You do a great job with this thread Bitraiser, and I'm not critizising only trying to correct. Concerning the history of Iran it's all too easy to
get a few things wrong.
What I wrote is merely what I know, confirming through Wiki, dates, names and details.
Of course you are perfectly right it was a UK/US installed coup, I never opposed that, it was more the timeline and the claim of installing the shah,
and they up to then should have had democracy in Iran.
For the first part... your misunderstanding is understandable.
It was a
reinstallment of the the Shah the final coup and staging brought in August 1953, I just learn it now after further Wiki reading. That
there was
two coup attempt in 1953. The first was a mock coup to be unsuccessful and let the Shah flee to Italy, to stir up riots and emotions,
to create a blackmail to the opposition, all part of plan AJAX.
A tidbit
from Wiki
CIA operatives pretending to be socialists and nationalists threatened Muslim leaders with "savage punishment if they opposed Mossadegh,"
thereby giving the impression that Mossadegh was cracking down on dissent, and stirring anti-Mossadegh sentiments within the religious
community
Shah Reza Pahlavi had been installed already in 1941, when the Brits occupied the German friendly Iran in a pre-emptive move to secure its oil. His
father, the old Shah was exiled and forced to abdicate in favour of his 22-year-old son, who you can say was installed then. He should prove a willing
puppet, who fully restored concessions.
As a sidenote: the key of the 1951 nationalisations by Mossadegh was the D'Arcy concession of 1901, a 60-year concession bought for a one-time
payment 10.000 pounds. It was the start of what should become BP, blackmailing a decadent feudal lord with his extravagant life style. Imagine, 10
grands for all the Caspian Sea oil.
As for the second part, if Iran had democracy up to 1953, it is harder to determine. If constitutional parliamentarism is Democracy, yes they had
then, as they had up to 1979.
Wiki:
...by December 31, 1906 the Shah signed the constitution, modeled primarily from the Belgium Constitution. The Shah was from there on "under the
rule of law, and the crown became a divine gift given to the Shah by the people.
The most interesting character, and a keyfigure in the 1953 coup is John Foster Dulles, a wellknown paranoic who found an alley in Churchill and his
communist fobia. He was the driving force, and with his brother, head of CIA, the one who pulled the strings. The British had since 51 in vain tried
Trumann to take action, and Eisenhower wasn't keen at it either, but his SoS was. The Eisenhower era was drawm by JFD. IMO.
The only research I can hint at is Wiki. Search any keyword in this post.