March 5 marks the anniversary of the 1967 death of former Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh, named man of the year in 1951 by Time magazine and now a forgotten name in American politics. In 1951 Iranians rallied behind their democratically elected prime minister in his struggle to nationalize the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, a British monopoly on Iranian oil. In addition, Mossadegh would make no promises to ally Iran with the United States in a time of Cold War polarization. In 1951 the British government imposed a worldwide embargo of Iranian oil and banned the export of goods to Iran, while taking its case to the International Court of Justice at the Hague. The court found that Iran was doing nothing illegal, yet the US government continued to support the British embargo.

In 1953, under orders from President Eisenhower, the CIA organized a military coup that overthrew the government. Soon Mohammed Mossadegh was imprisoned and later placed under house-arrest for life. Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, backed by the United States, took his place and held on to power for the next 25 years. The thriving democracy that existed in Iran was crushed.

On the economic front, the Shah denationalized Iran’s oil industry, 60% of which went to American firms. Politically, he was so brutally effective with his US-trained SAVAK secret police that almost all of the democratic and secular opposition was eliminated. When the revolution finally ousted the autocratic Shah in 1979, the new regime was soon dominated by hard-lined Islamists led by Ayatollah Khomeini.

For years, the US denied its involvement in the 1953 coup, but in 2000 the Clinton administration finally issued a statement that recognized the US role in the failure of democracy in Iran. In a speech before the American-Iranian Council in March 2000, then Secretary of State Madeline Albright admitted, “In 1953 the United States played a significant role in orchestrating the overthrow of Iran's popular Prime Minister, Mohammed Mossadegh. The Eisenhower Administration believed its actions were justified for strategic reasons; but the coup was clearly a setback for Iran's political development. And it is easy to see now why many Iranians continue to resent this intervention by America in their internal affairs.”

The Bush administration would do well to recall the history of US involvement in Iran as it contemplates future actions. A US attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities would rally Iranians of all political stripes to support the government. In an article in the British Independent, Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi speculated that US military intervention would be devastating for those promoting human rights. “Not only would a foreign invasion of Iran vitiate popular support for human rights activism,” she wrote, “but by destroying civilian lives, institutions and infrastructure, war would also usher in chaos and instability. Respect for human rights is likely to be among the first casualties.”

Clearly another approach is needed. The United States should join the European talks to offer economic incentives for Iran to give up any enrichment program that could be associated with nuclear weapons. The Europeans have long insisted that their efforts to negotiate with Iran will only be meaningful with U.S. backing.

Now is the time for dialogue, not domination. The tragic aftermath of the US-sponsored overthrow of Mohammed Mossadegh, together with the ongoing violence and instability in Iraq, should teach us to steer clear of trying to socially engineer another country’s internal affairs.

Medea Benjamin (medea@globalexchange.org) is cofounder of Global Exchange and CodePink: Women for Peace. Caroline Kornfield is an intern with CodePink and a student at the University of San Francisco.

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