Thanks for the deep dive. My perspective on it was formed by The Devil's Chessboard, which outlines all the meddling that the CIA (heavily Republican then) pulled off in the 50s and 60s, and strongly suggests their hand in the Kennedy coup. As I recall, the British government was bankrupt and cooked up the overthrow of Mossadegh to get back control of Anglo Iranian Oil (later BP) to restore fiscal balance in the national budget. We followed their lead and the undenied interference in Iran's internal affairs has led to years of suspicion and counterclaims against us.
Eisenhower no doubt learned from this and probably knew not to back the weak horse in the Middle East, so when Britain, France, and Israel cooked up the Suez Crisis in 1956 he forced the former ally to back down, gaining tremendous credit with the Arab world, enough so that Sadat eventually took power in Egypt and flipped them from a Soviet satellite to a US one. Iran also had to recall the occupation by the Soviets in WW2 and a LOT of elements would not have wanted an open-to-communism group to take power. One wonders if Stalin hadn't been dying in 1953 if he might not have aggressively flipped Iran communist.
Interesting. To be fair WRT the Suez Crisis, Nasser had a hand in it by nationalizing the canal that the French built (and the British bought into later). Some have suggested that Eisenhower might have been better off not making Britain back down, in that we could have let them handle the Middle East otherwise. But who knows. Britain was in pretty bad shape after WWII. Ironically, by the time West Germany's economic miracle had started, Britain still had rationing.
Thanks for the deep dive. My perspective on it was formed by The Devil's Chessboard, which outlines all the meddling that the CIA (heavily Republican then) pulled off in the 50s and 60s, and strongly suggests their hand in the Kennedy coup. As I recall, the British government was bankrupt and cooked up the overthrow of Mossadegh to get back control of Anglo Iranian Oil (later BP) to restore fiscal balance in the national budget. We followed their lead and the undenied interference in Iran's internal affairs has led to years of suspicion and counterclaims against us.
Eisenhower no doubt learned from this and probably knew not to back the weak horse in the Middle East, so when Britain, France, and Israel cooked up the Suez Crisis in 1956 he forced the former ally to back down, gaining tremendous credit with the Arab world, enough so that Sadat eventually took power in Egypt and flipped them from a Soviet satellite to a US one. Iran also had to recall the occupation by the Soviets in WW2 and a LOT of elements would not have wanted an open-to-communism group to take power. One wonders if Stalin hadn't been dying in 1953 if he might not have aggressively flipped Iran communist.
Interesting. To be fair WRT the Suez Crisis, Nasser had a hand in it by nationalizing the canal that the French built (and the British bought into later). Some have suggested that Eisenhower might have been better off not making Britain back down, in that we could have let them handle the Middle East otherwise. But who knows. Britain was in pretty bad shape after WWII. Ironically, by the time West Germany's economic miracle had started, Britain still had rationing.