In 1953, the CIA (Operation TPAJAX) and MI6 (Operation Boot) orchestrated the overthrow of Iranian PM Mohammad Mossadegh after he nationalized Iran's oil industry. The CIA hired Tehran mobsters to stage pro-Shah riots, bombed a Muslim cleric's house while posing as communists, and bribed journalists and politicians. The coup installed Shah Pahlavi's autocracy for 26 years. The CIA denied involvement for decades until declassifying documents in 2013 and releasing 1,000 pages in 2017 confirming every detail.
“The CIA organized the overthrow through a directed campaign of bombings by Iranians posing as members of the Communist party.”
What they said vs. what the evidence shows
“The United States had no role in the change of government in Iran. This was an internal Iranian matter.”
— US State Department · Aug 1953
SourceFrom “crazy” to confirmed
The Claim Is Made
This is the moment they called it crazy.
For sixty years, the United States government denied it had anything to do with the 1953 overthrow of Iran's democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh. American officials maintained they were innocent bystanders to a purely internal Iranian political crisis. It was a lie that shaped the Middle East, and for decades, ordinary citizens had no way to prove it.
The claim was straightforward: the CIA and British intelligence orchestrated the coup after Mossadegh nationalized Iran's oil industry, which had been controlled by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. This wasn't fringe speculation—it was whispered by journalists, historians, and Iranian citizens who lived through the chaos. But without documentation, it remained in the realm of suspicion.
The official response from American authorities was consistent and categorical. When journalists asked about CIA involvement, they were told there was none. When researchers requested documents, they were denied on national security grounds. The narrative Washington preferred was that Mossadegh fell because he was incompetent or because Iranians spontaneously rejected his leadership. This version of events dominated American textbooks and news coverage for decades.
Then came the declassifications. In 2013, the CIA formally acknowledged its role in the coup. Two years later, the agency released over 1,000 pages of previously classified documents. What emerged was damning. The operation, codenamed TPAJAX, showed that American intelligence officers had paid Tehran mobsters to stage pro-Shah riots. CIA documents confirmed they had bombed a Muslim cleric's house and blamed it on communists—a operation designed to turn public opinion against Mossadegh. The agency had bribed journalists and politicians to spread propaganda against the prime minister.
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Confirmed: They Were Right
The truth comes out. Officially documented.
Confirmed: They Were Right
The truth comes out. Officially documented.
The British operation, codenamed Boot, ran parallel to the American effort. Together, they succeeded in removing Mossadegh and reinstalling Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, whose autocratic rule would last twenty-six years. The coup wasn't the spontaneous uprising or internal political struggle that Americans had been told about. It was a calculated, foreign-directed operation using deception and manipulation.
What makes this case significant isn't just that a conspiracy theory turned out to be true. It's what the declassifications reveal about how governments operate and how they communicate with their citizens. For three generations, Americans were fed a false historical record by their own government. Textbooks taught lies. Journalists who investigated the real story were marginalized. The CIA didn't just orchestrate a coup; it orchestrated a narrative to hide that coup.
The 1953 Iran coup has consequences that ripple through today's international relations. Many Iranians point to this American intervention as justification for their government's hostility toward the United States. The reverberations contributed to the 1979 Iranian Revolution and shaped decades of Middle Eastern geopolitics. Understanding what actually happened—not the sanitized version Americans were initially told—is essential to understanding current events.
This case serves as a reminder that skepticism toward official narratives isn't paranoia. Sometimes, persistent claims that authorities dismiss turn out to be precisely documented truth, hidden only by classification stamps and bureaucratic denial. When governments can lie about their actions for sixty years with impunity, public trust becomes a luxury they haven't earned.
Unlikely leak
Only 21.3% chance this would come out. It did.
Conspirators
~1,000Large op
Secret kept
60 years
Time to 95% exposure
500+ years
