The Man Who Nationalized Iran’s Oil Industry
Mossadegh was a courageous man. But he showed us courage has a cost.
In 1953, the CIA intervened in Iran because a man tried to nationalize the country’s oil industry. The United States and Great Britain couldn’t have Iran nationalizing its oil industry and felt the need to intervene, reinstalling the Shah of Iran who instituted a brutal secret police task force to crush his dissidents and critics.
According to Northeastern Illinois University, Mohammad Mossadegh was the man who tried to nationalize the Iranian oil industry. He was elected as the prime minister of Iran during legitimate parliamentary elections, and he served in office for two years. While he was in office, Mossadegh ended the British monopoly over Iran’s petroleum industry.
However, the U.S. implemented Operation Ajax. It was a joint operation from the British and American intelligence services that used the Iranian military to remove Mossadegh from his position as prime minister in August of 1953. A coup led him to be sentenced to three years in prison and be court-martialed, leaving Mossadegh to be exiled on house arrest in a rural village. Mossadegh later died on March 5, 1967.
This is the story of Mohammad Mossadegh — his life, his work as a reformer, and takeaways from what…
