THE KARMA OF 1953 COUP IN IRAN

The Karma of 1953 Coup in Iran



THE KARMA OF 1953 COUP IN IRAN

Introduction

In retrospect, the joined States sponsored coup d'etat in Iran of August 19, 1953, has appeared as a critical event in postwar world history. The government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq which was ousted in the coup was the last popular, democratically oriented government to contain agency in Iran. The regime restoring it was a dictatorship that suppressed all types of well liked political activity, producing tensions that assisted greatly to the 1978-1979 Iranian revolution. If Mosaddeq had not been overthrown, the transformation might not have occurred. The 1953 coup furthermore assessed the first peacetime use of covert activity by the joined States to overthrow a foreign government. As such, it was an important precedent for events like the 1954 coup in Guatemala and the 1973 overthrow of Salvador Allende in Chile, and made the joined States a key goal of the Iranian revolution.

Discussion

On the face of it, this argument has substantial merit. The Eisenhower administration was certainly favorable to U.S. business concerns, and the Dulles male siblings' regulation firm had often comprised U.S. oil companies in lawful matters. Moreover, the last affirmation worked out in 1954 with the Zahedi government provided U.S. companies a 40 Iranian oil output, which had before been controlled by the British. While this outlook will not solely be refuted, it seems more reasonable to contend that U.S. policymakers were inspired mostly by doubts of a communist takeover in Iran, and that the engagement of U.S. companies was sought mainly to prevent this from occurring.

The Cold War was at its size in the early 1950s, and the Soviet amalgamation was viewed as an expansionist power searching world domination. Eisenhower had made the Soviet threat a key topic in the 1952 elections, accusing the Democrats of being supple on communism and of having "lost China." one time in power, the new administration rapidly searched to put its views into practice: the State Department was purged of homosexuals and supposed communists, steps were taken to strengthen the Western coalition, and initiatives were started to boost the Western position in Latin America, the Middle East, and East Asia. Viewed in this context, and approaching as it did only two weeks after Eisenhower's inauguration, the decision to overthrow Mosaddeq appears only as one more step in the international effort of the Eisenhower administration to impede Soviet expansionism. Moreover, the major U.S. oil businesses were not involved in Iran at this time. A glut existed in the world oil market.

The U.S. majors had advanced their production in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in 1951 in alignment to make up for the loss of Iranian production; operating in Iran would force them to slash back output in these countries which would conceive tensions with Saudi and Kuwaiti leaders. Furthermore, if nationalist sentiments remained high in Iran, output there would be risky. U.S. oil businesses had shown no interest in Iran ...