I just read the Wikipedia link in the parent of this thread and it covers it in very interesting detail. Lots of moving parts, and I can’t give a synthesis. B

I just read the Wikipedia link in the parent of this thread and it covers it in very interesting detail. Lots of moving parts, and I can’t give a synthesis. But this includes: nationalization of the oil fields that broke prior agreements with Britain (big money maker for Britain, but a bad deal for Iran), gradual move towards authoritarian leadership by Mosaddegh as his popularity waned due to economic hardship after a British oil embargo following the nationalization, Mosaddegh alignment with communists. Seems like there was both western meddling and also inherent power struggle happening in the country at that time. USA supported shah but who they should support was actually under debate. It states the USA coup attempt actually failed but may have precipitated the successful one, which was possibly natural. Finally, USA broke the British monopoly after the coup and Iran did get much more money from their oil after this. please correct if I got anything wrong here.