Causes and Aftermath of the 1953 Anglo-American Coup in Iran D. M. Ford Introduction In August of 1953, the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) along with the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) orchestrated a coup d’etat to depose the democratically elected Iranian prime minister Mohammed Mosaddegh. The coup was carried out as a response to Mosaddegh’s nationalization of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC). Because the British had already been expelled from Iran, they were unable to carry out an overthrow themselves. They instead enlisted the assistance of the United States, invoking Cold War fears of Soviet expansion to persuade President Eisenhower to participate. Following the coup, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi was returned to absolute power in Iran and was supported by the West. While the United Kingdom was already negatively viewed in Iran as a power-hungry colonizer, prior to the 1953 coup the U.S. was considered by Iranians to be a friendly, anti-imperial nation. That the U.S. interfered in Iran’s internal politics, helping to prop up a dictator in place of a democratically elected leader, led to deep feelings of betrayal among Iranians. As a result, U.S. involvement in the 1953 coup has fueled anti-Western/anti-U.S. sentiment in subsequent decades, including during the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and has ultimately contributed to the strained relations that exist between the two nations today. The Road to Nationalization