1 0

    562. REGIME CHANGE IN IRAN: THE CIA'S 1950s PLAYBOOK

    562. REGIME CHANGE IN IRAN: THE CIA'S 1950s PLAYBOOK

    $35.00 USD
    $35.00 USD
    Sale

    As the Cold War heated up, the CIA created a new template for regime change in far-flung Iran (1953) and Guatemala (1954). Inspired in part by advertising culture, the agency began to execute covert and psychological operations to oust democratically elected foreign leaders seen as hostile to U.S. interests. The first “successful” ouster came when the Americans and British toppled Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh to protect oil interests. A year later, the U.S. employed similar tactics to help remove Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz, whose moderate land reform was seen as a threat to American business interests. Applauded as wildly successful within the agency, the two ousters helped install oppressive pro-U.S. regimes, fueling future regime-change fantasies and generations of anti-American sentiment.

    Details:
    Regime Change in Iran: The CIA's 1950s Playbook
    Professor Willie Hiatt
    1 session: Thursday, June 4
    10:00 – 12:00 noon 
    Fee: $35

    View full details

    About the lecturer(s)

    Willie Hiatt

    Willie Hiatt, a Kentucky native, is an Associate Professor of History at Long Island University, Post Campus. He’s the author of The Rarified Air of the Modern: Airplanes and Technological Modernity in the Andes (Oxford, 2016). His current research is an oral history project examining how Maoist insurgents in Peru targeted high-tension towers during the Shining Path movement (1980-92).

    Lecture Details

    Program
    Summer 2026
    Sessions
    1 lecture(s)
    Day & Time
    Thursday, 10:00 – 12:00 noon
    Date(s)
    Jun 04, 2026