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ON 19 AUGUST 1953, Mohammad Mosaddegh—seen here during his subsequent court martial—was overthrown as prime minister of Iran in a coup d’état supported by the British and US governments. The coup restored Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who had fled to Italy, as the country’s monarch.

Mosaddegh, a wealthy landowner and lawyer, had been appointed prime minister in 1951 after a period of tumult. He was the leader of the National Front, a coalition of parties and social groups that had been organising frequent protests against Reza over his attempt to rig the 1949 parliamentary election and his decision, that same year, to grant a generous extraction agreement to the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company—later renamed as British Petroleum. Mosaddegh introduced legislation nationalising the oil industry, which he signed into law three days after taking office.

The British government, which held 51 percent of AIOC shares, appealed to the United Nations and the International Court of Justice. It also imposed sanctions, mobilised troops to the region and instituted a naval blockade on Iranian oil exports, with the AIOC threatening legal action against anyone purchasing oil from the country. Meanwhile, it applied pressure on Reza to appoint a pro-British prime minister.

Having won a parliamentary election in 1952, Mosaddegh resigned during the process of royal approval of his cabinet. He led nationwide demonstrations against Reza, who was forced to reinstate him five days later. However, the British intelligence agency MI6 as well as the US Central Intelligence Agency destabilised his government over the following year, fomenting divisions in the National Front and using the growing prominence of the communist Tudeh Party to align their covert actions with Cold War rhetoric. They also instigated violent protests by both pro- and anti-monarchy factions, providing the military a pretext to step in and depose Mosaddegh, who spent the rest of his life under house arrest.