Mohammad Mossadegh

In 2024, the U.S. faces some of the same challenges in the region that it did in 1954.

The first episode of NPR's new history podcast tells the story of a 1953 coup that set the stage for US-Middle East relations ever since.

A 1953 C.I.A.-backed coup that ousted Iran’s Cold War leader has colored U.S.-Iran relations for decades.

Archival records make clear that the U.S. government was the key actor in the 1953 coup that ousted Mohammad Mosaddeq—not the Iranian clergy.

How the CIA’s first attempt at regime change nearly failed.

Kamala Harris called Iran a “destabilizing, dangerous force.” The appropriate context for this is the US’s own decades-long history of destabilizing Iran.

The July 1924 killing of Robert Imbrie fueled the rise of the Pahlavi dynasty and set the stage for a CIA-backed 1953 coup and the 1979 Iran hostage crisis.

U.S.-Iranian relations, the interrelationship between Iranian development and the global oil market, and the future of economic warfare.

Iran and surplus imperialism.

Rewriting the past by adding in what's been left out.