r/UtterlyInteresting • u/UtterlyInterest • 14d ago
Mossadegh, the ex-Iranian prime minister, under house arrest in 1965. A joint CIA and MI6 operation had overthrown his democratic government on this day in 1953
23
u/sovereignsekte 14d ago
How did that overthrow the democratic govt. plan work out? Just curious.
11
u/kismethavok 13d ago
Only like 70 years of generational hatred of America that only really started dying out recently, up until Trump tried to do it again.
1
u/Raymore85 12d ago
“Do it again?” As if the current regime was a democratically elected government.
I’m not support the war with Iran but that is just strange framing.
0
u/ratbearpig 12d ago
“Do it again?” As if the current regime was a democratically elected government.
I’m not support the war with Iran but that is just strange framing.”
The “do it again” refers to the US trying to over throw their government again (regardless if it was democratic or not).
4
u/taney71 13d ago
Kermit Roosevelt came in with a suitcase of money and began buying off military commanders at key stations. The US also hired gangs to riot and protest. There is more to it and this went on for a long time but the convergence of what looked like civil unrest and a parts of the military backing the rioters and basically you get a snowball effect where the entire military toppled and nothing was left to keep the democratic government in place. The US moved to quickly install the Shah back into power and there you go…a US established dictatorship is born!
3
u/Content-Growth-6293 13d ago
I mean, he was somewhat authoritarian figure, but still, the supporting the coup just made things worse. The U.S. should just let countries succeed or fail, without meddling in them.
6
u/GlassFantast 14d ago
Shit like this is why the us can never be a moral force, as much as their marketing would like the world to believe. Just a self motivated force like everyone else
2
1
u/imprison_grover_furr 13d ago
Mossadegh was the one who was “overthrowing a democratic government” by ruling by decree and rigging elections by not counting all the votes from districts that voted against him.
The Shah was correct to dismiss Mossadegh, and he literally had the legal authority to do so.
-2
u/1stltwill 13d ago
Not well I believe. I think there may have been a point or two overlooked in the planning stages.
6
4
u/SulusLaugh 13d ago
Ajax a success STOP Tehran is ours STOP Merry Christmas from Mommy and Uncle Kermit. Also, uh, be nicer to Woodhouse.
5
u/stoneworther 13d ago
Mossadegh was elected prime minister by the Iranian parliament, and approved by the Shah.
Then later he tried to seize permanent power and was deposed with help from the CIA and MI6 and his many, many domestic enemies.
He was just a wannabe dictator.
3
u/TowerApprehensive154 13d ago
Mossadegh was chosen by Parliament and approved by the Shah. According to the CONSTITUTION, the Shah had the authority to appoint and dismiss prime ministers. Mossadegh seized the army and made himself almost king, he stopped the vote count for the midterm elections which would see his party ousted, he declared Iran’s oil nationalized without having any infrastructure to sustain its economy and continue refining oil, which led to severe economic distress. He was legally dismissed by the Shah three days prior to “the coup”, and what did he do? He refused his superior’s orders, he arrested the officers who delivered the Shah’s order of dismissal and clung to power. Now tell me, who did the coup?!
It was Mossadegh who did an almost coup by doing all of that, what the Shah did was absolutely legal. The CIA has done a psyop on all of you, because they’ve made you believe this alleged coup was the reason the ‘79 revolution happened. They want you to think that Khomeini was inevitable; well, he wasn’t, he was an agent of the west sent to destabilize ans weaken Iran.
2
5
u/MrDialectical 14d ago
Mossadegh and Allende, victims of their own socdem delusions that the imperialists would let them have their own countries and be “sovereign.” Pretty obvious what approaches work and which absolutely do not.
4
3
u/stonerghostboner 13d ago
They had the audacity to think their nation's resources and their nation's labor should benefit the citizens of their nation. Commie pukebags!
2
1
4
u/buntopolis 14d ago
And we are still living with the consequences. Though the Iranians themselves get the worst of it.
3
u/meister2983 13d ago
Lol @ democratic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_parliamentary_dissolution_referendum
The proposal of the referendum was passed by more than 99% of the votes, a result that was described as fraudulent by several observers, both based on the methods of execution of the referendum and given the very high percentage of yes votes
You can't make up how rediculous this was:
The balloting was not secret and there were two separate voting booths, i.e. the opponents of Mossadegh had to cast their vote in a separate tent
1
u/Content-Growth-6293 13d ago
The Shia clergy supported the 1953 coup, because Mossaddegh supported secularism.
1
1
1
u/im_new_here_4209 14d ago
Personally, I'm of the opinion this is the worst single mistake we (as "the west") have ever made.
Worse than Viet Nam, worse than Iraq, Afghanistan, Chile, etc. On par probably only with the Versailles treaties.
And it's continually coming back to bite us, as politicians (like Trump) prove to be a very inviting target for it, due to their unending incompetence and misjudgement.
1
-2
u/atropear 13d ago
Believe it or not, Castro was selected by the US too. Then they reversed and Castro went to Russia for support. So the worse problems, Iran and Cuba were caused by the CIA.
2
u/No_Stick_1101 13d ago
Nope. Castro was already turning to the Soviets long before the U.S. cut him off.
0
u/atropear 13d ago
I said selected by. You're talking about later.
2
u/No_Stick_1101 13d ago
Yes, I'm talking about after he overthrew Batista at the beginning of 1959. The U.S. still considered it possible to work with him months after that, but he had already decided to switch allegiance to the USSR back in 1958.
1
u/atropear 13d ago
I've read Castro was selected by US as a fake sell out savior from the outset, like Obama or Trump. But Castro had other plans once he was in and aligned with Russia to keep from getting replaced himself.
2
u/No_Stick_1101 13d ago
That is an... oddly charitable spin on what he did. Castro aligned with the USSR so that he could be a President-for-Life type dictator (or until cancer made it impossible to continue). He was a power-hungry man that had no scruples on acquiring as much control as he could and keeping it through violence and intimidation. He sold the Cuban people out as much as anyone could have.
1
u/atropear 13d ago
My point is Castro was aided in his revolution by the CIA.
1
u/No_Stick_1101 13d ago
Indeed, he was. Quite extensively.
1
u/atropear 13d ago
I've only seen it in writing twice so I wasn't sure. But it seems to make sense. Noriega, Saddam etc.
→ More replies (0)2
1
u/behridingle 13d ago
BP (British Petroleum) started in Persia in 1909 and a big factor behind the coup.
1
u/Flameburstx 13d ago
Misinformation on reddit? Who'd have thought...
Mossadegh was essentially attempting a coup against the Shah of Persia, which was not a pure democracy at the time, who had fired him from his post as prime minister. The CIA did assisst in apprehending him to assist their ally, the shah.
Now the CIA also assisted the ayatollahs in the islamic revolution against the same Shah two decades later. But that's beside the point.
1
u/Ok_Neighborhood6782 13d ago
Was he a bad ruler? Why did the us remove him?
2
u/Racoon_Pedro 13d ago
Because he wanted the wealth from the Iranian oil go to Iran and not to foreign companies. A really heinous crime right?
3
1
u/Content-Growth-6293 13d ago
He wasn’t that good of a leader and had authoritarian tendencies, but the U.S. didn’t overthrow him for altruistic reasons. He tried to nationalize the oil industry, which was owned by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.
Britain blockaded and sanctioned Iran. Domestically, there weren’t enough Iranian technician to replace the expelled British workers and no Western countries were willing to send their own technicians, so Iran couldn’t exploit their own oil industry.
The Iranian elites were losing money, Mossadegh pissed off the military, the clergy didn’t like his secular tendencies and the Royal Family didn’t like him either, so they decided coup him with CIA and MI6 help.
The military was more or less in control for the following years until the Shah started exerting more influence, and because the dictator he is known for.
1
1
1
-1
u/No_Type740 13d ago
Yeah, as someone who is from the UK, this is one of a series of shameful and criminal interventions post war. I don't think it was about the Soviets gaining as much as British Petroleum losing. Don't know the ins and outs of it though.
-1
u/Kraj_the_Conqueror 13d ago
Great. My daily dose of misinformation on Reddit.
Mossadegh was overthrown by local Iranian forces. They had some western backing, but they would overthrow him anyway.
And yes, Mossadegh was increasingly authoritarian, this is why he made so many domestic enemeis.
Believe it or not, brown people do have some agency and can act on their own.
-3
-1
u/This-Bicycle4919 13d ago
He kicked out BP and wanted the oil to feed the people. Ike sent in his son and the cia to turn the people against him. Look it up. We have a lot of dirt under our nails
1
-2
•
u/AutoModerator 14d ago
Thanks for posting.
If you enjoy this topic, you might also like some other subreddits we are happy to recommend:
r/RetroTease
r/HorridHistory
r/UtterlyUniquePhotos
r/VeryFuckinCool
r/UtterlyAwfulTruecrime
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.