Nika’s Reviews > All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror > Status Update

At several points he [Mossadegh] might have declared victory and made a deal. In the summer of 1952, for example, he was an unassailable national hero. He had been returned to power by a spontaneous mass uprising and had won a great victory over the British at the World Court. President Truman was on his side. A more pragmatic leader might have seized on this moment, but Mossadegh was not a pragmatist.

With this unanimous vote, the United States gave its final goahead for Operation Ajax, or Operation Boot, as the British continued to call it. The governments in London and Washington [the Eisenhower administration] were finally united in their enthusiasm. One looked forward to recovering its oil concession. The other saw a chance to deliver a devastating blow against communism.

Instead of negotiating seriously, they [the British] issued only “rash statements” and “impulsive expressions of resentment” about what they considered the theft of their property in Iran. “I frankly feel that if the British government does not cooperate,” he concluded, “it will make the success of my mission extremely doubtful if not impossible.”