Operation Ajax: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Operation Ajax (1953) was an Anglo-American covert operation to overthrow the freely elected democratic Government of Iran and Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh.

Excuses for the deposing included Mossadegh's socialist rhetoric and his nationalization of the oil industry which was previously operated by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. Both of these led to accusations that he was a Communist and suspicions that Iran was in danger of falling under the influences of the neighbouring Soviet Union. The principal reason for the coup was an oil deal whereby the UK and the US divided Iranian oil while giving minor pieces to Dutch and French interests.

The US also set up a guerilla force in case the leftist Tudeh Party seized power as a result of the chaos created by Operation Ajax. According to top secret documents declassified by the National Security Archive, undersecretary of state Walter Smith reported that the CIA had reached an agreement with Qashqai tribal leaders in southern Iran to establish a clandestine safe haven from which US-funded guerrillas and intelligence agents could operate.[1]

Operation Ajax was the first time the Central Intelligence Agency orchestrated a plot to overthrow a democratically elected government. The success of this operation and its relatively low cost (compared to conducting a war) encouraged the CIA to conduct similar operations in Chile, Guatemala, and other countries. However a democratic government has never returned to Iran, and many historians argue that dissatisfaction with the installed Shah led directly to the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979.

The leader of Operation Ajax was Kermit Roosevelt, Jr., a senior CIA agent, and grandson of the former President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt. While formal leadership was vested in Kim Roosevelt the project was designed and executed by the late Donald Newton Wilber of Princeton N.J. Don was a career contract agent for the CIA and acclaimed author of Books on Iran, Afghanistan and Ceylon.