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With elections halted and Iran under siege, Mosaddegh and the Shah face off over control of the army, and the people rise up to fight for their democracy on Bloody Monday.
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Episode Summary
By the summer of 1952, Iran was on the brink of collapse. When an Italian-chartered tanker called the Rose Mary tried to carry Iranian crude out of the country, British warships forced her into port at Aden. After that, no oil company would touch Iran’s oil.
Revenues fell to almost nothing, tens of thousands of Abadan workers sat idle, and British agents were buying candidates in the provincial elections to fill the Majlis with deputies who would vote Mosaddegh out. So he halted the vote once there were enough deputies for a quorum. It was legal, but for the first time his critics could accuse the great defender of the constitution of bending the rules.
Surrounded on every side, Mosaddegh went to the palace in July to demand control of the army. The Shah said he would rather pack his suitcase and leave. Mosaddegh walked out without a word and resigned the next morning as a way of making Iranians decide whether they truly wanted him.
The British thought they had won, and with their backing, the Shah appointed Ahmad Qavam, who went on the radio promising retribution. For many Iranians, that broadcast was the first they’d heard that Mosaddegh was gone, and they answered with fury. Nationalists, clerics and communists poured into the streets together, and when soldiers opened fire on Bloody Monday, the Shah gave in. Mosaddegh came back with the army in his hands and now more powerful than the king.
London learned its lessons. Next time it would need the mob, a general and the Americans. In November 1952, America elected Dwight Eisenhower, and Britain arrived in Washington with a plan called Operation Boot and a pitch built around one word: coup d’état.
Music
- Christoffer Moe Ditlevsen – Monarch of Fate
- Spearfisher – Blood in the Bayou
- Roie Shpigler – No Trust
- Xavi Morató – Pure Prestige
- Howard Harper-Barnes – Life in Pieces
- Mozart – Violin Sonata No. 21 in E Minor, K. 304: II. Tempo di Menuetto
- Monument Music – Chapter Two
Mohammad Mosaddegh, Mohammad Reza Shah, history podcast, Bloody Monday, Ahmad Qavam, Ayatollah Kashani, Fazlollah Zahedi, Tudeh Party, National Front, Majlis, Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, AIOC, oil nationalization, Operation Boot, Operation Ajax, Kermit Roosevelt, CIA, MI6, Eisenhower, Churchill,
