A CIA- and MI6-Backed Coup Overthrows Mossadegh
A failed first attempt, a fleeing shah, and a covert operation that reverses course in days
Quick facts
- Operation codename
- TPAJAX (US)
- Agencies involved
- CIA and British MI6
- Outcome
- Mossadegh removed, shah's power restored
- US acknowledgment
- CIA declassified its role in 2013
What happened
In August 1953, the CIA and Britain's MI6 organized a covert operation, code-named TPAJAX by the Americans, to remove Mossadegh from power and restore the shah's full authority. The first attempt to arrest Mossadegh failed when knowledge of the plot leaked, and the shah fled to Baghdad; President Eisenhower's own diary later recorded that in the first hours of the attempted coup, all element of surprise disappeared through betrayal, the Shah fled to Baghdad, and Mossadegh seemed to be more firmly entrenched in power than ever before. But the CIA's operative on the ground kept working, and within days the operation reversed course entirely: crowds and elements of the military turned against Mossadegh, he was forced from office, and the shah returned to the throne with expanded powers. The CIA's own declassified internal history later confirmed that these actions resulted in a literal revolt of the population, and that the military and security forces joined the populace to force Mossadegh to flee.
Why it matters
The 1953 coup is one of the most thoroughly documented covert interventions in Cold War history, confirmed in the CIA's own words rather than only by outside critics, and it remains a foundational grievance in Iranian political memory: many Iranians trace the shah's later authoritarianism, and the 1979 revolution against it, directly back to this episode. Historians continue to debate exactly how much the coup succeeded because of the CIA's efforts versus broader domestic opposition to Mossadegh, but the documentary record leaves no doubt that US and British intelligence services actively planned and helped execute his overthrow.
How we know
The US role in the coup is confirmed both by President Eisenhower's own diary entry, published in the official State Department historical document series, and by the CIA's own declassified internal history of the operation, released following decades of Freedom of Information Act litigation by the National Security Archive.
Sources
- US Department of State, Office of the Historian. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952-1954, Iran, Document 328 (Eisenhower diary, editorial note) · Primary source (author-declared)history.state.gov · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- National Security Archive, George Washington University. CIA Confirms Role in 1953 Iran Coup · Primary source (author-declared)nsarchive2.gwu.edu · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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Related timelines
- The Cold War → · The 1953 coup was one of the CIA's earliest Cold War regime-change operations; see the Cold War timeline for the broader superpower rivalry it took place within.