The CIA's First Spy Mission: Oil, Iran & Covert Ops

Welcome... to the first episode of The Rest is Classified! It's Iran 1951. Mohammad Mosaddegh, fuelled by an ever-growing nationalism, has just been elected Prime Minister. Immediately he chooses to nationalise the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, much to the anger of the British who control the majority stake. In response, MI6 are determined to destabilise his government and remove him from power. So they begin to conspire with the CIA. Kermit Roosevelt, grandson of Teddy Roosevelt and agency man, will go from Washington to Iran and, building on existing instability, foment chaos on the streets of Tehran. But it won't be plain sailing... Listen as David McCloskey and Gordon Corera tell the story of the 1953 Iranian coup orchestrated by the CIA and MI6. 00:00 Introducing this story 01:02 How Iran sees this coup 02:30 Black gold 04:14 Mossadegh 08:44 Churchill enters the story 10:10 The hiring profile of the CIA and MI6 at the time 11:39 The relationship between the CIA and MI6 14:18 The CIA top brass 16:42 The CIA go into Iran 22:15 The Shah 26:00 What promises did America make to the Shah 27:20 The BBC gets involved 29:35 The Shah is convinced 30:20 The CIA’s drinking problem 32:35 The theme song of CIA stations 34:05 Something goes wrong…