They had a literal autocratic monarchy, this was overthrown. Their PM, Mossadegh, was democratically elected. They wanted to audit the Anglo Iranian Oil company (now... BP I think) as they were legally entitled to but the AIOC said lol no. So Mossadegh prepares to nationalize the oil fields.
The CIA/MI5/Mossad went :porky-scared: over this and facilitated a coup against him edit: this was "operation AJAX"
This resulted in the Shah regaining power. Yay western oil profits!
This is public knowledge. What might be lesser known is the CIA and Mossad then helped train his SAVAK secret police. This included various methods of torture that literally made me feel ill and weep to imagine after reading, just, my god, I never want to be tortured because people are really creative in finding absolutely fucking horrifying ways to cause you pain.
Anyway, SAVAK tortured and otherwise disappeared tens of thousands of primarily leftist dissidents. Gotta keep those commies down, right? So by the time people had had enough, well, no surprise but the organized rebellion Iran got was the Islamic revolution, ousting the Shah but replacing him with overt theocracy.
So every time you see some reddit dipshit post images of the Shah's Iran with women dressed freely vs in burqas/hijabs/etc., remember, it's thanks to the west that this happened (and people weren't exactly free under the fucking Shah).
The Islamic revolution and subsequent theocracy is a western product and the west has the audacity to call Iran fucking evil over it.
Iran 101
They had a literal autocratic monarchy, this was overthrown. Their PM, Mossadegh, was democratically elected. They wanted to audit the Anglo Iranian Oil company (now... BP I think) as they were legally entitled to but the AIOC said lol no. So Mossadegh prepares to nationalize the oil fields.
The CIA/MI5/Mossad went :porky-scared: over this and facilitated a coup against him edit: this was "operation AJAX"
This resulted in the Shah regaining power. Yay western oil profits!
This is public knowledge. What might be lesser known is the CIA and Mossad then helped train his SAVAK secret police. This included various methods of torture that literally made me feel ill and weep to imagine after reading, just, my god, I never want to be tortured because people are really creative in finding absolutely fucking horrifying ways to cause you pain.
Anyway, SAVAK tortured and otherwise disappeared tens of thousands of primarily leftist dissidents. Gotta keep those commies down, right? So by the time people had had enough, well, no surprise but the organized rebellion Iran got was the Islamic revolution, ousting the Shah but replacing him with overt theocracy.
So every time you see some reddit dipshit post images of the Shah's Iran with women dressed freely vs in burqas/hijabs/etc., remember, it's thanks to the west that this happened (and people weren't exactly free under the fucking Shah).
The Islamic revolution and subsequent theocracy is a western product and the west has the audacity to call Iran fucking evil over it.