Why Trump may resist toppling Tehran: The CIA’s 1953 Iranian coup still reverberates
The 1953 CIA coup led to oil control, but also to revolution and anti-Western fury.
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Seventy-two years after the CIA helped orchestrate the overthrow of Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, echoes of that historic coup are shaping today’s geopolitical calculations. As pressure mounts in Israel to push for regime change in Tehran, sources suggest U.S. President Donald Trump remains wary of such a move, concerned it could backfire just as the 1953 intervention did, ultimately fueling decades of anti-Western sentiment and helping pave the way for Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979.
A dramatic clash between Iran and the West in 1953 over oil control changed the course of Middle Eastern history. When Iran’s government moved to nationalize its oil industry, then dominated by the British-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, the CIA, backed by British intelligence, launched a covert operation to overthrow Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. In his place, they installed General Fazlollah Zahedi, ushering back Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to power.
The 1953 coup secured Western control of Iran’s oil for over two decades, but at a heavy cost: it ignited deep anti-Western resentment and laid the ideological groundwork for the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which would transform Iran’s place in the world, and its relationship with the United States, for generations.
In 2013, the CIA officially acknowledged its role in orchestrating the 1953 coup in Iran, admitting to bribing politicians and military leaders, and launching a propaganda campaign to manipulate public opinion. That covert operation has since become a symbol of the complex legacy of American intervention abroad.
On one hand, it served as a blueprint for U.S. efforts to replace governments seen as hostile to American interests or aligned with Soviet influence. On the other, it became a powerful cautionary tale, fueling long-standing Iranian distrust of the West and reinforcing support for the clerical regime among those who believe U.S. actions are rooted more in strategic and economic self-interest than in any real concern for the Iranian people.