Foreign Relations of the United States, Iran 1951-1954

The Foreign Relations of the United States series presents the official documentary historical record of major foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity of the United States Government.

This volume is part of a sub-series documenting the foreign policies of the Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower administrations. However, this volume is a retrospective volume that is meant to supplement Foreign Relations, 1952–1954, Volume X, Iran, 1951–1954, published in 1989. The 1989 volume provided significant documentaIII 339-370/428-S/80022 IV Preface tion on the oil dispute between the United Kingdom and Iran following the latter’s decision to nationalize the assets of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) in March 1951. It represents a thorough, accurate, and reliable account of the role the United States played in mediating the dispute. However, it did not provide any documentation on the role of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the formulation of U.S. policy toward Iran or documentation on the covert action that led to the overthrow of Iranian Prime Minister Dr. Mohammad Mosadeq on August 19, 1953.

The lack of such documentation prompted a sharply critical reaction from concerned academics, the media, and other interested members of the public. In 1991, this reaction prompted the introduction and passage of congressional legislation, updating the Foreign Relations statute and affirming the requirement that the Foreign Relations series “shall be a thorough, accurate, and reliable documentary record of major United States foreign policy decisions and significant United States diplomatic activity.”

Preface III

Sources  XI

Abbreviations and Terms XXI

Persons XXVII

Iran, 1951–1954 United States Efforts to Understand Mosadeq, February 1951–February 1952 1

The United States, the July 1952 Iranian Political Crisis, and its Aftermath, March 1952–February 1953 217

Planning and Implementation of Operation TPAJAX, March–August 1953 469

The Aftermath of Operation TPAJAX, September 1953–December 1954  742

Index  951

U.S. Department of State officials and historians, college level professors, instructors and students of Middle East affairs, in particular the historic relationship between the U.S. Government and Iran.