One of the most famous—or infamous—covert actions was the 1953 coup organized by the CIA and MI6 in Iran. The motive? Largely Oil.
Iran’s leader, Mohammed Mosaddegh, had nationalized an Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, AIOC, whose profits had previously flowed to London. MI6 and the CIA’s covert action plan (operation BOOT and AJAX respectively) was to remove Mosaddegh from power and replace him with a Western-pliant leader.
To do so, they used the full spectrum of dirty tricks at their disposal: bribery, smearing opponents, disinformation. The CIA-MI6 coup was successful.
However, as recently opened US State Department records reveal, the covert action was much more touch-and-go than either MI6 or the CIA later claimed. In hindsight, we can see that their Iran coup produced a poisoned legacy, both in Iran itself, in the Middle East, and in London and Washington.
The CIA-MI6 Iran coup led to a belief, especially in Washington, that an intelligence agency could achieve the impossible and successfully implement foreign regime changes. In reality, the effect of covert action was meager. Intelligence agencies could provide a nudge to events, but not control them like puppeteers.
In truth, covert action can only be effective when it complements, not replaces, foreign policy objectives. READ MORE from Calder Walton about the CIA-MI6 coup.