Looking Back on 1953—What Unfolded And What It Reveals About Us Today

Oversimplified takes on Iran’s past and how the US meddles in Middle East affairs are helping us ignore our own democratic collapse in real time.

Author

Jarrett Adams
September 26, 2025

This essay was initially written in early July 2025 in response to social media discussions about US-Iranian relations since WWII, especially after the US and Israel’s attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities on June 22, 2025. I included additional resources on the Trump administration’s actions for further reading, reflecting new developments since I initially wrote the essay.

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The US toppled a democratically elected government in Iran for better trade deals on oil.

I see takes like this all the time. And honestly? They’re not just oversimplified—they actively undermine the criticism people are trying to make.

With tensions on the rise between Iran, Israel, and the United States—and President Trump launching airstrikes across the Middle East in his second term—this history (and these blanket statements) is back in the spotlight. But to understand what’s happening now, we need to revisit what happened in 1953.

And more importantly, we need to see what it reflects about what’s happening in our nation today.

Juxtaposition of two moments of political upheaval: on the left, street demonstrations during the 1953 Iranian coup; on the right, an American flag displayed upside down — the traditional signal of distress — altered with the words “Liberty and Justice for All” during protests against Donald Trump’s administration in 2025.

So, What Happened in 1953?

Yes, the US and the UK interfered with Iran’s democracy. And yes, some of their motives were about oil and Cold War influence. But the Iranian government in 1953 wasn’t some perfect democracy that the US merely interfered with.

Mohammad Mossadegh, Iran’s Prime Minister, was appointed with parliamentary support and initially had immense public backing—especially for nationalizing Iran’s oil from British control. But by 1953, he had:

  • Dissolved the Majlis (Iran’s elected parliament) through a referendum

  • Ruled by an emergency decree

  • Alienated key allies across religious, political, and merchant factions

In 1953, Iran was well on its way to constitutional breakdown. While the United States and the United Kingdom didn’t start the fire, they surely poured gasoline on a government that was smoldering from internal collapse. Mossadegh’s refusal to leave office—after the Shah exercised his constitutional authority to dismiss him—didn’t just trigger a standoff. It exposed how fragile Iran’s internal order had become. Legitimacy itself was unraveling.

This isn’t about absolving the US and UK’s meddling. It’s about understanding why it worked so easily.

Under Iran’s 1906 Constitution, the Shah had legal authority to dismiss the Prime Minister (which was encouraged, given the situation in Iran, by the US and UK). When Mossadegh refused to step down, the country entered a political and constitutional crisis.

At that point, the CIA and MI6, who were already circling the region, got involved. Through Operation Ajax, they funded protests, distributed propaganda, and helped sway public sentiment toward restoring the Shah.

But they didn’t manufacture the unrest — they exploited it. As journalist Arash Azizi points out, Kermit Roosevelt’s celebrated “coup” wasn’t an all-powerful masterstroke—it was more like riding a wave that had already formed.

Influential clerics, landowners, merchants, and even military leaders feared Mossadegh’s growing alignment with the Tudeh Party, Iran’s communists. But Western officials, obsessed with the Tudeh as a Soviet puppet, missed the deeper point: Iran’s unrest wasn’t just about ideology. It was about power.

And ironically, the US—so busy battling global communism—failed to see how divided and fragile the communist world was at this time. That blind spot would cost them dearly just a few years later with the Sino-Soviet split, and the implications that had in escalating the Cold War.

The Real Failure: What Came Next

Where the US absolutely deserves blame and intense criticism is in what came after the coup.

Instead of encouraging democratic reform or pluralism, the US backed the Shah’s authoritarian regime for decades. Iran became a police state under American sponsorship. Dissent was crushed. Opposition was surveilled. And trust in the West collapsed.

That betrayal laid the groundwork for the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the rise of theocratic rule, and the deep anti-Western resentment that still shapes geopolitics today.

Ironically, many of the same clerics who had feared communism in the 1950s and quietly supported the Shah’s return would later help sweep him out of power when his rule became intolerable.

And Now? Look in the Mirror.

Fast forward to today.

President Trump is back in office. He’s already:

We are witnessing strikingly similar constitutional and democratic erosion here in the US—only slower, and in plain sight. Our president sidesteps Congress. Courts normalize abuses of power by looking the other way. Democracy is not receding into the shadows, but rather into the constant headlines we see daily.

We claim to stand for democracy abroad while undermining it at home. That’s not irony—it’s rot.

Oversimplified Blame Helps No One

Blanket statements like “we toppled Iran’s democracy” flatten complexity and erase agency—both Iran’s and our own.

And worse, they leave us vulnerable to manipulation. Oversimplified anti-West narratives are increasingly easy to manipulate and weaponize. They make it easier for actors like Russia, Iran, or China to exploit our internal tribalism, just like we once exploited theirs.

If we want more thoughtful and honest foreign policy conversations, we must stop oscillating between denial and guilt. This isn’t about excusing US intervention. It’s about refusing to dumb it down.

If We Really Care About Democracy...

We can’t just repeat slogans. We have to do the work.

Mossadegh wasn’t a tyrant. But he wasn’t a flawless democratic leader either. The US didn’t create Iran’s instability—but it did capitalize on it. And now? The US is unstable in a way that should scare everyone who’s paying attention. 

Democracy doesn’t fall overnight. It gets eaten alive from within–and we should all see that we’re letting internal and external actors destroy our democracy.

In short, we do not need new propaganda or talking points that revise the past. We need a better memory, warts and all.

Like what you’re reading?

This won’t be my last piece on this subject. And it’s not the only lens I’ll be writing through. But if this made you think—or unsettled something you assumed—I hope you’ll stick around.

I'd love to hear from you in the comments and learn about your perspectives as well. That said, I'm writing more about American power, democratic erosion, foreign policy, and how we hold truth together in the era of disinformation.

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