C.I.A. and Moscow Are Both Surprised
But just as the Americans were ready to
quit, the mood on the streets of Tehran
shifted.
On the morning of Aug. 19, several Tehran
papers published the shah's long-awaited
decrees, and soon pro-shah crowds were
building in the streets.
"They needed only leadership," the secret
history says. And Iranian agents of the C.I.A.
provided it. Without specific orders, a journalist who was one of the agency's most
important Iranian agents led a crowd toward
Parliament, inciting people to set fire to the
offices of a newspaper owned by Dr. Mossadegh's foreign minister. Another Iranian
C.I.A. agent led a crowd to sack the offices of
pro-Tudeh papers.
"The news that something quite startling
was happening spread at great speed
throughout the city," the history states.
The C.I.A. tried to exploit the situation,
sending urgent messages that the Rashidian
brothers and two key American agents
should "swing the security forces to the side
of the demonstrators."
But things were now moving far too quickly for the agency to manage. An Iranian
Army colonel who had been involved in the
plot several days earlier suddenly appeared
outside Parliament with a tank, while members of the now-disbanded Imperial Guard
seized trucks and drove through the streets.
"By 10:15 there were pro-shah truckloads of
military personnel at all the main squares,"
the secret history says.
By noon the crowds began to receive direct
leadership from a few officers involved in the
plot and some who had switched sides. Within an hour the central telegraph office fell,
and telegrams were sent to the provinces
urging a pro-shah uprising. After a brief
shootout, police headquarters and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs fell as well.
The Tehran radio remained the biggest
prize. With the government's fate uncertain,
it was broadcasting a program on cotton
prices. But by early afternoon a mass of
civilians, army officers and policemen overwhelmed it. Pro-shah speakers went on the
air, broadcasting the coup's success and
reading the royal decrees.
At the embassy, C.I.A. officers were elated, and Mr. Roosevelt got General Zahedi out
of hiding. An army officer found a tank and
drove him to the radio station, where he
spoke to the nation.
Dr. Mossadegh and other government officials were rounded up, while officers supporting General Zahedi placed "known supporters of TP-Ajax" in command of all units
of the Tehran garrison.
The Soviet Union was caught completely
off-guard. Even as the Mossadegh government was falling, the Moscow radio was
broadcasting a story on "the failure of the
American adventure in Iran."
A. Rashki / The Associated Press
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Royalists, carrying a picture of the shah, rode a commandeered bus in
Tehran on Aug. 19, 1953, when the coup became a success.
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But C.I.A. headquarters was as surprised
as Moscow. When news of the coup's success
arrived, it "seemed to be a bad joke, in view
of the depression that still hung on from the
day before," the history says.
Throughout the day, Washington got most
of its information from news agencies, receiving only two cablegrams from the station. Mr. Roosevelt later explained that if he
had told headquarters what was going on,
"London and Washington would have
thought they were crazy and told them to
stop immediately," the history states.
Still, the C.I.A. took full credit inside the
government. The following year it overthrew
the government of Guatemala, and a myth
developed that the agency could topple governments anywhere in the world.
Iran proved that third world king-making
could be heady.
"It was a day that should never have
ended," the C.I.A.'s secret history said, describing Aug. 19, 1953. "For it carried with it
such a sense of excitement, of satisfaction
and of jubilation that it is doubtful whether
any other can come up to it."
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