The history of modern Iran is a story of revolution and regret, of a people torn between the ideals of constitutional democracy and a centuries-old tradition of Persian kings. The latest chapter of that story is playing out on the streets of Iran right now. If you want to understand the backstory behind the Iranian protests, listen to Eli Lake’s two-part Breaking History epic on the birth of modern Iran. Catch it wherever you get your podcasts, or hit play below to listen to Part One:
In our pages today, Eli dives into one chapter of that history, and how it is being used—and abused—in debates about how the West should respond to the ayatollah’s ruthless crackdown on protests in Iran.
President Donald Trump is deciding how far the U.S. will go to intervene on behalf of Iran’s people as its revolution heats up, but American noninterventionists on both the left and right are horrified by the idea of any U.S. involvement. The critics are haunted by memories of the 20th century—specifically by a widely misunderstood power struggle that pitted Iran’s nationalist leader against a young, inexperienced monarch more than 70 years ago.
The episode is the 1953 fall of Mohammad Mossadegh, the prime minister who nationalized Iran’s oil industry and is remembered as a hero by the anti-imperialist left. In the forward to his influential book, All the Shah’s Men, journalist Stephen Kinzer sums up the events as follows: “If the United States had not sent agents to depose Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953, Iran would probably have continued along its path toward full democracy.”
No wonder Mossadegh briefly trended on X this week. Senator Bernie Sanders said the current regime is “itself a product of Western-backed intervention,” citing the fall of Mossadegh.
