"Mossyface", as he was often called in the West, presented by his followers as a patriotic nationalist, who nationalized Iranian oil for the best interests of Iran, became in actuality a Communist shill, who was in the process of handing Iran and the oil confiscated from the British and West, to the Soviets.
The CIA organized coup to remove him and restore the Shah to the throne has been criticized as an intrusion into the national interests of the people of Iran and removal of a popular hero.
In fact, Mossadegh was "popular" only with the Iranian Communists and Socialists, whose activities initially encouraged him to stand-up to the pro-West Shah and whose incitement brought people to the streets.
The Khomeini take over was an almost twin replay. The same Communist (Tudeh Party) and Islamist Marxists like the Fedayeen and Mojaheddin brought into being mainly by the Soviets, started the revolution and had it snatched from their lips by the clerics.
Simplistically, when the organized government of the Shah fell, the only national network left was the chain of mosques that existed everywhere throughout the country and which started to organize clerically controlled neighborhood committees.
The clerics started imprisoning and killing almost immediately and took over the lives of Iranians at every street level point. Including those of the Islamist Marxists, who found themselves considered the enemy, not a partner.
As shown in Farsi below the lovey-dovey photo, the CIA was interested in the removal of the Mossadegh conduit for a Soviet take over of Iran, which would have given them a path into the warm waters of Southern Iran they have always wanted and the oil resources found in Iran.
Dr. Mossadegh (right) shows his love for an Officerدر بیشتر تحقیقات موجود دربارهء سقوط دولت دکتر مصدّق، نام واقعی عملیات سازمان سیا، بطور ناقص AJAX ذکر شده و هدف اساسی این طرح را مخدوش ساخته اند. در حالیکه نام واقعی و کامل این طرح، TPAJAX می باشد. پیشوند «T P» اشارهء اختصاری به حزب توده (Tudeh Party) و AJAX نیز نام رایج یک مادهء پاک کنندهء خانگی بود. بدین ترتیب، هدف اساسی طرح: «پاکسازی ایران از حزب توده» بود!
Translation: in most of the existing research relative to the fall of the Dr. Mossadegh's government, the true name of the planned CIA operation and the main aim of it has been incompletely called AJAX though in reality it has TP as the preface, referring to the Tudeh (Communist) Party and is TPAJAX with the focus of the operation being the house cleaning to be done to eradicate the Tudeh political party from inside Iran.
The Western world was far less concerned about restoring the still very young Shah than in confronting the incursion of the Soviets. The Shah, whose monarchy was pro-West was the most convenient way to retain presence in Iran,
It was not till much later that a much older and wiser Shah turned the tables and took control of Iranian oil.
Till he accomplished that, Iran did not have a say in how much oil it could pump from their wells nor at what price it could be sold. The Western oil companies who operated the fields dictated these terms.
The Shah could not plan national development projects as he did not know from year to year what he would be allowed to produce and how much revenue he would obtain.
Mossadegh's natonalization at no time resolved the same problem - other that he would be under Soviet instead of Western control.
What is little known is that the Shah had to put on an Oscar winning performance to finally get contrl of Iran's oil.
Each time he had tried he was turned down and did not have the political international status yet, nor the technological capability in the oil industry to force the matter.
One day, after much thought, he summoned the Western oil consortium and told them the Soviets had insisted on equal rights to prospect for oil in Iran on a par with the Western companies.
The Western companies told him to say "no". To which he responded Iran had some 2,000 kilometers of common border with the Soviet Union and they could easily cross over if they were not appeased. Something they had indicated they might be willing to do.
He added, however, that the main Soviet argument was that the Western countries "owned" the oil and that the Shah was discriminating against the Soviets by not permitting Soviets to wander around Iran to explore for oil.
The idea of Soviets all over Iran horrified the Western countries and they asked what the solution might be.
The Shah replied that if Iran totally "owned" and controlled its own oil, he could then allocate exploration as he desired and could then do so based on bids and technological ability (where the Soviets were very weak) and thus not be in a position to be accused of discrimination.
Faced with this situation, the Western oil companies signed over their control and share of Iranian oil to Iran.
To those around the Shah it was never quite clear whether he had used this as a ruse to get back Iran's oil or even if the Soviets had in fact spoken to him at all.
5 comments:
his is the most unprecedented, absurd, nonsense and baseless opinion about Dr. Mossadegh. The writer is absolutely ignorant. If this is your concept of fighting mullahs, by attacking one of the most outstanding men in Iranian history, you better give up now, because you will not get anywhere.
i agree, you ARE ignorant...very ignorant.
There is a connection here that seems to be missing. First, Mossadegh was democratically elected, thus the US and British action nullified a democratic action. Second, that the removal of Dr Mossadegh led directly to the rise of the mullahs as well as almost all of the problems the US has faced in the region since. So regardless of how Dr Mossadegh was going to conduct the internal business of the country (also called sovereignty) the US actions are probably the most far reaching negative actions in US history.
On the contrary - It is those who make a hero out of Mossadeq who are the ignorant ones! Mossadeq was far from being a democrat - He was an authocrat! He couln't tolerate other people's views. He illegally dissolved the Majles and staged a highly fraudulent and rigged referendum where "99.3%" of the people voted for him! He allied himself with dangerous pro-Moscow communist elements. I get so annoyed when I hear or read the same old false statement that the coup toppled Iran's democratically elected prime minister. Mossadeq was not elected by the people - It was the Shah who chose him as his prime minister, because he didn't realize what a false and hypocritical person Mossadeq was! It's high time that we speak up about the truth about this div!
Mike - You say that Mossadeq was democraticall elected. Was he really? Do you have any proof? Mossadeq was selected by the Shah. That's how it worked - The constitution of that time prescribed that the monarch should chose the prime minister. I hope you're not referring to his staged and super-rigged referendum! You can be sure that any referendum where 99.3% of the people vote for the same alternative, is fraudulent! Mossadeq was a very authoritarian person with no tolerance for other people's opinions. He forced thousands of people in to early retirement without having any legal right to do so, and he also jailed many people who he thought threatened his interests. The reason that the CIA had to pay off a few hundred people to start chanting anti-Mossadeq and pro-Shah slogans, was because people were to intimidated and scared by Mossadeq's brutal repression to express their opposition to his rule and their support for their Shah. When people saw that a few hundred persons started chanting anti-Mossadeq /Pro-Shah slogans, they started to join the protests, and the crowds rapidly grew in to a mass demonstration. My parents were there and took part in the demonstrations - they saw everything first hand. This whole crap about Mossadeq's democratic government, and that the CIA and Britain "installed the Shah" is nothing more than pure nonsense and propaganda aimed at bolstering the ego of the U.S. and Britain, while belitteling Iran and the Shah. Pure nonsense!
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