Oil Crisis in Iran
From Nationalism to Coup d'Etat

Illuminates the influence of the US in internal Iranian politics long before the 1953 coup by examining recently declassified CIA and US State Department documents.

Ervand Abrahamian (Author)

9781108930888, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 10 November 2022

213 pages
22.8 x 15.3 x 1.1 cm, 0.32 kg

'Ervand Abrahamian, the eminent American historian of Iran, takes a deep dive into newly released documentation about the American role in the countercoup of August 1953 that ousted Prime Minister Mossadeq and restored the Shah to the throne. Understanding of those events remains hotly contested. Abrahamian takes on all the key issues: was it about oil or communism? How large a role did the Americans play? Do these events have any effect on current American relations with Iran? Anyone with an interest in those and other questions will find authoritative and persuasive answers in this deceptively conversational account of a turning point in contemporary Middle East history.' Gary Sick, Columbia University

Focusing on the turbulent twenty-eight months between April 1951 and August 1953, this book, based on recently declassified CIA and US State Department documents from the Mossadeq administration tell the story of the Iranian oil crisis, which would culminate in the coup of August 1953. Throwing fresh light on US involvement in Iran, Ervand Abrahamian reveals exactly how immersed the US was in internal Iranian politics long before the 1953 coup, in parliamentary politics and even in saving the monarchy in 1952. By weighing rival explanations for the coup, from internal discontent, a fear of communism and oil nationalization, Abrahamian shows how the Truman and Eisenhower administrations did not differ significantly in their policies towards Mossadeq, and how the surprising main obstacle to an earlier coup was the shah himself. In tracing the key involvement of the US and CIA in Iran, this study shows how the 1953 coup would eventually pave the way to the 1979 Iranian revolution, two of the most significant and widely studied episodes of modern Iranian history.

Introduction
1. US involvement
2. US concerns: oil or communism?
3. Parliamentary politics
4. The road to the coup
5. Memory revised.

Subject Areas: 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], Middle Eastern history [HBJF1]