Communist Lies about Mossadegh and Iran’s History

If you want to understand why the current Iranian regime is so popular among liberals, socialists, Marxists and communists, we need to go back to 1953 and look at the contemporary leftists’ hero — Mossadegh.

Mossadegh faints as the court reads the verdict in 1953

Here are the shocking facts: Mossadegh was an unscrupulous politician who rigged elections and referendums, used mob violence to circumvent the law of the land, gave himself dictatorial powers, and even assassinated a former Prime Minister to take his position. And his famous nationalization of oil was a huge disaster, making him very unpopular. As for the CIA coup, it was supposed to be a KGB coup by the Soviet Union!

1953: Anti-Mossadegh and pro-Shah protesters burning down a communist kiosk in Tehran

The revisionist communist narrative is built on many deliberate omissions of truths, and some clever lies.

For example, they will always say that he was a popular and democratically elected leader. First, in the parliamentary elections of 1950 and 1952, Mossadegh’s party — National Front — won just 8 and 30 seats respectively out of total 136 seats. Not popular.

But how did he become the Prime Minister in 1951? Through many undemocratic, illegal and immoral actions.

Also, he became quite unpopular just six months after he came to power in 1951. Why? Here’s something the Leftists never mention: The nationalization of oil was a failure of epic proportion! The production of oil fell by 96% — from 660,000 barrels per day to merely 27,000 bpd — within a few months because the Iranians did not have the technical skills to operate the oil fields and refineries or export the oil.

Also, in the Disney version of the communists, Mossadegh was a democratic leader, while the Shah of Iran — Mohammad Reza Pahlavi — was a brutal dictator. However, the Shah fled Iran in 1953 because he was afraid of being assassinated by Mossadegh. Not a real “dictator,” eh?

Shah of Iran in exile in Rome, Italy, in August 1953

Why? Because Mossadegh and his friends in the radical Islamist and communist groups had assassinated or tried to assassinate quite a few political leaders in Iran, including the Shah himself in 1949!

Shah Reza Pahlavi narrowly escapes assassination attempt in 1949. The assassin was a communist who belonged to the Tudeh Party, which was funded and directed by the USSR

In fact, Mossadegh became the Prime Minister only because his terrorist friends assassinated the previous Prime Minister in 1951!

One year later, Mossadegh gave himself dictatorial powers after blatantly rigging the parliamentary elections. And he repeatedly used mobs to get what he wanted, rather than following the Iranian Constitution and the laws.

Mossadegh gains dictatorial powers for six months. Then, he would get an extension for another year!

By the way, the role of Islamic terrorist groups and communist parties are always conveniently ignored by the mainstream narratives. Especially the fact that the communist group — Tudeh party — was funded and controlled by the Soviet Union. Time magazine in 1952 described Iran as “deeply infiltrated by underground communist groups.” Strangely, there are a lot of Western leftists and so-called communists with nostalgic feelings for the USSR even today.

The Soviet-backed communists in Iran actually had plans to overthrow Mossadegh two weeks after he overthrew the Shah in 1953!

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The 1953 coup was actually a failed Soviet/KGB coup!

As for the US involvement in the 1953 ouster of Mossadegh, what is never mentioned is that the US tried very hard to mediate between Iran and the UK. Americans sent negotiators to Iran; and even Mossadegh himself visited US President Truman at the White House in late 1951.

Mossadegh visiting the US in 1951 for SIX weeks! Here he is with President Truman at the White House and in Philadelphia, looking at the famous Liberty Bell

Finally, if the CIA were all powerful, why did it wait for 2.5 years after nationalization of oil to depose Mossadegh? Because the CIA’s power was minimal in Iran. While the CIA did play a small role in deposing Mossadegh in 1953, it was the Iranian army that arrested Mossadegh. The CIA guy in Tehran — Kermit Roosevelt, grandson of US President Teddy Roosevelt — exaggerated his role.

Tanks being sent by Iranian army to arrest Mossadegh. 1953

Okay, now you see how there are far more nuances and shocking truths to the story, let’s summarize the story of Mossadegh, a ruthless, power-hungry and a dumb populist.

· Mossadegh was a member of the Qajar dynasty, which ruled Iran for 136 years and was replaced by the Pahlavi dynasty in 1925. So, he should not have been trusted by Shah Reza Pahlavi at all.

Mossadegh kisses the hand of Shah Reza Pahlavi in 1951 after conniving (murdering) his way into the role as the Prime Minister. Top right: Photo of a Qajar king with two wives. Bottom right: Girls of Qajar era

· Mossadegh was a nobody his whole life, but decided to jump on the oil privatization bandwagon.

· In 1949, he formed a party called the National Front, which was a coalition of Islamists and communists. By the way, this was done after the communists tried to assassinate the Shah earlier that year!

· In the 1950 parliamentary election, the National Front — Mossadegh’s party — won only 8 out 136 seats.

· And Mossadegh himself represented a small district from Tehran and received 30,000 votes, which was 0.2% of Iran’s population.

· Important point here: Neither Mossadegh nor his party was popular.

· When the Parliament convened in 1950, the new Prime Minister was Ali Razmara, who was smart enough to understand that Iranians did not have the technical skills or logistical abilities to fully take over the entire oil sector. Thus, Razmara opposed the full nationalization, and instead recommended negotiating a better deal with the British.

Bustling oil fields and refineries in Iran before nationalization… producing 640,000 barrels per day

· So, how did Mossadegh become the Prime Minister?

· By murdering Razamara, the Iranian Prime Minister! That’s right. Mossadegh’s Islamic terrorist buddies in the group known as Fedayeen e-Islam assassinated Razmara in March 1951.

Iranian Prime Minister Ali Razmara — assassinated in March 1951 by Islamic terrorist group Fedayeen e-Islam, a political ally of Mossadegh

· 10 days after the assassination of Razmara, Iran nationalized the oil sector.

· By the way, Mossadegh was not even the Prime Minister at the time, but he took all the credit! He became the Prime Minister only at the end of April — about 45 days AFTER oil was nationalized.

· Furthermore, nationalization of oil was not Mossadegh’s brilliant idea. It was championed by a lot of people including the Ayatollahs, Islamic terrorist groups, communists and a majority of Iranians, who did not understand the complexity of the issue.

· Let’s go back to the assassination of Prime Minister Razmara. Immediately thereafter, Mossadegh’s party praised the assassin as a hero. The assassin’s name was Khalil Tahmassebi, and he was a member of the Islamic terrorist group Fedayeen e-Islam.

· Mossadegh was aligned with a powerful Ayatollah named Kashani, who was also the speaker of parliament. Kashani lobbied hard for the release of the assassin. The next year, in 1952, the assassin was released, and Kashani proudly posed in public with the assassin. Imagine that.

Ayatollah Kashani with the man who assassinated PM Razmara

· No wonder that the Time magazine called Kashani the “boss of the gunman-terrorist wing of the National Front Party.”

· One important point about nationalization of the oil industry.

Yes, colonialism was bad, but the Iranian oil industry was originally created and managed by the British, who had invested all the capital, owned all the technology, and managed the entire supply chain. A British man named William D’Arcy spent £200,000 of his own money and 7 years looking for oil in Iran. He almost went bankrupt before hitting oil in 1908. The Abadan oil refinery that the British built was the largest in the world.

The British found oil in Iran in 1908 after 7 years of exploration

· Rather than negotiating a better term with the British — as Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Iraq etc. had done — Mossadegh wanted 100% control of the oil fields and refineries.

· The British said NO and simply pulled all their engineers and managers from Iran, which led to a complete collapse of oil production and exports. This in turn severely affected Iran’s economy.

Here’s how a New York Times article described the Iranian economy in 1952:

“Unemployment is widespread because nearly all Government construction projects and similar undertakings have been halted. The exhaustion of foreign exchange reserves has reduced imports to a trickle and commercial activity accordingly has been very restricted.”

· Britain was actually ready to go to war with Iran, but the US stopped them. Instead, the US invited Mossadegh for a long six-week trip to the US, hoping to persuade him with diplomacy and education. As mentioned before, even the US President met with Mossadegh.

US diplomat Averell Harriman spent more than a month in Iran in 1951, trying to mediate between the UK and Mossadegh. The British offered a 50–50 deal to split the revenues, which was fair and common, but Mossadegh refused.

· But, alas, Mossadegh was just a stupid and stubborn person.

· By the end of 1951 and early 1952, Mossadegh was profoundly disliked, as Iran’s oil industry imploded and the economy was in recession.

· So, when it was time for the 1952 Majlis (parliament) elections, Mossadegh rigged it blatantly by cancelling the counting of votes in the rural areas, where he was losing badly. So, the Iranian parliament had 40% vacant seats for the next two years!

· Out of the 136 seats, Mossadegh’s National Front coalition won only 30 seats. The pro-Shah groups had 49 seats.

· Obviously, the pro-Shah parties chose the next Prime Minister, who was a political veteran named Ahmad Qavam. At that point, Mossadegh should have stepped down.

· Instead, Mossadegh organized huge riots in Tehran with the help of the Islamists and Communists. And the Shah was forced to fire the new Prime Minister after just five days.

1952 mob uprising by communists and Islamists to reinstate Mossadegh as the Prime Minister

· Now, more empowered, Mossadegh made himself the defense minister as well, taking control of Iran’s military.

· The following month, Mossadegh coerced the parliament to give him dictatorial powers for six months! This meant he could virtually pass any law he liked. His justification was that he could fix all Iran’s economic problems — which he had created.

· And guess what happened after six months of Mossadegh’s dictatorship? The government lost 40% of its revenue (because of the precipitous decline in oil production and exports) and two-thirds of its foreign exchange earnings. His only solution was to print money, which only increased inflation and cost of living.

· So, in early 1953, he demanded one more year of dictatorial powers, and got it.

· However, by July 1953, the Iranian parliament member had enough. They tried to get rid of Mossadegh by a vote of no confidence.

· In response, Mossadegh resorted to more unconstitutional tricks. Claiming that “Will of the people is above law,” he held a referendum to dissolve the parliament completely! And the referendum was so incredibly rigged that the Time magazine published an article titled “Iran: 99.93% pure.” This is what it said: “Hitler’s best as a vote-getter was 99.81% in 1936; Stalin’s peak was 99.73% in 1946. Last week, Premier Mossadegh topped them all with 99.93%.”

· And the blatant rigging was insane! First, the voting was not a secret ballot. In Tehran, Mossadegh established two voting centers — one for those who wish to vote “yes” and another for those who want to vote “no.” The people in the “yes” center could vote multiple times! Meanwhile, there were violent communist gangs outside the “no” center to scare away people. One can only imagine how the counting was rigged. It was a total scam.

· At this point, the Shah tried to fire Mossadegh — which is a constitutional power the Shah had.

· But Mossadegh arrested the Brigadier General, who brought the Shah’s order of dismissal. And then Mossadegh’s people threatened to arrest the Shah himself.

· That’s when the Shah fled Iran on Aug 16, 1953.

· However, within a couple of days, the CIA, the Iranian military, and even the Ayatollahs who were once friends of Mossadegh all ganged up on him and removed him from power.

Mossadegh getting arrested by Iranian police and military. Aug 1953

· What happened was an anti-coup to prevent a coup by Mossadegh.

· After that, the delusional autocrat and loser spent three years in prison and the rest of his life under house arrest.

Mossadegh being released from prison in 1956. He would spend the rest of his life at his home

Finally, why are the contemporary Leftists so bitter about Mossadegh’s downfall?

Here’s the shocking answer: The Soviet-funded communists — Tudeh party — had plans to remove Mossadegh after he removed the Shah of Iran. He was supposed to be a patsy of the communists and the USSR.

A quick history of communism in Iran: Russia and the Soviet Union had tried to turn Iran into a vassal state since the late 19th century. During WW2, in 1941, the USSR allied with the British to invade Iran. That same year, the USSR created the Tudeh Party in Iran. When the USSR reluctantly left Iran in 1946, they were determined to eventually bring Iran into the communist bloc.

This is why the Leftists are still extremely resentful about the “CIA coup” in Iran. Because it was supposed to be a KGB coup.

And, notice how the communists and the Islamists formed an unholy alliance as early as 1949. That was recreated in the 1979 coup — or, the so-called Islamic Revolution — which was really a culmination of a long game of sabotage and subversion.

Here’s the Shah of Iran talking about the Red-Black (Communist-Islamist) alliance long in the early 1960s:

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Thus, you see how the simplistic leftist narrative about Mossadegh and the so-called CIA coup of 1953 are nothing but lies, distortions and disinformation.

Conclusion:

Mossadegh’s entire life was crystallized in the short period of less than 4 years — from 1949 to 1953. And that period was filled with desperate hunger for power, a populist but delusional idea about nationalization of oil, lack of economic or geopolitical skills, ruthless manipulation of elections and referendums, and willingness to murder political opponents.

Below: My YouTube video, pretty much reading this article.

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— S.L. Kanthan