Explanation: In the early 20th century, the British Empire extracted some notable concessions from the Kingdom of Iran, including concessions to British Petroleum over terms on oil extraction in Iran.
Come the 1950s, with a wave of decolonization and democratization sweeping over the world, Iranians decided that situation was no longer necessary. The democratically elected leader of Iran at the time, Mohammed Mossadegh, chose to enter into negotiations with Britain over their colonial concessions and, when that went nowhere, to simply revoke them.
Britain was none-too-pleased at this, and asked the USA for assistance in overthrowing Mossadegh’s government. The US, initially, declined, having an interest in the ongoing decolonization and disintegration of the old European empires for both realpolitik and ideological/PR reasons. Eisenhower was subsequently elected president in the US, at which point the British convinced the US to back the attempt to overthrow Mossadegh by implying that he was ‘weak’ against the Communist Tudeh Party. Cold War alarms went off, and Eisenhower let the leash off of the CIA for Operation Ajax, wherein the US overthrew the democratically elected government of Iran for the economic interests of its allies.
Luckily the US and especially the CIA would never try anything like that ever again /s
Explanation: In the early 20th century, the British Empire extracted some notable concessions from the Kingdom of Iran, including concessions to British Petroleum over terms on oil extraction in Iran.
Come the 1950s, with a wave of decolonization and democratization sweeping over the world, Iranians decided that situation was no longer necessary. The democratically elected leader of Iran at the time, Mohammed Mossadegh, chose to enter into negotiations with Britain over their colonial concessions and, when that went nowhere, to simply revoke them.
Britain was none-too-pleased at this, and asked the USA for assistance in overthrowing Mossadegh’s government. The US, initially, declined, having an interest in the ongoing decolonization and disintegration of the old European empires for both realpolitik and ideological/PR reasons. Eisenhower was subsequently elected president in the US, at which point the British convinced the US to back the attempt to overthrow Mossadegh by implying that he was ‘weak’ against the Communist Tudeh Party. Cold War alarms went off, and Eisenhower let the leash off of the CIA for Operation Ajax, wherein the US overthrew the democratically elected government of Iran for the economic interests of its allies.
Luckily the US and especially the CIA would never try anything like that ever again /s