On this day, 19 August 1953, Prime Minister Mohamed Mossadegh of Iran was overthrown in a coup organised by the CIA on behalf of the British and American governments. Mossadegh’s government had instituted a number of social reforms in the country like unemployment benefits, compensation for injured workers and the abolition of forced labour in the countryside. He planned to nationalise the British-owned oil fields to fund things like rural housing, public baths and pest control, so the British intelligence agency, MI6, asked the CIA to overthrow him. This is an account of what transpired: https://libcom.org/history/iranian-coup-1953
Pictured: President Truman with Mossadegh in 1951 https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1191426334375848/?type=3