Iran 1953

Summary

In August 1953, the CIA, working with British intelligence, organized and financed the overthrow of Iran's democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, who had nationalized the British-controlled Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. The coup consolidated the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi for the following 26 years. The CIA publicly acknowledged its role for the first time in 2013, through declassified documents.

What Happened

In 1951, Iran’s parliament, led by Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC, the predecessor of BP), which had controlled Iranian oil production under a concession dating to 1913. Britain responded with an economic boycott of Iranian oil and sought U.S. support to remove Mossadegh; the Truman administration initially declined direct involvement, but the incoming Eisenhower administration approved a joint CIA–British intelligence operation, code-named TPAJAX by the CIA, in 1953^[1]. An initial attempt in mid-August 1953 failed and briefly forced Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to flee the country; a second, successful phase of the operation, directed on the ground by CIA officer Kermit Roosevelt Jr., organized street demonstrations and military support that led to Mossadegh’s arrest by 19 August 1953 and the Shah’s return to full power^[1][3].

Who Was Affected

Iranian civilians experienced the immediate political violence and instability of the coup itself, and, over the following 26 years, lived under the Shah’s increasingly centralized and, in later decades, repressive rule, enforced in part by the intelligence and security service SAVAK.

Who Was Responsible

The CIA (see CIA) organized and funded the operation under authorization from the Eisenhower administration, in coordination with British intelligence (MI6), which had initiated the plan (under the code name Operation Boot) after its own earlier, unilateral efforts to remove Mossadegh had failed.

The Justification

U.S. officials publicly and internally justified the operation using Cold War language, citing concern that instability in Iran could allow Soviet influence or a Communist takeover, particularly given the political prominence of Iran’s Tudeh (Communist) Party at the time. Britain’s primary and more explicit motivation was recovering control of Iranian oil production nationalized by Mossadegh’s government.

Ideas Behind the File

The coup is a documented case examined under reason of state and resource imperialism: declassified planning documents and the historical record show the operation combined a stated anti-Communist security rationale with an underlying interest, particularly on the British side, in reversing the nationalization of a strategic oil resource.

Institutions

The CIA directed the U.S. role in the operation; British intelligence services directed the UK’s parallel role; the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company’s dispute with the Mossadegh government was the immediate precipitating issue.

What Is Certain

That the CIA and British intelligence planned, funded and executed an operation that led to Mossadegh’s overthrow in August 1953, and that this operation restored the Shah to full power, are established beyond dispute by declassified CIA and State Department records, and were publicly confirmed by the CIA itself in 2013^[1][2].

What Is Disputed

This archive marks the relative weight of motivating factors Causation Contested: historians differ on how much the operation was driven by genuine anti-Communist security concerns as opposed to protecting British oil interests, and on how directly the 1953 coup should be understood as a cause of Iran’s 1979 revolution and subsequent decades of U.S.–Iran hostility, as opposed to one contributing factor among many across a 26-year period^[3].

Human Consequences

Mossadegh was placed under house arrest until his death in 1967; his government’s supporters faced arrest and, in some cases, execution in the aftermath. Over the following decades, SAVAK’s documented use of surveillance, arbitrary detention and torture against political dissidents shaped Iranian civil society under the Shah’s rule.

Accountability

No U.S. or British official faced legal accountability for the operation. U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright publicly acknowledged the U.S. role in 2000, describing it as “a setback for Iran’s political development,” and the CIA’s 2013 declassification of internal historical documents represented the first official U.S. government confirmation of the agency’s direct role^[4].

What Changed Afterward

The 1953 coup is widely cited by historians of U.S.–Iran relations as a formative grievance in Iranian political memory, frequently invoked in the lead-up to and aftermath of the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the subsequent U.S. embassy hostage crisis, and remains a recurring reference point in later U.S. foreign policy debate over covert regime-change operations, including Guatemala 1954.

Sources & Evidence

Last reviewed: January 15, 2025. Found an error? See our corrections policy.