Kermit Roosevelt’s Revolution in Iran: 1953 ©

This is a truncated version of Chapter 4 of America’s Splendid Little Wars!

Eisenhower’s Fun Revolution in Iran: 1953

By Jack Ragsdale
This report is based on Kermit Roosevelt’s book, “Counter Coup, the Struggle for Control of Iran,” published by McGraw Hill in 1979 and numerous other sources.
Foreword
The United States has had short shrift for the rights of its weak, chosen enemies. With Indians, black slaves, with Nicaragua, Iran, Guatemala as well as Spain, Cuba and the Philippines, overwhelming force was always “successful.” Today those easy victories are seldom mentioned except in memory of our heroic battles against straw men we were taught to believe threatened our national existence.

When I sat down in 1985, took pen in hand, and set to work writing “America’s Splendid Little Wars,” my aim was to save America from further gross military adventures like those our presidents had indulged in in Latin America and the Philippines. I plowed through chapters one and two, which dealt with our forefather’s relations with Indians and black slaves. I moved on to the modern age—to the hard part. In chapter four, I had the daunting task of telling the American people that friendly, loveable, avuncular President Eisenhower had turned their government over to right wing—Fascist-minded John Foster Dulles and his brother Allen. He had made John Foster his Secretary of State and Allen, head of the CIA.

Eisenhower was a man overburdened with honors, both military and civilian: five-star general, and president of Columbia University. As president-elect in 1952, his wish was to be the prestigious hero, delegating all responsibilities to worthy, experienced underlings. For five years Eisenhower had wielded power greater than that of all the Caesars put together. He was bored with power. The United States was old and established—possessed of an “enduring” government. For all intents and purposes “it would run itself.” Furthermore, John Foster and Allen were lawyers, enthusiastic for governmental power they had never before wielded. They would know what to do. Ike enjoyed the HONOR of his position and wished to rest on his laurels. He was into golf and hob-knobbing with men of enormous wealth on their great ranches and game preserves.

Waiting in the wings in the closing days of the Truman administration, was CIA’s Middle East spy, Kermit Roosevelt. The grandson of Theodore Roosevelt was preparing to overthrow Iran’s democratically elected government in a nefarious plan originated by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co., the AIOC. Iran’s Prime Minister, Mohammed Mossadegh and its congress, the Majlis, had had the cheeky audacity to nationalize the country’s great oil reserves and reduce Shah Mohammed Reza from absolute ruler to constitutional monarch. Previously, the shah, his military protectors and a few hundred aristocrats had ruled Iran in the style of the Middle Ages, literally as the personal owners of the country, while many of its people continued to live in conditions of serfdom.

Furthermore, Mossadegh, the Majlis and the people of Iran were certain the British oil company was stealing a great part of the oil they were taking from Iran. They refused to employ Iranians in any positions of consequence and refused to give a proper accounting as American companies have often done to our government.

In 1952 Kermit Roosevelt put out feelers to the retiring Democratic Truman administration and found that they would not participate in his outrageous plan to topple Mossadegh for AIOC. Feelers to the incoming Eisenhower administration, on the other hand, told him to hang in there. They were definitely interested and due to take power in January, 1953. AIOC operatives told Roosevelt, the incoming Churchill/Eden administration was also enthusiastic for the plan—eager to get rid of pesky boat-rocker Mossadegh.

On June 25, 1953, spy Roosevelt met with CIA chief Allen Dulles at CIA headquarters on E Street in Washington. Together, in a "company" Cadillac, they drove to the office of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. Roosevelt's description of the Dulles' office is pure Hollywood on the Potomoc. On one side of the grand salon there was a teak table surrounded by a sofa and leather-covered chairs; on another side of the room there was a long table at which was gathered a "substantial group [of government officials], in respectful silence." Secretary Dulles sat behind a huge desk, talking on two telephones, directing the far-flung operations of the State Department. Roosevelt informs us that John Foster Dulles was not a man to trifle with: this group was gathered to approve what had already been decided: “…anything but assent would be ill-received by [the secretary].” Those seated around the table were the Secretary of Defense Charles Wilson, diplomats, a professor/lawyer of Harvard University, General "Beedle" Smith, and their aides and assistants. When Dulles finished his telephone conversations, he took his place at the head of the table. With Roosevelt’s twenty-two-page paper in hand, he addressed the gathering: "So this is how we get rid of that madman Mossadegh!"

The twenty-two-page paper outlining the project came out of one originated by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. They possessed a formidable spy network in Iran and had close relations with the palace. British agents had been active in Iran for one hundred years! –since the discovery of oil in that country.

In the following months Roosevelt scouted the territory several times. He saw our right to interfere in the affairs of Iran as "manifest destiny" and he expected wholehearted support from the shah.

OPERATION AJAX
Roosevelt flew to Beirut, crossed Iraq by car and entered Iran at a small border town on July 19, 1953. He was pleased that the "stupid and semiliterate" customs/immigration officer entered his name on the register as "Mr. Scar on Right Forehead". He chose to use the names "James Lochridge," and "Stephen P. Mason" for himself. Operation AJAX required pseudonyms for all, and one of sexual significance for Mossadegh—"The Old Bugger." It apparently was deemed necessary to denigrate Mossadegh through the use of derogatory misrepresentations concerning his character and sanity. Dulles had called him "that madman." It was total demonization for the public’s benefit!

Mohammed Mossadegh, past seventy, was a European-educated politician and statesman. He had served as governor of a province, minister of finance, minister of foreign affairs, and was an oft-elected member of parliament. He is best described as a well-experienced, eccentric, conservative constitutionalist. Historian Ervand Abrahamian calls him "famous for his incorruptibility," a neutralist between socialism and imperialism. Dean Acheson described him as "a rich, reactionary, feudal-minded Persian inspired by a fanatical hatred of the British...."

On their arrival in Teheran, Roosevelt and his companion made their way to the house of an embassy employee to recover at poolside from their dusty journey. In the following two weeks they renewed all their old contacts. Arrangements for a meeting with the shah were made through one "Rosenkrantz," a CIA agent they shared with the oil company.

Roosevelt's nondescript chauffeured sedan entered the palace gates at midnight with its passenger on the floor covered by a blanket. The shah was waiting for the secret meeting and entered the car, renewing their old acquaintanceship. Roosevelt offered the shah proof of the authenticity of his mission—that he represented both Eisenhower and Churchill. By codes, each of them was to confirm his representation in radio broadcasts. The shah needed none of that; Roosevelt's trusted word was enough.

In the American embassy there was a safe with more than a million dollars to pay for the revolution about to happen. The plan went forward as Roosevelt had other clandestine meetings with General Zahedi, the shah, the British agents "Nossey, Cafron" and others. Roosevelt also presented His Imperial Majesty with a concocted message which he passed off as having come from President Eisenhower:
“I wish your Imperial Majesty Godspeed. If the Pahlavis and the Roosevelts working together cannot solve this little problem, then there is no hope anywhere. I have complete faith that you will get this done.”

He later admitted that to be a fiction, authored by himself.

At midnight on Saturday, August 15, Colonel Nassiry, head of the palace security, attempted to deliver the firman of dismissal to Mossadegh. Accompanied by a suitable complement of tanks, he stopped by the house of General Riahi to arrest the chief of the armed forces but did not find him at home. At the prime minister's residence the colonel found government tanks which did not allow the arrest of Dr. Mossadegh. Instead, Nassiry was himself arrested. As for the shah's personal involvement in the planned coup, Professor Richard Cottam wrote: "[he] fled the country in inglorious haste."

On August 19, 1953 thousands of hired demonstrators filled the streets of Teheran, forming a "grotesque procession," threatening the population. Zirkaneh giants,”infamous Sha'yban "the brainless" and his gang, and "other thugs [were hired] to carry Tudeh [Communist] banners and to desecrate mosques." Eight hundred farm hands from the royal stables were also brought in to add their bodies to the demonstrations. They forced cars to accept pictures of the Shah to put on their windshields. The operation was a giant street tableau staged and paid for by the CIA. Former American Embassy officer and author Richard Cottam says that every Iranian would recognize the August 19 mob as a typical mercenary group, and that the very precision with which the Zahedi forces responded denies the spontaneity of their action. Cynicism of the Iranians, based on their past experience with foreign intrigue, confirmed their belief that the shah and Zahedi "were virtual American agents."
In the next stage, after nine hours of fighting, the superior armed forces of the Iranian military won. Mossadegh's cabinet members were arrested, as were army commander General Riahi, leaders of the Iran and the National Parties. Foreign minister Hussein Fatemi was executed, as were forty officials of the Tudeh Party. Fourteen were tortured to death. Additional thousands of ordinary party members were arrested and sentenced to jail, some to life in prison.

Even Mossadegh’s fate has been totally misrepresented. He was not captured as he lay weeping in bed, in his striped silk pajamas as was stated in the 1954 Saturday Evening Post article. He voluntarily gave himself up to the authorities and after trial was exiled to a village he owned some fifty miles from Teheran. Soon afterwards a demonstration was held there calling for his death. Mossadegh phoned the police station asking for protection. It was given, and was never withdrawn. "The leader of this `spontaneous' demonstration was none other than Sha'yban the brainless. No one was fooled by this maneuver except for some foreign newspapermen... "

The regime could feel confident that it had eliminated the organization, if not the appeal, of both the Tudeh and the National Front. Muhammed Reza Shah, like his father, could now rule without an organized opposition. History had come full circle."

After the new prime minister had taken office and selected his cabinet, the shah returned from Rome. He invited Roosevelt to the palace--this time in the full light of day. "The first words [the shah] said were spoken gravely, solemnly. `I owe my throne to God, my people, my army--and to you!.'" It is certain that the shah never expected those words to be repeated outside that room, or that he would ever have to face the embarrassment of their publication.

Professor Richard Cottam sums up: "The pattern was a familiar one for Iranians.... It was the Mossadegh period that was unreal. For a brief euphoric moment Iranians had deluded themselves into believing that they could assert their independence. Now they could see that this had been a dream; that the British once again, this time working through the Americans, had demonstrated their ability to turn back even the strongest Iranian challenge."

The fall of Mossadegh and the failure of nationalization of the oil industry in Iran was the cause of much satisfaction to the Dulles brothers, President Eisenhower and Kermit Roosevelt. Much self-congratulation was in order. The American-made revolution restored in part the position of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, while allowing American oil companies--clients of the Dulles brothers former Wall Street law firm Sullivan and Cromwell--a major share in Iranian oil business.

It was said that the American victory in Iran had been cheap. No American life had been lost, although many Iranians had lost theirs. The dollar cost was a mere $100,000 (in rials) according to Roosevelt, but the glut of dollars distributed to street people and others in the military, upset the exchange so that the value of the dollar plunged from 128 to as low as 50 rials according to Kenneth Love, correspondent of the New York Times in Iran. So many dollars had been turned in to the banks and moneychangers that the rate fell to fifty to the dollar. Jonathan Kwitny quotes Love's report to Allen Dulles: "I think it can be reasonably inferred that the glut of dollars was coming from the chaqu keshan [street gangs] and that it represented their wages for the work of 19 August." A revolution for $100,000? A more reasonable figure is given by John Prados: $10 to $20 million. Kermit Roosevelt mentioned only that "we used less than $100,000 worth of rials," but the acquiescence of generals is not bought with a few rials.

The actual cost of the coup was a trivial amount when we compare it to the flood of American money in grants and loans which followed immediately. The Eisenhower administration endowed its newly acquired client state handsomely; the largess lasting fully ten years--well beyond the general's term of office. American public largesse to Iran accrued to the benefit of the giant oil companies.

Thus was the shah restored to the autocratic power of his father. The CIA and the (Israeli) Mossad immediately set to work to establish a secret police organization in Iran, the SAVAK, whose name was soon to become a synonym for cruelty and torture. The new regime, imposed on an unwilling people, contrary to their needs and desires, endured for twenty-five years, maintaining itself through the liberal use of terror. The profligate shah was never able to attract popular support. He survived only on the strength of his security forces and his vast military might. The artificially capped explosive force allowed no pressure to escape. Still, the power of the SAVAK's terror inspired complete confidence in all the American presidents who followed Eisenhower. President Carter, Brzezinski and Kissinger, all retained their faith in the shah even as he sat quaking on his peacock throne in the last days of his reign. "We can't repeat 1953 today," the shah complained to Ardeshir Zahedi, his ambassador to Washington, "we were poor then, and you could buy anyone in the street for two tomans. But today any wretched bazaar merchant has three or four million tomans."

Alas, Carter and Kissinger were the last to know what conditions in Iran really were, as they publicly expressed their confidence in the greatness of the shah and the permanence of his regime up to moments before he was forced to flee for his life. Kissinger, the brilliant former Secretary of State, protégé and servitor of the Rockefeller family, confessed to author Mohammed H. Heikal that the upheaval in Iran had taken him completely by surprise.

At long last the jig was up. Dr. Mossadegh's feeble steps toward democracy in 1953 had failed, but the movement was bigger than the pompous shah, and the men in Washington who were his sponsors. It had gone underground and now after twenty-five years the artificial Anglo-American creation had been swept away. There had been a coup in Iran, not a countercoup, as Roosevelt misnamed it in his attempt to justify this despoilment of a country. Iran’s response, as any psychologist might have predicted, was angry and destructive in its wish for revenge. Mossadegh’s feeble steps toward democracy were crushed under the weight of contempt by the State Department, the New York Times, Time and every mainstream organ: “Old Bugger,” “Silk-pajama clad madman.” Epithets flew; the American press had a field day. All Americans learned to hate “Old Mossy.”

This fun game in Iran was not the end of this sordid tale. The Dulles and Sullivan-Cromwell had another client, The United Fruit Company. They were having trouble with pesky Guatemala. The government of the United States and the American Press quickly placed themselves at the disposal of this company Latins called the Octopus. Another democratic regime had to be overturned and a dictatorship restored. That was achieved in Guatemala in 1954 by America’s CIA.



Related footnotes are accessible at “America’s Splendid Little Wars” chapter 4, at http://jackragsdale.blogspot.com.
©By Jack Ragsdale