Coup Atlas Research Database
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63008151953AttemptedMilitary coup

Iran, 1953 — military coup attempt

Iran (IRN)Western Asia, AsiaAugust 15, 1953

Event Summary

On the night of 15 to 16 August 1953 the first act of the CIA and MI6 backed operation to overthrow Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh failed. Acting on royal decrees the Shah had signed, Colonel Nematollah Nassiri, commander of the Imperial Guard, moved to arrest Mosaddegh and deliver the firman dismissing him and appointing General Fazlollah Zahedi, while other units detained several of Mosaddegh's officials including foreign minister Hossein Fatemi. Forewarned of the plot, Mosaddegh had Nassiri arrested, and loyal army and police units threw up roadblocks and hunted down Zahedi's supporters, collapsing the original plan.

The Shah fled the country for Baghdad and then Rome, and Washington briefly gave the coup up for lost. But Kermit Roosevelt and Zahedi improvised, and four days later, on 19 August, orchestrated street mobs and army units toppled Mosaddegh, restoring the Shah.

Researched Details

Researched

Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.

Target identified in Coup Atlas research: Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh survived the failed first attempt of 15 August but was overthrown four days later on 19 August 1953
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Mohammad Mosaddegh (prime minister of Iran, target)
Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi (signed the dismissal decrees)
Nematollah Nassiri (Imperial Guard colonel, arrested)
Fazlollah Zahedi (CIA and British choice as replacement)
Kermit Roosevelt Jr. (CIA operation leader)

Sources

On Saturday 15 August, Colonel Nematollah Nassiri, commander of the Imperial Guard, along with other elements of his military network, moved to arrest members of Mosaddegh's government, but the coup failed at first when Nassiri was arrested while attempting to arrest Mosaddegh.
SOURCE REVIEWED Wikipedia, 1953 Iranian coup d'etat open source ↗
The first of the two royal decrees was delivered on the night of 15 August 1953 by Colonel Nassiri; when he arrived at Mosaddegh's home he was promptly arrested, army and police units loyal to Mosaddegh set up roadblocks and hunted for Zahedi, and the general took refuge in a CIA safe house.
SOURCE REVIEWED Encyclopaedia Iranica, Coup d'Etat of 1953 open source ↗
The first coup attempt on 15 August 1953 failed, after which the Shah signed decrees dismissing Mosaddegh and appointing Zahedi and fled to Baghdad and then Rome.
SOURCE REVIEWED Radio Farda (Radio Free Europe), Mosaddegh: The Coup That Failed open source ↗
Following the collapse of the original plan, Roosevelt and his team improvised a new strategy, distributing copies of the firmans and directing street protests, and on 19 August the army left its barracks and stormed government buildings, with Mosaddegh fleeing after a tank fired on his house before he surrendered.
SOURCE REVIEWED Wikipedia, 1953 Iranian coup d'etat open source ↗

Editorial Note

Dataset date 15 August 1953 corresponds to the failed first act of the operation; the successful phase came 19 August. Extensively documented. Links to the eventual 1979 revolution that ended the Shah's reign in the dataset.

Cross-Reference

Datasets agree. At least two of the three reference datasets we check against carry this event, and none of them disagrees about its date or its result.

Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:

Cline Center id
63008151953
Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id
CAM-630-1953-08-13

How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.

Outcome and Target

Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh survived the failed first attempt of 15 August but was overthrown four days later on 19 August 1953.

Baseline coding: Coup attempt failed to remove the incumbent. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.

Baseline Dataset Citation
Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset, v2.2.2
Peyton, Buddy, Joseph Bajjalieh, Michael Martin, and Andrea Gerald. 2026. Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset. Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. V.2.2.2. February 17. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. doi: 10.13012/B2IDB-9651987_V10
Open dataset DOI ↗
⚑ This citation establishes the coded baseline record; use the claim-level sources above for the researched narrative.

Baseline Source-Document Entries

CSP

Named in the baseline source document; no article citation was recorded.

New York Times

“MOSSADEGH GETS 3-YEAR JAIL TERM; Shah’s plea for mercy saves his life and cuts sentence –General Also Convicted Mossadegh Gets 3-YEAR JAIL TERM,”by welles hangen, December 22, 1953

This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →

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