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FILE #003
DECLASSIFIED

Iran 1953 (TPAJAX): the 2013 acknowledgement

National Security Archive briefing book · 19 August 2013

On 19 August 2013, the National Security Archive posted declassified CIA documents on the 1953 coup against Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq. The Archive says American and British involvement had long been public knowledge, but that the posting includes what is believed to be the CIA’s first formal acknowledgement that the agency helped to plan and execute the coup.

The acknowledgement appears in a mid-1970s CIA internal history, “The Battle for Iran”. A version released in 1981 had blacked out every reference to TPAJAX, the code name for the U.S.-led operation. The history says the coup “was carried out under CIA direction as an act of U.S. foreign policy, conceived and approved at the highest levels of government.”

Disputed: the Archive says fundamental questions, including who hatched the plot, who ultimately carried it out, who supported it inside Iran and how it succeeded, are in dispute. The Guardian reported that the UK Foreign Office said it could neither confirm nor deny involvement. Alleged: the Archive reports that agency officials have said most CIA records on the coup were lost or destroyed in the early 1960s, allegedly because the record-holders’ “safes were too full.”

Sources

  1. [A] National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Book No. 435: “CIA Confirms Role in 1953 Iran Coup” (19 Aug 2013)https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB435/
  2. [B] CIA, “The Battle for Iran” (mid-1970s), 2013 release (PDF, from [A])https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB435/docs/CIA%20-%20Battle%20for%20Iran%20-%202013%20release.PDF
  3. [C] CNN: “In declassified document, CIA acknowledges role in ’53 Iran coup” (19 Aug 2013)https://www.cnn.com/2013/08/19/politics/cia-iran-1953-coup
  4. [D] The Guardian: “CIA admits role in 1953 Iranian coup” (19 Aug 2013)https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/19/cia-admits-role-1953-iranian-coup
  5. [E] BBC News: “CIA documents acknowledge its role in Iran’s 1953 coup”https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-23762970