Operation Ajax Revisits an Iranian Coup
Cogito Comic’s CIA: Operation Ajax uses an iPad app to tell the story of the 1953 coup that installed Mohammad Reza Shah as ruler of Iran.
Using Stephen Kinzer’s well-regarded 2003 book All the Shah’s Men as a starting point, Cogito uses a graphic novelization as a starting point but then incorporates the best elements of motion comics (sound effects & simple animations powered by the touch screen) and adds links to historical and biographical information for important players in the story and even some contemporary newsreels to give more context.
Ajax shows just how far interactivity has come from the sluggish early days of CD-ROMs. This is a compelling presentation of the events that eventually led to the 1979 hostage crisis at the American embassy in Teheran. Of course, if you don’t believe that the CIA just possibly might’ve made a few mistakes in deposing an elected government in favor of what turned out to be a dictatorship, then there’s plenty here that’ll piss you off.
CIA: Operation Ajax feels like a Batman comic book and still manages to convey an enormous amount of information about an historically important incident that’s almost faded from popular memory. Right now it’s free at the iTunes store, but it’ll still be worth your $7.99 once the price goes up in a couple of weeks (via VentureBeat).
![Der Gro?mufti von Jerusalem [Amin al Husseini] bei den bosnischen Freiwilligen der Waffen-SS. Der Gro?mufti ist auf dem Truppenubungsplatz ein[getroffen] und schreitet die Front der angetretenen Freiwilligen mit erhobenem Arm ab.](http://images-undertheradar.military.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/nazicollaborators300.jpg)
Under the Radar is commentary. We don’t report the news; we offer our take on what happened.
4 Comments
The fears of the wicked will find them. In times past many of todays muslim countries were converted by the preachings of Paul. Then they turned back. For hundreds of years the children were taught that it was just a story told by jews and christains. In the seventies a dig uncovered a artifact where one king paid honor to another for his victory over King David. The musim religion leadership then had to face the fact that a man named Jesus was real. Was it other artifacts found at the dig that really inspired the embassy take-over in the eighties?
I wonder what the person the CIA installed as Shah did before operation Ajax. Was he schooled in the US? If not, was he from a middle class family in Iran? Just curious about what type of person the CIA would select to install as puppet.
i will download the book from iTunes to find out.
unfortunately much of Iran related history has been written by the radical leftists like Kinzer who works for the Iranian regime backed lobby groups such as NIAC.
It’s true that the CIA played the role in helping the Shah return to power, but the left has portrayed Mossadeq as a “democratically elected” leader that is not true, in fact Mossadeq was appointed by the Shah as PM and his threat to monarchy was totally unconstitutional, also his irrational oil nationalization nearly bankrupt Iran to the point that the Soviet 5th column Tudeh Party nearly took over the country and the CIA could not have toppled Mossadeq if millions of Iranians who were fed up by Mossadeq didnt jon the protests.I am an Iranian-American and have studdied history from direct and reliable sources, not the Marxist-Islamist inspired leftist authors like Kinzer
facts: what the fake historians don’t tell you
1– iran didn’t sell a drop of oil during mossadeq & was going bankrupt
2– Soviet puppets Tudeh were planning a coup to turn Iran nto a soviet satellite state
3– mossadeq regime was entirely marshal law & 1000s were improsned regime was entirely marshal law & 1000s were improsned some to be hanged
4– monarchy was never ended, the constitution was still monarchy while shah in exile.
5– constitution was still monarchy while shah in exile.
5– mossadeq violated iran laws & constitution by taking over the gov
6– all political parties were free and shah had very little power prior to mossadeq coup, after that shah banned many parties to prevent another threat
7– if is wasn’t because of the US warning to UK, britain was planning to invade iran and take over oil fields, US warned UK that if invade it will auction all UK currency and bankrupt UK
8– mossadeq was supported by the US, but then dropped when he was proven as weak and unqualified
9-the shah supported the nationalization of oil, but wanted to negotiate the terms, it was a legal contract betwen UK & Iran and was illegal to ceize all oil assets w/o negotiation
10– iran at the time didn’t have the skilled man power, marketing, delivey… of oil at the time, mossadeq thought the UK oil workers would stay and work on UK built oil industry, instead they all left and not a single drop of oil was sold. Iran was democracy before mossadeq came to power not after
11– mossadeq didn’t have enough votes from the senate to legally become the PM, it was the Shah who asked the senators to vote him in, his own mistake
12– the clerics played a major role in backing Mossadeq removing Shah and after that bringing the shah back, much more influencial than the CIA w a bag of cash and 10 men! have enough votes from the senate to legally become the PM, it was the Shah who asked the senators to vote him in
some links to historical archives:
After Shah return Shah ordered Gen Zahedi that Mossadeq’s life saved at all costs because the anti-Mossadeq mobs would had hunted him down and killed him otherwise, there was still fear of communist Tudeh take over, (august 1953) http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=JgJFAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ZbcMAAAAIBAJ&pg=6657,3430525&dq=mossadeq&hl=en
NY TIMES 1954 : under Article 317 of the Army Criminal Code. The Government prosecutor said the code applied because the offenses were committed while Teheran was under martial law.
The article says: “Whoever commits an offense the purpose of which is to disrupt the Government, break the succession of the monarchy or incite the people to rebellion against the monarchy will be condemned to death.”
http://partners.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/101154iran-aide.html
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=GsY-AAAAIBAJ&sjid=gEwMAAAAIBAJ&pg=2845,144037&dq=mossadeq&hl=en
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=8ANFAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Z7cMAAAAIBAJ&pg=5540,3813672&dq=mossadeq&hl=en
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=EgRFAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Z7cMAAAAIBAJ&pg=6894,5571506&dq=mossadeq&hl=en
1952 re Churchill and Truman’s proposal to Mossadeq about oil http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=h74TAAAAIBAJ&sjid=S8MDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5690,737404&dq=mossadeq&hl=en
Nov 1951 Iran was near bankruptcy because of oil sanctions received a 8,000,000 loan from IMF with the help of Americans during Mossadeq http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=aCtdAAAAIBAJ&sjid=61oNAAAAIBAJ&pg=2722,4162146&dq=iran+economy&hl=en
again America tried to help Mossadeq resolve the conflict with Britain http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=WxhRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=xtAMAAAAIBAJ&pg=3232,5852100&dq=iran+economy&hl=en
July 1951 Mossadeq begs the Americans to send him technicians to run the British built oil facilities he had no Iranian experts to run http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=VBwsAAAAIBAJ&sjid=j8YEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3642,1630657&dq=iran+economy&hl=en
August 1953, Iran asks for American help after the Shah’s return http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=8g4rAAAAIBAJ&sjid=yJsFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3968,2070202&dq=iran+economy&hl=en
Aug 1951 Mossadeq is in deep trouble, can’t sell the oil and the country is going bankrupt http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=NAsxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=cd0FAAAAIBAJ&pg=7144,3644777&dq=iran+economy&hl=en