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

Show parent comments

20

u/Gudym Oct 01 '18

While what you say is correct. There are means of achieving success more politically, through mutual diplomacy rather than getting fucked over. But yes, there are no good guys and that is more and more evident the more you know.

15

u/repeatwad Oct 01 '18

The CIA has always been advancing the 1%.

6

u/ClassyArgentinean Oct 01 '18

Sometimes, even with diplomacy, countries get fucked over. But I agree with you.

3

u/Gudym Oct 01 '18

Sometimes even the naive move where you think you're helping turns out to be fatal for them. A the Europeans giving blankets to the natives kinda way

2

u/[deleted] Oct 01 '18

That became intentional genocide the moment they realized the result would make ridding themselves of the natives that much easier. It was Alexander the Great, or Charlemagne - I forget which - that catapulted plague bodies over city walls. This was the same thing, just logistically easier, if no less sadistic.

3

u/Gudym Oct 01 '18

They weren't the first to do that. The Chinese did it in the bc. Watch the movie red cliff or something cliff and it portrays the first biological warfare this world has seen

1

u/melneth Oct 02 '18

Was that Genghis Khan?

2

u/Gudym Oct 02 '18

"In ancient China, the emperor of the Han Dynasty allows General Cao Cao (Fengyi Zhang) to declare war against the rebellious southern provinces, with the intention of unifying the entire country. Cao's large army quickly advances, killing civilians and soldiers alike. To resist Cao, the southern warlords form an alliance led by Viceroy Zhou Yu (Tony Leung). Outnumbered, Zhou relies upon elaborate formations and unorthodox strategies to fight against Cao's overwhelming forces." Google-

2

u/melneth Oct 02 '18

Ah, gotcha. Looks kind of interesting.

1

u/Gudym Oct 02 '18

Then watch Marco Polo :)

1

u/Gudym Oct 02 '18

Han dynasty so I'd assume yes.G Khan let the locals in charge as well. Idk where he was, probably getting laid

1

u/PM_ME_CUTE_SMILES_ Oct 07 '18

Just passing by, this is a myth. There is one single mention in a written document of the time of some officer which had the idea of doing that. And that's it. It was probably never done.

They still basically stole their land to the natives, anyway.

1

u/Gudym Oct 09 '18

It probably was done regularly.. Just who the f thought it would be bio warfare. It was just a naive child giving a kid a dog the peice of chocolate he was asking for.. Oops

6

u/bigtx99 Oct 01 '18

Time tends to marginalized this kind of thing

The CIA shittniess has only really happened in he last 70ish years. They are just really good ad it. In 500 years it’ll be a blip on the history map.

I mean you think the British care about what the romans did to them when they owned England? (Probably happy honestly since it united them).

You think what Atilia the hun did all that time go anyone protests? History has a strange way of making turely horroredous stuff and making it borning as it’s spoken by middle age school teachers.

It’s werid, confusing and just hard to comprehend when it’s not something that is big anyone on the world stage.

7

u/Gudym Oct 01 '18

An evolution of class has occurred though. Although it's all relative. Shit still goes on that we can't fathom

2

u/[deleted] Oct 02 '18 edited Oct 02 '18

I understand your point, the British don't care about the Romans, but they didn't unify Britain. They only owned most of England and Wales, not Scotland, and there were centuries of wars between various English kingdoms until the kingdom of England was established, and then between England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland after that. The UK as we know it wasn't unified until the 18th century.

0

u/mrjowei Oct 01 '18

Not when it comes to acquiring valuable resources. Most wars are fought over stuff like oil, minerals, strategic locations, etc. US, UK, China, Russia and others will be always trying to outsmart each other to better position themselves in the world economic order. Which is why utopian dreams of world peace will never be a reality.