Episode Details

Before Operation Epic Fury. Before the Islamic Revolution. Before forty years of hostility between Washington and Tehran. There was a single event that set everything in motion.

In August 1953, the CIA and British intelligence orchestrated the overthrow of Iran's democratically elected Prime Minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh — a man who had done nothing more provocative than nationalise his country's oil. Operation Ajax, as the CIA called it, was a masterclass in covert political manipulation: bribed parliamentarians, planted propaganda, paid street gangs, and a Shah too frightened to act without a secret signal from Eisenhower himself.

The operation succeeded in four days. Its consequences are still unfolding seventy years later.

This bonus episode tells the full story — from Britain's stranglehold on Iranian oil and the rise of Mosaddegh, to the two coup attempts, the chaos of August 19th, and the arrest of a Prime Minister who was right about everything. It examines what Operation Ajax actually achieved, what it destroyed, and how a decision made in Washington in 1953 helped produce the Islamic Revolution, the hostage crisis, and ultimately the conflict now known as Operation Epic Fury.

Epic Fury is a daily narrative podcast covering the US-Iran conflict of 2026. This five-part bonus series goes back to the beginning — tracing the CIA's history with Iran from the 1953 coup to the bombs falling today.