1953 failed when Mosaddegh's forces arrested the soldiers sent to arrest him. Roosevelt defied orders to leave and executed a successful second attempt four days later using mob violence and military commanders.
• •Historical narrative manipulation: Iran's clergy collaborated with the CIA in 1953 to undermine democracy, then later invoked Mosaddegh's legacy to justify the 1979 revolution and embassy hostage crisis, despite having opposed his democratic reforms decades earlier.