The gruesome battle between America and Iran for over half a century has been a major topic all over the world. With all the ridiculous hate, discrimination, and deaths that have occurred, you would think that the starting point of this rivalry would begin with something a little more intense.
Iran was a wealthy country with a lot of power and an abundant amount of oil. Mohammad Mossadegh, the Prime Minister of Iran in the early 1950's, was a part of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC.) This was a British founded company that uses Iranian land for oil. Britain was the first country to even discover this valuable oil in Iran. Mossadegh was completely against the AIOC, and even created an Anti-AIOC group called the National Front. Mossadegh was against this for a fairly valid reason. The British were taking advantage of Iranian resources and stashing large sums for themselves instead of equally distributing the commodity. In 1950, the AIOC "earned" 200 million pounds, while Iran got a whopping 8% of that in total. That adds up to only16 million pounds. In my opinion that is outrageous. Sure, the British found the oil first, but it was on Iranian soil. They should at least distribute the money equally. But of course we do not live in a perfect world.
To spice things up, Mossadegh decided to he wanted to nationalize the oil. This is turning point that caused all further chaos in history with Iran. Britain was furious and America was ready to take action. The British had nothing but harsh words for Iran, such as, "The Iranian government is causing a great enterprise, the proper functioning of which is of immmense benefit not only to the UK and Iran, but to the whole free world, to grind to a stop. Unless this is promptly checked, the whole of the free world will be much poorer and weaker, including the deluded Iranian people themselves." Mossadegh, hating the British responded with, "You do not know how crafty they are, you do not know how evil they are. You do not know how they sully everything they touch." Neither side was too pleased with one another. The United States wanted a relationship with Iran since 1946 to keep their friendship with the USSR and gain some of the Iranian oil. America decided to create an operation that would rid Iran of their current Prime Minister and replace him with the clueless Shah behind the scenes in the country. This secret plan was called Operation Ajax, or codenamed as TPAJAX.
Starting out with this project, I had no idea how the feud between Iran and America began. I just knew that it really hit home for me, because these two countries are literally my homes. Being a second generation Iranian, it is more difficult for me to enjoy my culture because it is being so despised in my birth country. Iran is not the most loved country right now, but I can honestly say that it is not the country, but the leaders that have made it what it has become. Just like in this situation 60 years ago, Mossadegh made the decision to completely destroy the trust of all his allies and start a never ending war between America and Iran. The people had no say in what happened.
Eisenhower gave the almighty permission for Operation Ajax to set forth. It only costed America $1 million to run it and it was the cheapest and most effective way to fix the problem. On August 19th, 1953, Mossadegh decided to leave his position as Prime Minister because the pressure was rising between Iran, Britain, and the US. Iran's Shah took over immediately, but he was even more clueless so eventually he left that position as well. Britain and the US got what they wanted out of Operation Ajax. It all went according to plan.
The aftermath of this operation, was what really sealed the deal for the hatred of America and Iran. The Shah preceding Mossadegh, promised the people that he would increase their personal freedoms and other social reforms, but being the clueless man that he was, none of those things materialized. The Shah lived a life of luxury, which angered his people. He was forced to step down and leave the country in January 1979. The ruler after that Shah was the man who initiated the Iran Hostage Crisis. Which permanently destroyed any chance of the two countries mending.
This just shows that a lack of leadership can cause an extreme downfall or ruin a perfectly good ally. The people are not to blame, but the incapable leaders that led the country to a nightmare. It became apparent after doing research on this topic that Iran has a mind of their own, and even though they are wealthy and intelligent, they really do not know what they are doing in a sense of good leadership.
