Before the CIA Coup in 1953, the US and Iran had been old Friends
THE CONVERSATION
08/21/2020
2SHARES
By Daniel Thomas Potts | -
The British- and American-backed plot to overthrow Iran's prime minister in
1953 laid the groundwork for the 1979 Iran hostage crisis and decades of
hostility with the U.S. A documentary about the plot released on Aug. 19
offers new details of what happened.
I believe it is worth recalling the time before the events chronicled in
"Coup 53," when the two countries had a distinctly different relationship.
In the 1800s, American missionaries journeyed to what was then called
Persia.
The missionaries helped build important institutions - schools, colleges,
hospitals and medical schools - in Persia, many of which still exist.
Dr. Joseph Plumb Cochran, an American physician fluent in Persian, Turkish,
Kurdish and Assyrian, founded a hospital in Urmia in 1879, as well as Iran's
first medical school. When Cochran died at Urmia in northwestern Iran in
1905, over 10,000 people attended his funeral.
This image clashes with most American stereotypes of Iran and its people,
and is at odds with decades of anti-Iranian sentiment emanating from
Washington.
Iran and the United States, in fact, have a deep history of mutual respect
and friendship.
From 1834, when the first Protestant American mission was established in
Urmia, until 1953, when the CIA's involvement in Iran's internal affairs set
the United States on the road to conflict with Tehran, Americans were the
good guys.
Joseph Plumb Cochran in his medical college at Urmia.
Wikipedia
Imperial bad guys
My interest in the history of Iranian-American relations stems from 45 years
as an archaeologist specializing in Iran, and from research on Iranian
history in the context of changes undergone by Iran's nomadic population
through time.
For years, Americans have seen images of Iranians shouting "Death to
America." Now it's the country's lawmakers doing it. President Trump returns
the sentiment, recently threatening Iran with death and destruction.
But before all that happened, when Americans were the good guys, there were
other countries who were instead reviled by Iran.
The bad guys, at whose hands Iran suffered most, were Russia and Great
Britain. Those two nations - often at the invitation of Iran's leaders -
economically exploited Persia to further their own imperial ambitions, using
sustained diplomatic, military and economic pressure.
After two ill-judged wars fought against Russia - the First (1804-1813) and
Second Russo-Persian Wars (1826-1828) - Persia (the name Iran was officially
adopted in 1935) lost large amounts of territory to the czar.
Much later, Russia found another means of exerting control over the Persian
crown, loaning millions of rubles to its rulers, like Mozaffar ed-Din Shah,
who reigned from 1896-1902 and needed capital to fund his lavish lifestyle.
With the exception of the Anglo-Persian War (1856-1857), Persian relations
with Great Britain were less openly hostile. But what they lacked in martial
vigor was more than compensated for by economic exploitation.
Towards the end of the 19th century, the shah granted exclusive concessions
to the British for everything from telegraph lines to tobacco. Rights to
Iran's oil were given to the Anglo-Persian (later Anglo-Iranian) Oil
Company.
So assured were Britain and Russia in their control of Persia that, in 1907,
they signed the infamous Anglo-Russian Convention. That agreement divided
the country - unbeknownst to its Parliament, let alone its inhabitants -
into Russian, British and "neutral" spheres of influence. After it became
public it provoked the outrage of ordinary Persians and the international
community at large.
Cartoon from 1907 satirizing Russia and England dividing up Persia.
Punch/Pushkin House
America the good
Iran's relations with the United States were completely different.
The 19th- and early 20th-century history of British and Russian imperial
ambitions and involvement in Iran put Iran in a dependent, exploited
position at the hands of the governments of these two countries.
But the presence in Iran of American missionaries and, later, invited
government technocrats was of an entirely different quality. These were
Americans offering aid, with no expectation of advantage to be gained
officially for the United States government.
American Presbyterian missionary efforts in Iran began in 1834 and focused
on education, with 117 schools established around Urmia by 1895. Efforts
were also directed at medical and social welfare. These were nongovernmental
missions. The U.S. government was conspicuous by its absence in Iran and
Iranian affairs.
By the late 19th century, the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions had
opened new stations in cities across northern Iran, from Tehran to Mashhad.
American diplomatic relations with Persia were established in 1883. A decade
later the American Presbyterian Hospital was founded in Tehran by John G.
Wishard.
After the First World War, Presbyterian schools for both boys and girls
proliferated, the most famous of which were the American College of Tehran
for boys, established in 1925, and Iran Bethel School for girls.
In 1910, the Persian Parliament, aware that their country's finances were in
disarray, invited the U.S. to identify a "disinterested American expert as
Treasurer-general to reorganise and conduct collection and disbursement of
revenue."
Despite Russian attempts to block the initiative, W. Morgan Shuster, a
distinguished career civil servant, was appointed by Persia in February
1911. He arrived in Tehran in May, bringing with him four other Americans.
The mission was a failure, lasting only eight months, and, unsurprisingly,
was adroitly sabotaged by the combined efforts of British and Russian
diplomats in Tehran.
American William Morgan Shuster, treasurer-general of Persia.
Wikipedia
The country's financial situation after the First World War was still
precarious. With none of the colonialist baggage associated with the two
European superpowers, America was turned to, almost as a last resort, to fix
what ailed Iran. Riza Shah (father of the last shah) appointed an American,
Arthur C. Millspaugh, as the administrator-general of the finances of
Persia.
When Millspaugh arrived in Tehran in 1922, a newspaper editorial addressed
him with these words: "You are the last doctor called to the death-bed of a
sick person. If you fail, the patient will die. If you succeed, the patient
will live."
Despite his often testy relations with foreigners, Riza Shah acknowledged
Millspaugh's American Financial Mission was "the last hope of Persia." The
fact that the mission was far from an unqualified success does not detract
from its importance. Nor did it diminish America's image as an honest broker
in Iranian eyes, in contrast to that of Russia and Great Britain.
Of course, not every Iranian-American interaction during this period was
positive. Robert Imbrie, the American consul in Tehran, was brutally
murdered in 1924, allegedly because a fanatical religious leader accused him
of being a Baha'i and poisoning a well.
Riza Shah used the episode to crack down on dissidents and impose strict
controls on public gatherings.
Students at the American Memorial School, Tabriz, 1923.
shahrefarang.com
America the bad
America's benign image in Iran was forever shattered in 1953 when the CIA,
working with Great Britain, engineered a coup against Mohammad Mossadegh,
the democratically elected prime minister, who had nationalized the
Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.
Even though the overthrow of Mossadegh damaged Iranian trust in America, the
years just prior to Iranian revolution in 1979 saw the number of Iranian
students in the United States steadily rise.
Over one-third of the approximately 100,000 Iranian students pursuing
university degrees abroad in 1977 were in the U.S. By the time of the
Islamic revolution two years later, that number had climbed to 51,310,
making Iran by far the biggest single source of foreign students in America,
with 17% of the total foreign student population. The next-largest
contributor of foreign students, Nigeria, accounted for only 6%.
"Iranian students have been here for nearly a century . there are deep and
abiding connections that reveal themselves when you look at the historical
record," researcher Steven Ditto, who wrote a report on Iranian students in
the U.S., told The Washington Post in 2017.
Even today, some Iranians still manage to overcome the hurdles they face in
studying in America. Two of my current Ph.D. students in Near Eastern
archaeology come from Iran. In 2019, there were over 12,000 Iranian students
in the U.S.
The legacy of American goodwill, personal friendship and doing the right
thing by Iran has not been completely lost, although scenes of anti-American
demonstrations against the Great Satan on the streets of Tehran - some
organized by the government - may make it seem as though America's good
relationship with Iran has been lost irretrievably.
Deep friendships dating back well over a century can withstand a great deal.
A reservoir of goodwill and affection may lie dormant while political storms
rage. Iran and America were good friends in the past, and for good reason. I
believe that Americans would do well to remember that.
This is an updated version of an article originally published on July 31,
2018.
