Documents Detail CIA's Role In 1953 Coup In Iran
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Newly declassified documents offer more details of how the CIA executed the overthrow of Iran's democratically elected prime minister 60 years ago, describing the political frustrations that led the U.S. to take covert action against a Soviet ally - and echoing the current frustrations with Iran over its nuclear ambitions.
It's long been known that the United States and Britain played key roles in the overthrow of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh - a move that still poisons Tehran's attitude toward both nations. The CIA acknowledged its role previously, even including it in the timeline on its public website last year: "19 August 1953 CIA-assisted coup overthrows Iranian Premier Mohammed Mossadegh."
Mossadegh was replaced by the oppressive regime of Shah Reza Pahlavi, who was overthrown in 1979 by followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in the Iranian revolution of 1979.
But for historians, the heavily redacted documents posted this week on George Washington University's National Security Archive amount to "the CIA's first formal acknowledgement that the agency helped to plan and execute the coup," the archive said on its site.
The documents also offer an explanation for the covert action that's eerily similar to arguments for curbing Iran's nuclear ambitions today. The CIA argued then that Iran was threatening Western security by not cooperating with the West - at the time, by refusing to bargain with the British-run Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. - thereby threatening the supply of cheap oil to Britain and risking a British invasion that could in turn trigger a counter Soviet invasion of Iranian oilfields.
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