Spies and Spooks: The (Mis)Adventures of the CIA

Installing the Shah of Iran
In August 1953, Dulles' CIA subverted the democratically elected but allegedly pro-Soviet government of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran and installed the monarchy of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. The following year, the government of Jacobo Arbenz Guzman in Guatemala fell in a U.S.-sponsored military coup d'état. Dulles' directorship also saw the phenomenal exploits of the CIA's Colonel Edward Lansdale in Southeast Asia — first deflating a communist insurgency in the Philippines by getting a populist President elected and then helping create the U.S.-backed regime in South Vietnam.

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