'Operation Ajax' in Iran: The CIA's Original Sin [Socialist History: S1 Episode 1]

In 1953 the CIA secretly organized a coup to overthrow the democratically elected leader of Iran. This was the CIA's first regime change operation — code-named 'Operation Ajax' — becoming the playbook for later CIA operations. Its consequences are still reverberating around the world.

In this episode we take a deep dive into how Operation Ajax was planned and executed, its motivations, the political context locally and globally, what happened in Iran after 1953, its impact on US-Iran relations up to today, and more.

This is part of the first season of Socialist History, our new series on The Socialist Program. In each episode we unpack a different CIA or Pentagon operation, each of which was given its own code-name as Operation Ajax was.

Join the The Socialist Program community at www.patreon.com/thesocialistprogram to get access to the next episodes in this series, more exclusive content, and help keep this show on the air.

Archival notes:

0:01 - News report on declassification of Op. Ajax (2013)

1:35 - Interview with Kermit Roosevelt Jr., leader of Op. Ajax, on how then Secretary of State John Foster Dulles briefed his team in 1953

2:21 - Newsreel on nationalization of Abadan oil refinery, narrator voiceover (1951)

3:12 - British Petroleum (BP) ad, narrator voiceover (early 1980s)

3:36 - Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Britain, speech to Parliament in 1940 (recorded in 1949, the original speech was never recorded).

3:59 - Newsreel on British navy (WW2 era)

4:28 - Newsreel on nationalization of Abadan oil refinery, narrator voiceover (1951)

5:52 - Documentary on oil, narrator voiceover (1950s)

6:19, 6:29 - Aramco corporation documentary, narrator voiceover (1950)

6:52 - Documentary on Saudi Arabia, narrator voiceover (2005)

9:17 - Newsreel on nationalization of Abadan oil refinery in Iran, narrator voiceover (1951)

11:07 - Sir Gladwyn Jebb, United Kingdom rep. to the United Nations, speaking on Iran oil nationalization at UN Security Council (1951)

11:48 - Newsreel on UK-Iran oil nationalization conflict, narrator voiceover (1951)

13:30 - President Harry S Truman, speech on Korea (1950)

14:10 - President Harry S Truman announcing surrender of Japan (1945)

15:18, 15:39 - Newsreel on war in Korea, narrator voiceover (1950)

16:14 - Newsreel on Cold War, narrator voiceover (1950s)

19:23, 20:07 - Interview with Alan Dulles, former CIA Director (1965)

21:23 - Newsreel on communist protests in Iran (1951)

22:35 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower addresses Congress (1953)

24:52 - Interview with John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State 1953-1959, (1952)

26:20. 26:39, 26:50 - Interviews with Kermit Roosevelt Jr., leader of Op. Ajax, on Op. Ajax

27:41 - Interview with Stephen Kinzer, former NYT correspondent, on Op. Ajax

29:10 - Interview with Kermit Roosevelt Jr., leader of Op. Ajax, on Op. Ajax

29:56 - Documentary on Op. Ajax, narrator voiceover

30:09 - Newsreel on coup in Iran, narrator voiceover (1953)

31:01 - Interview with Prof. Richard Cottam, former CIA officer in Iran

32:01, 32:40, 33:00 - British newsreel on coup in Iran, narrator voiceover (1953)

33:14 - Newsreel on coup in Iran, narrator voiceover (1953)

33:53 - Interview with Alan Dulles, CIA Director 1953-1961, CIA Deputy Director 1951-1953 (1965)

36:15 - Newsreel on coup in Iran, narrator voiceover (1953)

36:32, 36:37 - Newsreels on trial of Mohammad Mosaddegh, narrator voiceover (1953)

39:00, 39:34 - Interview with Kazem Allah, former Iranian political prisoner under the Shah

40:40, 42:11, 43:40 - Iranian students protesting the Shah in Washington, DC (1975)

44:35 - President Jimmy Carter’s toast to the Shah (1978)

44:51 - Documentary on 1979 Iranian Revolution, narrator voiceover and source audio

45:22 - Protests in Iran, source audio (1979)

47:02 - News report on Ruhollah Khomeini’s return to Iran (1979)

48:09 - News report on US Embassy takeover in Tehran (1979)