'Operation Ajax' in Iran: The CIA's Original Sin [Socialist History: S1 Episode 1]

'Operation Ajax' in Iran: The CIA's Original Sin [Socialist History: S1 Episode 1]

From The Socialist Program with Brian Becker by The Socialist Program

June 29, 2026 · 53 min

About this episode

This episode explores the CIA's Operation Ajax, the first regime change operation in Iran, and its lasting impact on US-Iran relations.

In 1953 the CIA secretly organized a coup to overthrow the democratically elected leader of Iran. This was the CIA's first regime change operation — code-named 'Operation Ajax' — becoming the playbook for later CIA operations. Its consequences are still reverberating around the world. In this episode we take a deep dive into how Operation Ajax was planned and executed, its motivations, the political context locally and globally, what happened in Iran after 1953, its impact on US-Iran relations up to today, and more. This is part of the first season of Socialist History, our new series on The Socialist Program. In each episode we unpack a different CIA or Pentagon operation, each of which was given its own code-name as Operation Ajax was. Join the The Socialist Program community at www.patreon.com/thesocialistprogram to get access to the next episodes in this series, more exclusive content, and help keep this show on the air. Archival notes: 0:01 - News report on declassification of Op. Ajax (2013) 1:35 - Interview with Kermit Roosevelt Jr., leader of Op. Ajax, on how then Secretary of State John Foster Dulles briefed his team in 1953 2:21 - Newsreel on nationalization of Abadan…

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