1953 Ad

Catholic New Times, Nov 16, 2003

In his CBC commentary Oct. 13, Stephen Kinzer stated that fifty years ago in the summer of 1953, the CIA overthrew a government for the first time. The victim was the democratically elected prime minister of Iran, Mohammad Mossadegh. This episode has been almost forgotten by history, but when we look back on it today we see that it had horrific aftereffects.

The 1953 coup brought the Shah back to power, and he ruled as a dictator for 25 years. His dictatorship produced the Islamic Revolution of 1979. That revolution brought to power a group of fanatically anti-Western clerics who proceeded to launch a campaign of terror against Americans and others. Those clerics also inspired fundamentalists in other countries, including next-door Afghanistan, where the Taliban came to power and gave shelter to al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.

The coup also had a profound effect on American foreign policy because it set the United States off on the path of covert action and regime change. Every American operation since 1953 that has been aimed at the overthrow of a government has its roots in that Iran coup, including the recent invasion of Iraq.

Both were conceived as strikes against a global enemy: communism then, terrorism today. Both were aimed at giving the United States a strategic platform in the Middle East from which it could project power throughout the region. Both were also ways for the United States to assure control over a rich oil supply. Both were justified by distorted intelligence; in 1953 the CIA produced highly exaggerated reports saying that Iran was about to fall to communism, and this year it insisted that Iraq was concealing huge stocks of chemical and biological weapons.

The biggest similarity of all between the two operations is also the most frightening. In Iran 50 years ago and in Iraq this year, the United States was so eager to reach a short-term goal that no one in power stopped to think about what the long-term consequences of regime change might be.

Today the United States commands enormous military power, but that power cannot transform societies in the Middle East. By relying so heavily on its military and turning its back on diplomacy and coalitions, American leaders are alienating many of the very countries they desperately need as allies.

The Iran coup of 1953 seemed like a success at the time. Today, 50 years later, it teaches a lesson about the long-term dangers of foreign intervention. That is a lesson today's world needs to learn.