Doctor CamNC4Me wrote:MeDotOrg wrote:Mohammed Mosaddegh
Yeah, we literally trolled the Iranian people just like the Russians trolled us. The only difference, of course, is our trolling cost the Iranians around 30,000 lives. It was absolutely disgusting what we did to them. And I believe this one was actually over oil, too.
- Doc
The original oil leases the British extracted from Iran were horrible deals that took advantage of Iranian ignorance on the subject. (Most of the original deals were signed before World War I.)
The United States had made a much better arrangement for Saudi Arabia when ARAMCO was created, and the Iranians wanted to re-negotiate their deals based upon a similar model. In Iran, the Iranians working the oil fields lived in huts while the wealthy BP oil executives had access to the golf courses in Iran.
But the British government was just coming out of World War II, where it had been bombed, acquired massive debt and lost the crown jewel of its colonies, India. They desperately needed the Iranian oil. So the British said 'hard cheese, old man' to the Iranians. They refused to re-negotiate the deal. Mossaddegh, the Iranian Prime Minister, nationalized the oil industry in response. The United States and Great Britain orchestrated a coup against the government. (The American effort was actually led by Theodore Roosevelt's grandson.)
So yes, it had to do with colonialism and control of oil.
Historical footnote: The Shah of Iran was staying in a hotel in Rome while the coup occurred. He had to be coaxed back into the country by the people orchestrating the coup in his name.
