Iran 1953: The Perfect Prelude
What if the catastrophes of history were not mistakes at all? Before Guatemala, before Chile, before all of it - Iran 1953!
The story arc that I plan to trace with this series of films really begins in 1954 with America’s United Fruit Company and the bananas it took from Guatemala. Yet there is a prelude that sets the stage so perfectly it feels almost scripted rather than the normal mess of history.
So we begin one step earlier: Iran, 1953. As American missiles rain down on Tehran, it could hardly be more topical.
In 1953, a 37-year-old CIA officer named Kermit Roosevelt spent the summer in Tehran, operating out of the U.S. Embassy with little more than cake tins stuffed with cash and a network of rent-a-mob rioters. Within weeks, he had brought down the elected government of Mohammad Mossadegh. and changed the course of history for Iran - and for the world.
As I write this in February 2026, the United States has just launched a major attack on Iran. Aircraft carriers, submarines, and the full weight of its military machine is assembled, ready to do battle with this ancient civilisation.
But to understand the present, we must understand the past that flows into it. This is both common sense and yet a principle routinely ignored.
Similarly, we are often told that those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat its mistakes. But what if they were not mistakes at all? What then?
Join me on a journey to find out. We begin in Iran, 1953 — with Kermit and Mohammed.