Aug. 21, 1953: A resident of Tehran washes “Yankee Go Home” from a wall in the capital city of Iran. The new Prime Minister Fazlollah Zahedi requested the cleanup after the overthrow of his predecessor. AP hide caption
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Aug. 21, 1953: A resident of Tehran washes “Yankee Go Home” from a wall in the capital city of Iran. The new Prime Minister Fazlollah Zahedi requested the cleanup after the overthrow of his predecessor.
AP
The U.S. and Iran have had a tense relationship for decades — but when did that begin? This week, we feature our very first episode about an event from August 1953 — when the CIA helped to overthrow Iran’s prime minister.
This episode originally ran as Four Days in August.
If you would like to read more on the 1953 coup, here’s a list:
- All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror by Stephen Kinzer
- Countercoup: The Struggle for the Control of Iran by Kermit Roosevelt Jr.
- “Secrets of History: The C.I.A. in Iran” from The New York Times (a timeline of events leading up to and immediately following the coup)
- “CIA Confirms Role in 1953 Iran Coup” from The National Security Archive (CIA documents on the Iran operation)
- “64 Years Later, CIA Finally Releases Details of Iranian Coup” from Foreign Policy magazine
