Brett Cooper

So I just wanted to share that before we get into what is happening today, because I think it is really important context.

So let's just take it back to 1951 when Mohammad Mosaddegh was elected as prime minister in Iran.

Now, an important fact and something that we are seeing everywhere all the time in geopolitics is that everything basically comes back to oil.

And Mohammad nationalized Iran's oil industry, which was previously controlled by the British.

Effectively, they were telling the West to go F themselves.

We don't want foreign interference in our government.

We are going to be autonomous.

Go F yourself.

And this is where it really gets interesting because in 1951,

There was a coup against Muhammad executed by the CIA and MI6 in the UK.

It was called Operation Ajax.

And Muhammad was overthrown as prime minister and they reinstalled the Shah, who is, you know, the head of state, the king, who was Muhammad Reza Pahlavi.

And hopefully I am pronouncing all of these names correctly.

Now, it was not until the early 2000s that people actually learned of the United States' involvement.

This was not known back in the 50s.

One article reads that the New York Times published a special report based on a leaked CIA internal history that the extent of American culpability was finally revealed.

In response, the then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright could do little to deny the charges, admitting that the coup was clearly a setback for Iran's political development.

And we're going to remember that for later in this episode when we're talking about new American involvement.

President Obama agreed, and in 2013, the CIA admitted culpability, explicitly referencing Operation Ajax, the code for the American operation in Iran in an internal history released by the agency.

In 2017, the publication, over 1,000 files concerning American activity in Iran were released through the Foreign Relations of the United States series, confirming beyond all doubt long-running suspicions as to foreign involvement.