Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is the primary foreign intelligence service of the United States government. In the context of Iranian history, the CIA played a decisive role in the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, orchestrating Operation Ajax (alongside Britain's MI6) to overthrow the democratically-elected government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh and restore Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi to full power. The agency subsequently assisted in the creation and training of SAVAK, Iran's secret police, in 1957. The CIA's role in the coup was officially acknowledged by the US government in 2013 with the declassification of relevant documents.