The CIA’s second attempt at a coup succeeds. Mossadegh is driven into hiding and General Zahedi declares himself the new leader of the country. The CIA celebrates wth champagne.

It’s the middle of 1953, and the CIA is ready to execute their coup against the democratically elected government of Iran. The plan? Spend a bucket load of money hiring thugs to cause riots in the streets. Blame it on Mossadegh and then bribe a corrupt member of the Iranian military to go and arrest him. Unfortunately for the CIA, it didn’t go to plan.

In early 1953, Churchill initiated a plan with the CIA to overthrow Iranian Prime Minister Mossadegh, involving key figures like General Sahedi and the Rashidian brothers. Aided by disinformation campaigns, the Shah fled Iran, stirring public outcry. Despite initial resistance from Eisenhower, pressure from the Dulles brothers and ongoing chaos in Iran convinced him to approve the coup. The CIA allocated significant funds to destabilize Mossadegh’s government, ultimately leading to Mossadegh realizing the U.S. would not support him against British interference. The situation escalated with organized turmoil, political bribery, and strategic assassinations, culminating in Mossadegh’s political isolation by mid-1953.

The election of Eisenhower as U.S. President in Nov 1952 gave the British a new hope that the country might now support their plans to overthrow the Iranian government. Even before Ike took office, they sent Monty Woodhouse, the former chief of MI6 in Tehran, to Washington to start working with the Dulles brothers, soon to be the guys running the U.S.’s overt and covert foreign policy.

Mossadegh is more popular than ever. But that isn’t going to stop the British from conspiring against him. They decide that next time they try to bring down his government, they will need to find a way to get the mob on their side. Key to their future plans will be General Zahedi and the CIA’s Kermit Roosevelt.

In July of 1952, eight months after he got back from Washington, and in the middle of fighting Anglo-Iranian in the World Court, Mossadegh paid a visit to the Shah and asked him to relinquish control over the army. The Shah refused. So Mossadegh resigned. The British and the Shah were ecstatic and appointed a new puppet PM who announced a new order – the British would be back in control over the oil and anyone who complained would be arrested. The country erupted in protest. And so Mossadegh was re-appointed within days – now with complete control over the army.

In October 1951, Mossadegh flew to New York to address the United Nations and then to Washington to meet with Truman. It was the first time the UN was used by a poor, post-colonial country to voice their grievances against Western aggression. He was going toe-to-tow with Britain’s great white hope, Sir Gladwyn Jebb.

In actual fact, it wasn’t the CIA that came up with the template for using covert action to destabilise and overthrow a country’s government – it was a fascist British Foreign Secretary and the British academics he hired to bring down Mossadegh. The CIA just took that model and employed it – first in Iran, and then over and over and over again.

In 1951, the British were planning to invade Iran to re-take control of the country’s oil assets. Meanwhile, there were Nazis on the streets of London.

Truman sent Harriman to Iran to try to bring about a diplomatic resolution to the tensions with Britain. It did not go well.

Mossadegh started to take over the AIOC offices and appointed a French-educated engineer as the managing director of the new National Iranian Oil Company. The AOIC refused to allow Iran to transport their oil in British tankers. It turns into an epic showdown. The British started planning to have Mossadegh removed from power. Meanwhile the United States got more and more involved.

In the middle of the 20th century, Iranians really liked Americans, mostly due to the fact that their experiences with them (up until that time) had been mainly positive, unlike the British and the Russians. And the Americans were, in 1951, still trying to convince the British to play fair with the Iranians. If only that attitude has lasted.

The increasing tensions in Iran, driven in part by British imperialism, leads to the formation of a religious terror group called Fedayeen-i-Islam, the first of its kind.

In 1949 the Iranian Majlis put forward a bill to revoke the British oil concession. This, combined with worker riots in Abadan, prompted the British to take action. Meanwhile, Mossadegh forms a new political party, The National Front, and General Ali Razmara, who had been one of General Schwarzkopf’s most trusted officers, is made PM at the “suggestion” of the British.

When Reza makes himself Shah, Mossadegh is livid. He refuses to agree to it. Then he turns down multiple senior positions in the Shah’s cabinet. He ends up retiring from public life at age 45, gets imprisoned, and tries to commit suicide. He returns when the Shah is forced to abdicate, but an attempted assassination on the new Shah makes the political situation in Iran even worse. And a flamboyant American soldier arrives to help build a brutal paramilitary police force – General H. Norman Schwarzkopf Sr.

Dive into the turbulent history of oil in Iran, where George Reynolds, a self-taught geologist funded by Aussie entrepreneur William Knox D’Arcy, battled smallpox, bandits, and desert heat to uncover the largest oil field ever found. Reynolds’ discovery catapulted Iran into the global energy arena, but not without exploitation and strife. D’Arcy and the Scots invested heavily in what became the Anglo-Persian Oil Company—later BP—creating a colonial empire in Abadan that funneled wealth away from Iranians. Winston Churchill recognized the geopolitical prize, leading the British government to buy a majority stake in the company. Despite internal revolutions, worker strikes, and the rise of nationalist figures like Mohammad Mossadegh, the relationship between Iran and Britain remained fraught, embedded in a complex web of financial and political interests. From world wars to the overthrow of regimes, the story of Iranian oil is a saga of ambition, betrayal, and raw power.

We’re talking about Reza Shah, a soldier who rose to power from a humble background, pulled of a British-engineered coup, and effectively ruled Iran from 1921 – 1941.

Iran’s first attempt at democracy ended when the British and the Russians decided amongst themselves to divide up Iran in 1907 and supported the new Shah’s desire to crush the parliament. But the Iranians fought on, exiled the Shah and replaced him with his 11 year old son. Then they hired an American banker to clean up corruption. The British and Russians didn’t like that, so they had him thrown out as well.

The Shah continued selling the family jewels to the British and Russians, including the entire Iranian tobacco industry. He was eventually assassinated and replaced by his son, who had learned nothing. In 1901 he sold William Knox D’Arcy the entire Iranian oil industry. This shaped all of subsequent Iranian history.

The trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and the concept of psychological warfare. The Rosenberg trial, which began in March 1951, was a sensational case involving accusations of espionage for the Soviet Union. The couple, tried alongside fellow Communist Morton Sobell, were defended by Manny and Alexander Bloch. The trial involved key testimonies, including that of David Greenglass, Ethel’s brother, who admitted to passing on atomic information. The Rosenbergs were found guilty and sentenced to death. The trial was heavily influenced by the ongoing Cold War tension and the fear of Communist threat.

We also discuss the creation of the Psychological Strategy Board (PSB), designed to coordinate Cold War psychological warfare and propaganda. The PSB worked on creating a narrative to justify prosecuting the Rosenbergs, though this narrative faced opposition. The PSB was later dissolved and its functions transferred to other organizations. The use of psychological operations continues today, conducted by the Department of Defense, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the United States Agency for Global Media.

Finally, the we explore the ‘spiral of silence’ theory by Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, a concept explaining how individuals often conform to majority opinion due to fear of isolation. This concept is particularly relevant in the context of mass communication and public opinion.

We continue the shocking story of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, charged with conspiracy to commit espionage from 1944 to 1950. The US government sought the death penalty and engaged in questionable tactics during the trial, while public debate grew over the extreme sentencing. We discuss the role of Roy Cohn, Donald Trump’s future mentor and lawyer, the unethical conduct of judge Irving R. Kaufman, and the damaging testimony of David Greenglass, which falsely implicated his sister, Ethel.

After Nagasaki, Oppenheimer went to Washington to convince Truman that a bigger bomb wasn’t the solution. He failed. The guy who ended up designing it was Edward Teller with a little help from a computer called ENIAC and a genius called von Neumann. In the meantime, Truman found out that the number of bombs in the bomb cupboard was a lot less than he thought.

Another thing that happened in 1950 was Truman’s decision to push ahead with building the hydrogen bomb, a weapon hundreds of times more powerful than the atomic bombs that he dropped on Japan. Why did he want even more powerful bombs when the war was over? And who tried to stop him? And who designed the H Bomb? How was it built?

Richard Nixon was made the chair of a subcommittee to determine who was lying in the Hiss case. Chambers publicly called Hiss a communist and a spy. As evidence, he produced the “Pumpkin Papers”. Even today, historians can’t agree on whether or not Hiss was guilty. Then we go back to the Rosenbergs and the USG’s attempt to make them an example by making them suffer the ultimate punishment.

In December 1950, MacArthur and Truman are both threatening the use of atomic weapons against China and North Korea. Meanwhile, the British are trying to talk them into making peace with China, while Truman struggles with massive unpopularity back home.

While Cam is in the USA, the lads sit down to have a lazy chat about the highlights of the last six years of talking about the Cold War.

We were recently invited by Paul Giordano, a listener of this show, to give a lecture to the kids studying the Cold War at EF Academy in NY where Paul is the Humanities Department Chair. We spoke for about 40 minutes then did some Q&A with the very bright kids in his class. This is a recording of our Zoom call. We’re available for more school lectures, kids’ parties, wedding and bar mitzvahs.

Taking a short break from our CIA series this week to talk to retired U.S. Major Danny Sjursen. Danny was a U.S. Army strategist and history instructor at West Point. He served tours with reconnaissance units in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He has written a memoir and critical analysis of the Iraq War, Ghost Riders of Baghdad: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Myth of the Surge. These days he’s an outspoken critic of American imperialism.

Danny talks to use about his journey from being your typical post-9/11 U.S. soldier wanting revenge, to the war critic that he is today. We also talk about the nature of the military-industrial complex, the so-called “West Point Mafia”, Trump’s military track record, Biden’s pick for Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, and what might happen if Trump tries to declare martial law.

Follow Danny at @SkepticalVet and check out his podcast “Fortress on a Hill,” co-hosted with fellow vet Chris “Henri” Henrikson.

Today we go back to 1898 and discuss The Philippine–American War, sometimes referred to as “The First Vietnam”. Trust us – it’s relevant to our story. Why did the United States invade the Philippines in 1898? And why did 200,000 Filipinos have to die as a result? And why did the US occupy it for the next 50 years? Listen and find out.

A month after the opening of the second front, the Roosevelt administration organized a conference on postwar economic planning in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, at which American officials set up institutions designed to open up free trade around the world and to promote industrial development in former European colonies.

Roosevelt and Churchill had their first war summit meeting in Casablanca in January 1943.
The first Big Three conference was held in Tehran, Iran in November 1943. It turned out to be the most important summit of the war. In four days of meetings, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin debated the second-front question and hashed out the basic outline of a postwar European order.

Our guest today is Dr Peter Ellyard, a futurist, strategist, speaker and author living in Melbourne, Australia. He is known for his unique perspectives on global trends and emerging global markets. He talks to us about the role that “planetism” and the rising global middle class has on the future of the species and preventing future global wars.

Our first guest on the Cold War series is Doug La Follette, Secretary of State of Wisconsin!