“Psychological warfare” was one of most important dimensions of the coup operation and part of the plan from its first conceptions. In the weeks leading to the coup, this aspect of the operation became very important. Propaganda cartoons and articles …

CIA Art Group in Service of the Coup Read more »

16 Azar, 7 December, became the official Student Day in Iran after the 1979 Revolution. But even before 1979, students across the country marked the day in defiance against the Pahlavi regime because on that day in 1953 three students …

The Origin of Student Day, 16 Azar, in Iran Read more »

Abadan, the “modern oil city”, in southern Iran, was a segregated city in the 1940s and 1950s, and the subject of the promotional film “Persian Story” commissioned by Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. Living conditions for most of AIOC’s non-British oil workers …

Living and Working in the Oil City – 2 Read more »

For years the United States official myth was that the US was an “honest mediator” in the Iran-UK dispute over the Iranian oil industry; that the US had only humanitarian and idealistic interests in its involvements in Iran. However, from …

The United States Is “Forced” to Take Interest in Iran Read more »

– Just how important is Iran? – There is a great reserve of oil in that area and we’re interested in oil reserves. And if Iran should go through a revolution or a foreign country should take over Iran it’s …

“Could You Give Us an Idea, Dr. Hayden, of How Backward Iran Is?” Read more »

Max Thornburg, a Standard Oil executive, acted as a consultant to the Iranian government in 1951, reviewing the “Supplementary Agreement” recently proposed by Britain. Here in this interview on Longines Chronoscope, he opins that the oil nationalization was a “tragically …

“Tragically Unnecessary Accident of Oil Nationalization” Read more »

From Abrahamian, E., A History of Modern Iran (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010). Tudeh raised for the first time the demand for nationalization of the British-owned oil industry. On May Day in 1946, the British consul in Khorramshahr noted in …

First Call for Oil Nationalization, 1946 Read more »

Conditions of life and work for the AIOC’s Iranian oil workers in Abadan during 1930s and 1940s, prior to the nationalization. Source: Farmanfarmaian, M. and R. Farmanfarmaian. Blood and Oil: Memoirs of a Persian Prince. NY: Random House, 1997. Pp.184-5. …

Living and Wroking in Anglo-Iranian Oil Company’s Town Read more »

An older interview on Democracy Now on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the coup. Note the different readings offered by Kinzer and Abrahamian. Kinzer’s is an action film scenario complete with a “fantastic cast of characters in the …

Liberal vs critical: Stephen Kinzer and Ervand Abrahamian (Democracy Now, 2003) Read more »