In the summer of 1953, the CIA was six years old. It had never overthrown a government. By August 19 of that year, working with British MI6, it had — and the country it had overthrown was Iran, the prime minister was Mohammad Mosaddegh, and the cause was, almost entirely, oil. The operation was codenamed Ajax. It was authorized by President Eisenhower against the recommendation of his Secretary of State, executed on the ground by a 36-year-old grandson of Theodore Roosevelt, and very nearly failed. The CIA officially acknowledged its role only in August 2013.
State & Intelligence Operations
1953
