Mainstream coverage of the current U.S.-Iran conflict treats Iran as the sole bad actor and the 1979 embassy takeover as the starting line. That framing erases decades of American intervention that historians have long documented and that letter-writers and scholars still have to drag back into the conversation.
Official Narratives Skip the 1953 Coup and What Followed
In a 14 March 2026 letters section, The Des Moines Register published a response by Don C. Yager to a guest column that had dated America’s history with Iran from the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Yager noted that history does not begin and end there. America’s first overthrow of an Iranian regime took place in August 1953 when, with British collaboration, the government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh was overthrown and a corrupt and much-despised shah was installed. That shah, assisted throughout his reign by the United States, ruled with ruthless determination while most Iranians remained in poverty and the SAVAK secret police suppressed dissent. The Iranian people finally rose in 1979 to throw out the shah and his chief foreign sponsor. As Yager put it: it did not go well the first time, and there is no reason to believe it will be any different this time.
Declassified documents and historians have confirmed the CIA’s role. In August 1953 the CIA orchestrated Operation Ajax, the agency’s first successful overthrow of a foreign government, removing Mosaddegh and consolidating power for Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. According to NPR’s March 2026 summary of U.S.-Iran relations, the coup followed a two-year campaign in which the CIA used suitcases full of cash to buy off newspaper editors, hire thugs, and organise rallies. The coup left lasting resentment and established a template for later CIA operations. Ervand Abrahamian, a distinguished historian of Iran at Baruch College and the CUNY Graduate Center, has argued in books and interviews that American foreign policy has repeatedly undercut liberal reformers in Iran and that the 1953 coup is central to understanding modern U.S.-Iranian relations.
Mainstream Framing Still Treats Iran as the Only Villain
Current coverage rarely leads with that history. Western outlets often name Iran explicitly when attributing casualties or attacks but omit or soften the perpetrator when reporting Israeli or U.S. actions, as critics have noted in analyses of March 2026 coverage. The result is a narrative in which Iran is the aggressor and the United States is responding, with little room for the fact that both sides have a long record of intervention and retaliation. Letter-writers and historians have to remind the public that imperialist meddling in Iranian affairs goes back generations and is largely over Iran’s resources. Until that history is part of the default frame, policy debates will keep ignoring the record both sides would rather forget.
What This Actually Means
Mainstream framing of Iran as the sole bad actor is not neutral. It hides the role of U.S. intervention in shaping the current standoff and makes it easier to justify another regime-change project without reckoning with the last one. Acknowledging the 1953 coup and the shah’s U.S.-backed rule does not excuse the Islamic Republic’s repression or its attacks. It does make the story accurate. The Council on Foreign Relations timeline of U.S.-Iran relations (1953-2026) and the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs interview with Ervand Abrahamian are among the sources that document how U.S. policy pushed Iran to the right. NPR’s timeline and the Des Moines Register letter both illustrate how often the 1953 coup has to be reintroduced into public debate. That pattern has not changed. Both sides would rather forget the long history; coverage that goes along with that forgetfulness serves power, not the reader.
What Was the 1953 Coup in Iran?
In August 1953, the CIA and British intelligence orchestrated Operation Ajax to overthrow Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. Iran had nationalised its oil industry in 1951; Britain imposed an embargo and asked the U.S. for help. The CIA ran a covert campaign of bribery, propaganda, and staged unrest. Mosaddegh was removed, the Shah was restored, and the Shah remained a close U.S. ally until his overthrow in the 1979 revolution. The coup is widely cited by historians as a root of modern U.S.-Iran hostility.
Who Was Mohammad Mosaddegh?
Mohammad Mosaddegh was Iran’s prime minister from 1951 until the 1953 coup. He championed the nationalisation of Iran’s oil industry, which had been controlled by the British-owned Anglo-Persian Oil Company. His government was overthrown by a CIA-backed operation that restored the Shah to full power. Mosaddegh was imprisoned and later placed under house arrest until his death in 1967. He is remembered in Iran as a symbol of elected government and sovereignty against foreign intervention.
Sources
The Des Moines Register (via Yahoo News), NPR, Council on Foreign Relations, Georgetown Journal of International Affairs