by Walter Onubogu

Created on: February 13, 2010   Last Updated: February 14, 2010

With historical hindsight, the CIA and MI6's (US and UK Intelligence Services)  intervention and engineering of the 1953 coup d'etat has had only negative effects. It is clear that without such an intervention into the country's domestic affairs, the revolution of 1979 might not have happened at all.

But then again, even if domestic political turmoil and instability and dissatisfaction with the ruling Pahlavi regime (since 1926 under the Reza Shah and his son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi) would have occurred, it much more likely would have given way to not an Islamic regime but to either a  reformed parliamentary, democratic, republican or communist one.

We ought to remember why the CIA got involved in the first place. The 1950's were the height of the Cold War, and both superpowers, i.e. the USA and Soviet Union (USSR), were either via proxy or directly trying to expand their spheres of influence among countries in the Third World, of which Iran was one of them. 

Now initially under the Democratic led administration of H.S Truman, there was sympathy for supporting decolonisation, and Third World countries national self-determination. There was a clear rejection of using anything other than diplomatic means to convince Iran's elected nationalist  government under Dr Mossadegh not to nationalise the Iranian oil industry (and expropriate the British assets) and to reach a compromise with Great Britain with fair share of revenues worked out (effectively repealing the unfair Anglo Iranian oil agreement of 1930 and writing a more balanced new oil  concession agreement). 

Britain and the Conservative government of Winston Churchill were adamantly opposed to allowing Dr Mossadegh's government have its way (a fair share of oil revenues from the Anglo Iranian oil company) and thought that if Iranians had their way, other people in the "colonies" (newly independent countries) might get similar weird ideas that challenging British global geopolitical supremacy is possible. 

There was alot of maneuvering in the background however with envoys being sent back and forth from Washington to Tehran to work out something reasonable with Prime Minister Dr Mossadegh, but an American desire for moderation and accommodation wasn't heeded by the British.

In fact Prime Minister Winston Churchill was angry about Truman's respect for Dr Mossadegh and interest in helping them pursue national self-determination.

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