The August 19, 1953 Coup Against the National Government of Dr. Mossadegh and Its Role in the Destiny of Iranians
By Reza Hoseani
1. Introduction: A Coup Not as an Incident, but as the Beginning of a Pattern
The coup of August 19, 1953 (28 Mordad 1332) should not be summarized merely as a military event on a specific day in Iran’s contemporary history. What happened in August 1953 was in fact a breaking point in Iran’s democratization process and the beginning of a recurring pattern. A government that had come to power by the vote of the people with the aim of nationalizing the oil industry and cutting off the hands of foreigners and internal despotism was overthrown by an organized conspiracy. This overthrow was not just the fall of a prime minister, but the fall of a model of national and popular government that could have completely changed Iran’s destiny. Therefore, examining 28 Mordad is examining the roots of subsequent dictatorships in Iran.
2. Why Did Mossadegh’s National Government Have to Be Overthrown?
The government of Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh was considered a dual threat. On the one hand, by nationalizing the oil industry, it had endangered the vital interests of Britain, which had been trying to consolidate them since 1947 with the Gass-Golshaiyan Agreement, an agreement that was rejected by the Oil Commission report in the 16th Majlis. On the other hand, Mossadegh wanted to subject the financial books and accounts of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, which until then had been completely confidential and in the hands of the British government, to an independent audit to prove whether Iran’s real share of oil sales was being paid or not, and thus to restore Iran’s control and authority over its own oil reserves.
These two characteristics, namely independence-seeking against foreigners and freedom-seeking against internal tyranny, had made him intolerable both for colonialism and for the two internal reactionary forces, namely the Shah’s court and a part of the reactionary clergy. For this reason, an unwritten but real coalition was formed against him.
3. Historical Complicity; When Crown and Turban Came Together
The most important lesson that the 28 Mordad coup has for today’s generation is the homogeneity of the two reactionary forces. Historical documents and narratives show that during the coup, a part of the reactionary clergy led by individuals such as Seyed Abol-Ghasem Kashani and Seyed Mohammad Behbahani played a significant role in supporting the coup. Kashani and Baghaei, seemingly independent from foreign groups, intensified their activities against Mossadegh and made extensive efforts to convince army leaders and prominent figures to support the coup. This complicity showed that monarchical dictatorship and religious reaction are of the same nature: both are against the sovereignty of the people, both rely on repression, and both are opposed to freedom. This is a homogeneity that showed itself again in 1979. To confirm the occurrence of the coup as a foreign project, we suffice to mention that in August 2013, the US government, by publishing classified documents, officially acknowledged its role in planning the coup.
4. Engineering a 25-Year Dictatorship
The direct result of the August 28 coup was the overthrow of the national government of Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh and the beginning of the military government of Fazlollah Zahedi and the unprecedented closeness of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to Britain and the United States of America. Mossadegh was arrested, sentenced to three years in prison in a military court, and then kept under house arrest in Ahmadabad until the end of his life. His other companions, including Dr. Hossein Fatemi, were executed. From the heart of this repression, the monstrous apparatus of SAVAK was born and a quarter of a century of Pahlavi’s absolute dictatorship ruled the country. A generation that wanted to achieve freedom through peaceful and parliamentary struggle, with all roads closed, concluded that in the face of dependent dictatorship, there is no way but to organize resistance.
5. The Guadeloupe Conference; Handing Over Power From One Dictatorship to Another
If we consider 28 Mordad as the beginning of the engineering of dictatorship, the Guadeloupe Conference in January 1979 should be considered its delivery point. There, where the leaders of Western powers gathered, it was decided that it was no longer possible to defend Western interests against the Iranian people’s revolution with the Shah, so power must be handed over to another force of the same reactionary nature. In this way, the authoritarian monarchical sovereignty, with the support of the West, was handed over to the absolute rule of the Velayat-e Faqih. This transfer of power was not a popular revolution, but a top-down displacement to preserve the structure of tyranny. People who had risen against the Shah’s dictatorship found themselves facing a new dictatorship that used the same pattern of repression as 28 Mordad.
6. Neither Shah nor Sheikh; The Answer to a Century of Complicity
In the face of this historical experience that showed the crown and the turban are two sides of the same coin, the Iranian people and their organized resistance reached a strategic conclusion embodied in the slogan “Neither Shah nor Sheikh”. This slogan is not a tactical position, but a direct result of learning from 28 Mordad and from Guadeloupe. In the sense that the issue of the Iranian people is not just the departure of a dictator, but the negation of the totality of dictatorship in any garb and with any turban and the replacement of a national, independent and pluralistic sovereignty. The Iranian Resistance, relying on this very principle, considers itself the continuer of Mossadegh’s path: the path of popular sovereignty, separation of religion and state, and negation of any individual dictatorship.
7. Conclusion: How to Prevent the Repetition of 28 Mordad?
Mossadegh’s legacy is more alive today than ever. The 28 Mordad coup showed that whenever the interests of the Iranian people are in conflict with the interests of foreign powers and internal reaction, there is a danger of a coup repeating, and colonialism, to prevent popular sovereignty, constantly resorts to fabricating alternatives. This alternative fabrication is today materially and tangibly symbolized in the “baby Shah” project; a project that, with huge lobby budgets, providing tribunes of large Western media and holding formal conferences, tries to present the failed monarchical dictatorship with a new make-up as an alternative, while it has no social base inside Iran and no program for the future. The only way to prevent the repetition of this vicious cycle, i.e. the transfer of power from one dictatorship to another by these same powers, is to rely on a third, independent and legitimate force: the organized and organized resistance of the Iranian people, which is neither dependent on foreigners nor on reaction. As long as this pattern of 28 Mordad, i.e. the union of internal despotism and foreign support and the creation of a fake alternative, exists, the strategic slogan of Neither Shah nor Sheikh is the only scientific and historical guarantee of non-repetition of the bitter fate of the Iranian people, and this is the same legacy of Mossadegh that never ended.
About the Author
Reza Hoseani has been writing on political and social developments in Iran and the Middle East for over two decades. His main focus is on strategies to contain the Iranian regime’s warmongering and to support the Iranian people’s democratic movements.
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