Operation AJAX (officially TP-AJAX) was a CIA covert operation on August 19, 1953 that overthrew Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh of Iran. Mossadegh had nationalized Iran's oil industry, previously controlled by Britain's Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (now BP). The CIA, working with British intelligence MI6, organized street protests, bribed military officers, and spread propaganda to destabilize Mossadegh's government. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was restored to power, where he ruled with increasing repression — aided by his CIA-trained secret police, SAVAK — until the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The CIA formally acknowledged its role in the coup in declassified documents released in 2013. The operation is considered the template for Cold War-era covert regime change and fundamentally shaped Iranian distrust of U.S. intelligence agencies, providing the historical backdrop for the 2026 Farsi recruitment controversy.
Operation AJAX was the template for Cold War regime change and shaped Iranian distrust of the U.S. for generations. Understanding it explains why Iran's 2026 espionage operation targeted the CIA specifically, and why covert operations remain a central tool of U.S. power projection today.
People often think CIA covert operations are always successful or always fail. AJAX succeeded tactically—it removed Mossadegh and reinstalled the Shah—but failed strategically. The repression that followed sparked the 1979 revolution and anti-American hostility lasting decades, making the operation a pyrrhic victory.
Operation AJAX was the template for Cold War regime change and shaped Iranian distrust of the U.S. for generations. Understanding it explains why Iran's 2026 espionage operation targeted the CIA specifically, and why covert operations remain a central tool of U.S. power projection today.
People often think CIA covert operations are always successful or always fail. AJAX succeeded tactically—it removed Mossadegh and reinstalled the Shah—but failed strategically. The repression that followed sparked the 1979 revolution and anti-American hostility lasting decades, making the operation a pyrrhic victory.