THE AMERICAN EMPIRE AND THE COMING CLASS WAR ----- Episode 33

   IN MARCH 1953, IKE ASKED MEMBERS OF THE 
  NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL 

   The United States' role in the Iranian conflict should have provided all the answer Eisenhower needed. Upon taking office, Eisenhower confronted a crisis in Iran , where the government of Mohammad Mossadeq was challenging the monopoly held by Britain's Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, the forerunner of British Petroleum {BP } and the world's third largest crude-oil producer. The company, which was 51 percent owned by the British government, had developed cozy relations with Reza Shah Pahlavi, who had seized power after World War I and become Shah in1925, and with his son Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, who replaced his father in 1941, when the elder's Nazi sympathies had provoked a joint occupation of Iran by Britain and the Soviet Union. 

Anglo-Iranian kept 84 percent of the revenue for itself, leaving at most a paltry 16 percent for the Iranians. It paid taxes in Britain rather than Iran. In fact, its British taxes were more than double the amount the Iranians received in royalties. While the British got rich off the Iranian oil, the Iranians lived in poverty. Oil-field workers earned less than 50 cents per day and received no benefits or vacations. The Iranians' outrage was ignited in 1950 when the U.S. oil ARAMCO signed a contract giving Saudi Arabia 50 percent of the profits from Saudi oil. Under pressure, Anglo-Iranian offered improved terms. But Mossadeq so hated British colonialism that he refused to consider the company's offer. The Iranian parliament, reflecting Iranians' near-uiversal antipathy toward Anglo-Iranian, voted unanimously to nationalize the oil industry and compensate the British for their investment. Britain's government seemed hardly in a position to object, having nationalized Britain's coal and electricity companies and railroads. 

A former finance and foreign minister, Mossadeq, despite his legendary eccentricities, was an enormously popular figure inside Iran and a well-respected one internationally. He was the first Iranian to earn a doctor of law degree from a European university. He had attended the Versailles Conference in a futile attempt to block the assertion of British control and had led the decolonization fight in succeeding decades. Time magazine named him Man of the Year for 1951. The U.S. ambassador reported that Mossadeq "has the backing of 95 to 98 percent of the people of his country." His defiance of the colonial masters thrilled the Arab masses throughout the region. 

With Iran producing 40 percent of the Middle Eastern oil, the United States understood the importance of easing the tension. It had been pushing the British to improve their offer and avoid the crisis since 1948. Truman derided Sir William Fraser, the head of Anglo-Iranian, as a "typical nineteenth century colonial exploiter." 

Members of the British cabinet responded in the fashion typical of twentieth-century exploiters and debated the pros and cons of invading. It became clear that an invasion would prove costly and might not succeed. But, capitulating to the Iranians, some felt, could put the final nail in the empire's coffin. "If Persia were allowed to get away with it, Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries would be encouraged to think they could try things on," Defense Minister Emanuel Shinwell feared. "The next thing might be an attempt to nationalize the Suez Canal. " Opposition leader Winston Churchill told Prime Minister Clement Attlee that he was "rather shocked at the attitude of the United States, who did not seem to appreciate fully the importance of the great area extending from the Caspian to the Persian Gulf : it was more important than Korea." Foreign Secretary Herbert Morrison also deplored the policy of "scuttle and surrender." 

Acheson attempted to mediate, fearing that military action by Great Britain in the south might provoke a Soviet Union incursion in the north. Though frustrated  by Mossadeq's intransigence, Acheson sympathized with the Iranians' position. He convinced Averell Harriman to go to Tehran to defuse the situation. Harriman reported that the "situation that has developed here is a tragic example of absentee management combined with world-wide growth of nationalism in underdeveloped countries." The British put the invasion on hold, initiating economic warfare in its stead. They embargoed oil oil coming out of Iran and goods going in. With the approval of the United States, the Bank of England halted the finance of and trade with Iran. The Iranian economy slowly ground to a halt. 

Winston Churchill and his Conservative Party returned to power in October 1951, increasing the pressure for military intervention. Churchill had earlier written to Truman that "Mussy Duck" was an elderly lunatic bent on wrecking his country and turning it over to communism." When Mossadeq got wind of British plans to launch a coup, he shut the British Embassy and expelled its employees. 

When Eisenhower took office, the Dulles brothers met with Kermit "Kim" Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt's grandson and the CIA's top Middle East expert, to discuss eliminating "that madman Mossadeq." John Foster Dulles acknowledged that Mossadeq wasn't a Communist, but he feared a takeover by the Communist Tudeh party that would deliver Iran's oil to Moscow. Soon, he argued, the rest of the Middle east oil would come under Soviet control. Mossadeq had moved closer to Tudeh as the crisis unfolded. The new administration portrayed Mossadeq as an unstable extremist ----"not quite sane," according to U.S. Ambassador Loy Henderson. 

Behind the scenes, the CIA went to work, launching "Operation Ajax" headed by Roosevelt.  British intelligence, M16, provided support. But things did not go as planned. When the CIA's Tehran station chief opposed the tawdry operation as being inimical to the United Staes' long-term interests, Allen Dulles fired him. Mossadeq uncovered the shah's collaboration with the coup attempt, forcing the shah to flee the country. 

The CIA, meanwhile, had been buying up Iranian journalists, preachers, army and police officers, and members of parliament, who were instructed to foment opposition to the government. The CIA also purchased the services of the extremist Warriors of Islam, a "terrorist gang," according to a CIA history of the coup. In August, Roosevelt began setting mobs loose to create chaos in the capital, Tehran. Roosevelt spread rumors that Mossadeq was a Communist AND A JEW. His street thugs, pretending to be members of the Tudeh party, attacked mullahs and destroyed a mosque. Among the rioters was Ayatollah Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini, Iran's future leader. On August 19, 1953, in the midst of the anarchy, Roosevelt brought General Fazlollah Zahedi out of his CIA hiding place. Zahedi announced that the shah, then in Italy, had appointed him the new prime minister. After an armed battle, coup plotters arrested Mossadeq and thousands of his supporters. Some were executed. Mossadeq was convicted of treason and imprisoned. The shah returned to Tehran. At a final meeting with Roosevelt, the shah offered a toast : "I owe my throne to God, my people, my army ---- AND TO YOU."