America needs to accept responsibility

Editorial By Shawn Sedaghat

If the United States is to rebuild any type of relationship with a free Iran in the future, it must apologize for its actions in 1953.

Fifty years have passed since the 1953 CIA coup in Iran that swept Mossadegh out of power and brought back Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as the Shah of Iran. For those among us who have been born after 1953, the year and the events that shook Iran have become increasingly less important. As the dust of years settles on the collective memories of our forefathers, we view this particular part of our history as another signpost of a nation betrayed yet again. As Iranians, we have come to expect a certain degree of disappointment as a natural part of our national identity and history.

To place the Mossadegh/Shah showdown and the meddling of America as another form of political one-upmanship would be both wrong and disingenuous. Every nation has a day that has been etched on its collective psyche as one of humility and failure. The Americans have the attack on Pearl Harbor, “a day that will live in infamy”, the British have the day General Washington crossed the Patomac, the French have the Battle of Waterloo, the Russians have the fall their “communist Empire.” For Persians, there have been many days where we have tasted the bitter taste of defeat, but for modern Iran and Iranians, the failure of the Constitutional Monarchy movement in the early Twentieth Century and the coup against Mossadegh in 1953 are behemoths of national failure, humility and political awakening.

If Persia’s attempt at a Constitutional revolt had failed, it had at least experienced relative social advances under Reza Shah to sooth the pains of that failure. But once Mohammad Reza Shah took over, and after the uncertainty of the Second World War ended, Iranians still felt stifled by a system of governance that left power in the hands of a few well connected families and the Shah himself. The country’s economy was also squeezed by an unjust partnership with the British oil concerns. Like any system that is propped up by those who benefit from efforts to change the political apparatus had met resistance time and again until Mossadegh emerged as a Churchill-like character in the political landscape of Iran.

Mossadegh’s bold moves may have been too rash and impolitic given the results in the end, but to the browbeaten Iranians, he had become a savior and a reason to be proud as a nation once again. After all, it is not every day that the World Court rules against the British Empire when an anemic third world country is concerned. The moment passed all too soon.

When, for practical, economic and political reasons, the United States plotted and then carried out a coup to overthrow Mossadegh, it did not just frustrate the political development of a nation but in fact dislodged the secularization process that the Middle East was experiencing. The humiliated Iranians tolerated the rule of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as the imposed Ruler only until another charismatic character appeared on the horizon in the person of Ayatollah Khomeini. The Iranians were so anxious for a strong leader to face off against the Shah and his American puppeteers that they turned a blind eye towards Khomeini’s obvious totalitarian tendencies. No wonder Iran, the least devout of all Islamic countries, was the first to march under the green banner of Islam, which has since taken over the region.

Things change and sooner or later the theocracy in Iran will be pushed aside for another form of government. No matter what form the government of Iran will have, even the most level headed of all Iranians feel aggrieved at the actions of the U.S. in Iran in the summer of 1953. Although Madeline Albright attempted to express remorse on behalf of U.S. for meddling in Iran’s political process, this feeble and half-hearted attempt was perhaps worse than no acknowledgment at all, because it failed to understand the magnitude of the injury that America’s actions had caused Iranians. If the United States is to rebuild any type of relationship with a free Iran in the future, it must be on the basis of mutual respect, understanding and friendship. Any friendship must be built on a level of honesty that has yet to be demonstrated by the U.S. and which can only be achieved by a public and clear apology for the ill-conceived actions of 1953.

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