by Stephen KINZER
Written for the Light Millennium

Fifty years ago this summer, in a bold and far-reaching covert operation, the CIA overthrew the elected government of Iran.  My new book, "All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror," tells the full story of that plot for the first time.  My work on this book led me to conclude that although the coup seemed successful at first, it left a haunting and terrible legacy.

- Stephen KINZER's new book, "All The Shah's Men" published in July 2003
- Author's portrait

The phrase "regime change" has been much in the news this year as the United States launched its campaign to depose President Saddam Hussein of Iraq.  Given the huge inequality between the forces of the two countries, there was never any doubt that the campaign would succeed easily.  On May 1, President Bush announced the end of hostilities in Iraq, effectively declaring victory.

There are already some signs that this victory was less than complete.  How will it look from the perspective of later history?  The American experience in Iran suggests that it may go horribly wrong.

Fifty years ago this summer, in a bold and far-reaching covert operation, the CIA overthrew the elected government of Iran.  My new book, "All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror," tells the full story of that plot for the first time.  My work on this book led me to conclude that although the coup seemed successful at first, it left a haunting and terrible legacy.

President Mohammad Mossadegh headed the last democratic government Iran ever knew.  He thrilled his country by nationalizing the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, which had been earning huge profits for the British while most Iranians lived in terrible poverty.  The British were outraged, and began to plot Mossadegh's overthrow.  He learned of the activities of British agents in Tehran and responded by ordering the British embassy shut.  All British diplomats, and with them all the secret agents who were plotting the coup, had to leave Iran.

Desperate to be rid of Mossadegh so they could reclaim their oil company, the British asked the United States for help.  President Harry Truman, who sympathized with nationalists like Mossadegh, refused.  But in 1953, Truman left office and was replaced by Dwight Eisenhower.  British agents easily persuaded the new secretary of state, John Foster Dulles, and his brother, Allen Dulles, that Mossadegh was leading Iran toward communism.  Eisenhower and Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain became the coup’s main sponsors.

Allen Dulles sent one of the CIA’s most resourceful agents, Kermit Roosevelt, to Iran to carry out the operation.  Roosevelt, the grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt, was a real-life James Bond in an era when CIA agents operated mainly by their wits.  After his first coup attempt failed, he organized a second attempt that succeeded three days later, on Aug. 19, 1953.

The story of Operation Ajax is a cloak-and-dagger tale of spies, saboteurs and secret agents.  In my research I learned about staged riots, suitcases full of cash, and midnight meetings between the Mohammad Reza Shah and Kermit Roosevelt, who was smuggled in and out of the royal palace under a blanket in the back seat of a car.

Among the colorful characters in this drama were the terrified young Shah, who fled his country at the first sign of trouble; General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, father of the Gulf War commander and the radio voice of “Gang Busters,” who flew to Tehran on a secret mission  that helped set the coup in motion; and the fiery Prime Minister Mossadegh, who has been largely forgotten by history but who was in his time a titan who shook the world.

Operation Ajax reshaped the history of Iran, the Middle East and the world.  It restored Mohammad Reza Shah to the Peacock Throne, allowing him to impose a tyranny that ultimately sparked the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

The Islamic Revolution, in turn, inspired fundamentalists throughout the Muslim world, including the Taliban and terrorists who thrived under its protection.  It is not far-fetched to draw a line from Operation Ajax through the Shah’s repressive regime and the Islamic Revolution to the fireballs that engulfed the World Trade Center in New York.

This was the first time the CIA ever overthrew a government.  Emboldened by its success, the agency went on to carry out a coup in Guatemala the next year.  Later it launched covert operations against governments from Cuba and Chile to Vietnam and the Congo.

At the time, Operation Ajax seemed like a triumph.  Fifty years later, we can see that it led to disaster.  This episode is a vivid message about the long-term dangers of foreign intervention.  Today’s world leaders would do well to study it before deciding to order "regime change" in faraway lands

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Advance Praise for "All The Shah's Men"

"Remarkable, readable and relevant "All the Shah's Men" not only reads like an exciting, page-turning spy novel, it deals with the hard issues of today."

--Senator Richard Lugar, Chairman, Senate Foreign Relations Committee

"A well-researched object lesson in the dismal folly of so-called nation-building.  British and American readers of today should blush with shame."

--John le Carre, author of "The Spy Who Came In From the Cold" and "The Tailor of Panama"

"Stephen Kinzer's brilliant reconstruction of the Iranian coup is made even more fascinating by the fact that it is true.  It is as gripping as a thriller, and also tells much about why the United States is involved today in places like Afghanistan and Iraq."
--Gore Vidal, author of "Lincoln," "Burr," and "1876".



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E-mail to Stephen Kinzer: kinzer@nytimes.com