Mohammad Mosaddeq is widely regarded as the leading champion of secular democracy and resistance to foreign domination in Iran's modern history. Mosaddeq became prime minister of Iran in May 1951 and promptly nationalized its British-controlled oil industry, initiating a bitter confrontation between Iraq and Britain that increasingly undermined Mossaddeq's position. He was finally overthrown in August 1953 in a coup d'etat that was organized and led by the United States' Central Intelligence Agency. This coup initiated a twenty-five-year period of dictatorship in Iran, leaving many Iranians resentful of the U.S.--legacies that still haunt relations between the two countries today. The book examines the turbulent political climate that prevailed in Iran during Mosaddeq's tenure, the confrontation between Iran and Britain for control over Iran's oil, the strategic considerations that led U.S. officials to opt for a coup, and the details of the coup itself. Based on exhaustive research by leading academic experts in the field, this is the most authoritative account of the tragic events that led to the overthrow of Mosaddeq. With the recent declassification of CIA documents regarding the 1953 coup that overthrew Mohammad Mossadeq's government in Iran, there is an opportunity for new in-depth analysis into not only the coup d'etat itself but the events that inevitably led up to it.