CIA and MI6 Overthrow Iranian Prime Minister Mossadegh

On August 19, 1953, CIA operation TPAJAX and MI6 operation Boot overthrew Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, who had nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in 1951. The agencies used bribery, propaganda, and hired crowds to restore Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to power and install General Fazlollah Zahedi as prime minister. Approximately 300 people died in Tehran fighting. Mossadegh received three years solitary confinement followed by life house arrest. A 1954 oil agreement gave five US petroleum companies and British Petroleum 80 percent of Iranian oil.