(Demonstration in Tehran, 1953, opposing Operation AJAX. Photo Public Radio International).

“I told you the other day that I was sent to London in May of 1950 from DC.” I nodded in agreement, and got out my pen and prepared to take notes. “I rented the flat, picked up our 1949 Mercury four-door sedan at Southhampton. We drove it to get around in London, and then took it on the car-ferry across the Channel to France and drove down to the Alps and the Italian frontier. Then, a year or so later, when we were in Naples and getting ready to go back to London, we had the start of the troubles with Iran that are still going on today.”

“I was in the Midway battle group when they seized the U.S. Embassy in November of 1979, so I have been glaring at them in repressed anger my entire professional career,” I said grimly. “Assholes.”

“It goes back further than that, probably to about the time you were born,” said Mac with a laugh. Big Jim deposited a ginger ale in front of him on the rich dark bar and a tulip glass half-filled with whatever Willow was pouring for happy hour white. It was always good, and I just had to specify the color.

(Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, 1951).

“Here is how it started, as I recall. It caused quite a stir at the time. With the near unanimous support of the Majlis, the Iranian parliament, democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh nationalized the British-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. We knew it as AIOC.”

I took a deep swig of wine and said “They always seem to be taking things from somebody.”

“Well, in fairness, the 1933 agreement under which AIOC was operating was widely regarded as exploitative and an infringement on Iran’s sovereignty. That was in 1951.”

“That was the British Empire, and it was the very year I was born,” I said with wonder. “That is a long time to hold a grudge.”

“Consider the grudge the Shias have for the Sunnis, and vice versa for enduring hostility. With the British Services, we overthrew the Mosaddegh government and installed the Shah, who ruled for a quarter century.”

“I recall that vividly, Sir. And the Iranians at naval Air Station Pensacola who were being trained to fly the F-14 Tomcats and F-4 Phantoms we sold him.”

“We were deployed to the Indian Ocean during all that,” I said. “We all thought the Carter Administration demonstrated weakness in dealing with it. The overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in February 1979 made everyone in the region nervous. We wound up there twice in little more than a year. It was the start of the bad blood.”

“Well, from the vantage point in Europe and Washington, the 1953 coup looked justified. But for many Iranians, the coup demonstrated duplicity by the United States. They called us hypocrites for presenting ourselves as defenders of liberty, but willing to use treachery to suit our own economic and strategic interests.”

“If we don’t who will?” I replied. “But is the Iranian reaction why Ike was soft on the Suez Crisis a few years later?”

”I don’t know about that. For context, you have to remember that Iran’s oil was the British government’s single largest overseas investment. The Brits had played fast and loose with the terms of the concession that dated back to before the war. The Iranian workers who produced the crude were poorly paid and lived in slums. There was skullduggery, too. The Brits owned 51% of the company and bankrolled disruptive tribal elements and bribed officials to get what they wanted.”

“The Iranians blamed Britain for most of its problems and public support for nationalization was passionate.”

“Death to Britain,” I said, raising a fist. Big Jim the bartender raised his right arm in solidarity.

“It was quite the affair. The Brits imposed a worldwide boycott of Iranian oil to pressure them economically, though the Attlee Government decided not to land troops to seize the refineries. With Churchill back at Number 10 Downing Street and Ike in the White House, opinion opposing a coup faded and they decided on what we call ‘Regime Change’ to oust Mossadegh.”

(Shah of Shahs, Reza Pahlavi).

That must have been something to watch from London,” I said, swirling the pale golden wine in my glass.”
“Yes indeed. The coup was known as Operation AJAX, and required the Shah to dismiss Mossadegh from office. His family had to be bribed lavishly to get him to do it, but he came through in August of 1953 and got rid of him. The CIA’s candidate, General Fazlollah Zahedi, was installed as Prime Minister “

“And they have hated us ever since,” I said. “It is amazing it has been going on this long, and it looks like they will continue to export terror.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest,” said Mac, and the conversation meandered along through other times and places as it always did at the bar of the fabulous Willow restaurant.

(“Under New Management.”)

Copyright 2016 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com