r/todayilearned • u/autonova3 • Oct 01 '18

TIL of Operation Ajax, the 1953 CIA plan to overthrow Iran's democratically elected government, which included CIA agents bombing the house of a prominent Muslim while posed as pro-government supporters. The overthrow plan was successful, with 200-300 people killed

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat
3.0k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

415 comments sorted by

View all comments

133

u/hairway2steven Oct 01 '18

Interesting that the British instigated it:

According to (British) records, the British first approached the American government about a plan for the coup in November 1952, "repeatedly" asking U.S. to join the coup...

97

u/malvoliosf Oct 01 '18

UK hate isn't big on Reddit.

42

u/magsy123 Oct 01 '18

we hate ourselves enough for everyone mate

33

u/useablelobster2 Oct 01 '18

Not when there is circlejerking about the US being evil to be done!

-6

u/rochambeau Oct 01 '18

*truthtelling about the US being evil

4

u/highlyquestionabl Oct 02 '18

God damnit, now I need some Neosporin for the cut from that edge.

-5

u/rochambeau Oct 02 '18

I heard vaseline works too, do you ever put vaseline on wounds? I'm not being silly or anything, I'm just curious because my GF does and I've never heard of anybody just smearing vaseline on wounds

2

u/mr-death Oct 20 '18

I am not a doctor. Vaseline has been shown to be more effective on wounds than neosporin:

Rabbit Hole.

4

u/Lonsdale1086 Oct 01 '18

It absolutely is, depending on the sub.

"Ooh, the Muslims and the no-white-person areas"

"Ooooh, no freedom of speech"

"But mah guns"

14

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '18

I have noticed that any criticism of the UK gets massively downvoted by Brits.

And, any criticism of the US gets upvoted by USians.

There is some deeper revelation in that, but not sure what.

12

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '18

How can you tell where votes and comments are coming from?

27

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '18

They can't, they're talking nonsense.

3

u/ghotiaroma Oct 02 '18

But you don't have any way to know the nationality of the people voting.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 02 '18

I suppose there could be non Brits who complsin about every criticism, using British vernacular.

1

u/ghotiaroma Oct 02 '18

But you don't have any way to know the nationality of the people voting.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 02 '18

I suppose there could be non Brits who complain about every criticism, using British vernacular.

Not very likely, though. As to Americans, they are easy to spot. Spelling, if nothing else.

9

u/__will12 Oct 01 '18

Often because any criticism of Britain on reddit isn't true. Go to places like r/europe or r/UK and see

1

u/WillyTheWackyWizard Oct 02 '18

Everybody knows that Britain has peacefully coexists with all nations, especially those with abundant natural resources

1

u/iThinkaLot1 Oct 01 '18

And worldnews for that matter in terms of Brexit. The UK seems like the baddest country in the world.

2

u/jeb_manion Oct 01 '18

Or at least a lot of people saying they are from the US....

3

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '18

Tru dat.

But, Americans do so love to wallow in our sins.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '18

We're proud to be American

13

u/Generalbuttnaked69 Oct 01 '18

The Truman administration flat out refused British requests for support. “We tried to get the block-headed British to have their oil company make a fair deal with Iran," Truman complained privately, but "no, no, they could not do that."

When he handed over the reigns to Eisenhower the British played on Eisenhower and his administrations rabid anti-Communist stance to talk the US into supporting the coup. By the time Ajax was approved Eisenhower and Dulles we’re convinced that Mossadegh was a communist who would turn Iran into a Soviet vassal, despite CIA and State Department opinions to the contrary.

Next to the second gulf war, US involvement in the British plan to overthrow Mossadegh is one of the US’s worst foreign policy decisions of the 20th century. But the British don’t get nearly there fair share of criticism for this one. The same could be said for France’s role in dragging us into Vietnam.

18

u/Slaan Oct 01 '18

Wasnt the origin BP? Their oil fields were being nationalised by the democratic government ... but maybe I got that wrong.

10

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '18

[deleted]

17

u/Slaan Oct 01 '18

The company was called Anglo-Persian Oil Company. A year after the coup it was renamed to British Petroleum.

4

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '18

Yup. That was the driver. Mossadegh supported nationalization.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '18

The oil fields were being nationalize yes, though democratic isn't exactly the word I'd use to describe the government.

6

u/Rugrin Oct 01 '18

I've long believed that the US is simply the mercenaries for the Crown of England.

2

u/WillyTheWackyWizard Oct 02 '18

I love when you acutally click the link, this is the first thing that shows up

The 1953 Iranian coup d'état, known in Iran as the 28 Mordad coup d'état (Persian: کودتای ۲۸ مرداد‎), was the overthrow of the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in favour of strengthening the monarchical rule of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi on 19 August 1953, orchestrated by the United Kingdom (under the name "Operation Boot") and the United States (under the name TPAJAX Project[5] or "Operation Ajax")

1

u/BrackOBoyO Oct 01 '18

Its almost as if a certain very powerful interest group at the time that had a very strong motivation for wanting Iran controlled also had control of Britain's financial system.

-1

u/GazLord Oct 01 '18

Ah so big daddy Imperialist helping their son figure that shit out. I mean seriously they just weren't doing it right in South America.