Part 3/11:
Led by CIA officer Kermit Roosevelt Jr., Operation Ajax involved propaganda campaigns, bribery, and stirring unrest within Iran. Under the guise of populist opposition, protests and riots were fomented, culminating in a military-backed coup that reinstated the Shah, Muhammad Reza Pahlavi. This covert intervention initiated a quarter-century of autocratic rule under the Shah, but it also sowed long-term resentment, culminating in the 1979 Iranian Revolution and enduring mistrust between Iran and the West.
Significance: This operation set a precedent for future U.S. interventions and demonstrated how covert actions could dramatically alter regional dynamics—though often at a moral and ethical cost.