The CIA has proved to be far from above using nefarious strategies to meet its goals, even into the present. Throughout the Cold War, the agency reportedly conducted a vast array of spying and assassination missions in order to hinder the expansion of Soviet influence and/or protect American interests. Fidel Castro alone was the target of over 600 hits, while many successes in other countries were tallied for decades (via The Guardian). In 1953, its conduct was no different when political turmoil swept through Iran, threatening the stability that the CIA desperately craved. 

Two years earlier, Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh headed an effort to reduce the power of the shah, the country’s monarch. The latter had been in the process of positioning himself as the center of Iran, with private entities orbiting around his authority. The attempt to secularize Iran’s government and nationalize the targets of the shah’s influence brought panic to the overseeing British. Their fear was largely rooted in Persian oil exports being disrupted by this seemingly, from their perspective, communistic change in status quo (via History). Playing off both of these points, the British petitioned for American assistance in putting a stop to it, and Operation Ajax was born. 

CIA coup that restored power to the shah

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