Dear President Bush
In what foreign country did the CIA engineer the overthrow of a wildly popular democratic government? I’ll give you a few hints. It occurred post World War II and the President’s popularity was based in part on his nationalizing the country’s oil industry. Afterwards the brutal dictator, seen as puppet of the United States, ruled for 26 years. Any guesses?
You might be thinking World War II was a long time ago, but the situation sounds very similar to two situations in our Southern Hemisphere. Venezuela and Bolivia are taking back their countries’ energy resources from foreign companies. Exxon saw the writing on the wall in Venezuela and got out before President Chavez took his recent action. However, they were not quick enough in Bolivia. Exxon stands to lose a portion of their natural gas assets in that country, unless …..history repeats itself!
The answer is Iran, the year 1953.
The CIA overthrew the elected leader of Iran, Mohammad Mossadegh, who was wildly popular at home for having nationalized his country's oil industry. The coup ushered in the brutal several decade long dictatorship of Mohammad Reza Shah, broadly seen as a U.S. puppet. The Shah was overthrown during the Islamic revolution of 1979.
And you wonder why we aren’t popular there?
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