Tehran - Iran - page 103

MOHAMMAD MOSSADEGH & THE CIA'S FIRST
COUP

Before Lumumba in Congo, Sukarno in Indonesia and Allende in Chile, Mohammad Mossadegh was the first demo-
cratically elected leader toppled by a CIA coup d'état. Mossadegh, a highly educated lawyer, paid the price for seek-
ing a better deal for Iran from the hugely profitable oilfields run by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. When the Brit-
ish refused Iran a fairer share, he nationalised the company and expelled British diplomats, whom he rightly suspec-
ted of plotting to overthrow him. The significance of this act went far beyond the borders of Iran, and Mossadegh
was named Time magazine's Man of the Year in 1951 for his influence in encouraging developing nations to shake
off the colonial yoke.

The British were desperate to get 'their' oil back. They encouraged a worldwide boycott of Iranian oil and
worked hard to muddy Mossadegh's name in Iran and internationally. After arch-colonialist Winston Churchill was
re-elected in 1952, he managed to persuade the new Eisenhower administration in the USA that Mossadegh had to
go. The CIA's Operation Ajax was the result. Kermit Roosevelt, grandson of former president Theodore Roosevelt
and one of the agency's top operatives, established a team in the basement of the US Embassy in Tehran and soon
won the shah's support. But that alone wasn't enough and another US$2 million was spent buying support from
senior clerics, military officers, newspaper editors, bazaris and thugs.

The CIA was new at the coup game - it started badly when Mossadegh loyalists arrested the coup leaders on 16
August. The shah promptly fled to Rome, but three days later there was a second attempt and Mossadegh was
toppled. The shah returned and the oil industry was denationalised, but the British monopoly was broken and for its
trouble the USA claimed a 40% stake. Mossadegh spent the rest of his life under house arrest.

Check www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/041600iran-cia-index.html for the 96-page CIA history of the
coup.

Tehran Museum of Contemporary Artنارهت رصاعم یاهرنه هزوم
( 8896 5411; www.tmoca.com ; Kargar Ave; admission US$0.60; 10am-5.30pm Sat-
Thu) On the western side of Park-e Laleh, the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art is
in a striking concrete modernist building constructed during the shah's rush to build mod-
ern landmarks in the 1970s. Progressive Queen Farah Diba was the driving force behind
the museum (her cousin Kamran Diba was the architect) and by the time it opened in 1977
its nine major galleries in their distinctive, Guggenheim-esque spiral layout were home to
a remarkable collection of Western and Iranian art. The museum boasts works by Picasso,
Matisse, Van Gogh, Miró, Dalí, Bacon, Pollock, Monet, Munch, Moore and Warhol,
among many others. On the open market, the collection is estimated to be worth between
US$2 billion and US$5 billion.
Laying eyes on it, however, is not easy. During the Ahmadinejad years the collection
has been locked away in the museum vaults, deemed to be symbolic of a Western liberal-
ism that is out of favour among the ruling classes. Indeed, when we visited on this trip the

ART MUSEUM