Historians: The Myth of CIA Role in ’53 Iran Coup

Tall tales by “a scion of the American establishment — former CIA agent and presidential grandson Kermit Roosevelt — and reams of studies by left-wing professors have sustained the myth” that the Eisenhower administration ousted Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadeq in a 1953 coup, notes Ray Takeyh at The Weekly Standard. But newly declassified State Department cables make it difficult to “come to the conclusion that America overthrew Mossadeq,” who’d spearheaded the nationalization of Iran’s oil and sought to undermine the pro-Western shah. For one thing, they shed light on the long-suppressed critical role the clergy played. A coup attempt in which the CIA was involved failed; but a second one, which did depose Mossadeq, “was largely an Iranian initiative.”