A Very Elegant Coup

IN the summer of 1953, the CIA and Britain’s MI6 arranged a coup in Tehran. The Iranian prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, appeared to be opening his country to the Soviets, and the objective was to overthrow him The coup succeeded brilliantly. Mossadegh spent the rest of his life on his country estate; Iran remained a strong Cold War ally of the West. And a myth central to the Left took lasting shape: The CIA is thuggish, arrogant, immoral, and— finally—stupid, because interventions of that sort prove counterproductive. No matter how many countries the Soviet Union might subvert, in this view, the United States should never interfere in other peoples’ internal affairs. This myth is being revived forcefully, now that the U.S. has gone far beyond staging a mere coup in order to keep the peace in many trouble spots, including Iraq.

Stephen Kinzer is a New York Times

About the Author

David Pryce-Jones

David Pryce-Jones (1936–2025) was a British author and commentator and served as a senior editor of National Review.

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IN the summer of 1953, the CIA and Britain’s MI6 arranged a coup in Tehran. The Iranian prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, appeared to be opening his country to the Soviets, and the objective was to overthrow him The coup succeeded brilliantly. Mossadegh spent the rest of his life on his country estate; Iran remained a strong Cold War ally of the West. And a myth central to the Left took lasting shape: The CIA is thuggish, arrogant, immoral, and— finally—stupid, because interventions of that sort prove counterproductive. No matter how many countries the Soviet Union might subvert, in this view, the United States should never interfere in other peoples’ internal affairs. This myth is being revived forcefully, now that the U.S. has gone far beyond staging a mere coup in order to keep the peace in many trouble spots, including Iraq.

Stephen Kinzer is a New York Times