Sixty-three years ago, the CIA and British intelligence fomented a coup d’état that toppled the prime minister of Iran, restored a cooperative shah and strengthened a regional buffer against possible Soviet aggression. It also unwittingly set Iran on a course toward dictatorship and helped inject the 1979 Iranian revolution with an anti-American cast that continues to animate hardline elements within the current regime. [...]
Numerous excuses for refusing to publish documentation on the Iran coup have surfaced over the years. A standard rationale invoked by the intelligence community on a wide range of subjects has been the need to safeguard “sources and methods.” Protecting individuals from harm is praiseworthy, though arguably less meaningful in cases such as this when every major participant is deceased. Protecting methods is also perfectly reasonable in theory, but CIA claims deserve some scrutiny when the agency has used similar assertions to keep World War I-era techniques like the use of invisible ink classified until almost a century later — far beyond the method’s usefulness. [...]
Instead of holding onto the past, the State Department has an opportunity here. The consensus of Iran experts I have spoken with in recent weeks is this: Why not deny hardliners once and for all the benefits they’ve been reaping from this propaganda gift? Claim the high road by throwing open the available record even on our most awkward episodes. Identify this for what it is — a gesture of respect to the Iranian people — and call on Tehran to act in kind by acknowledging that both sides have historical reasons to claim grievances against the other.
Looking beyond Iran, releasing the FRUS volume would contribute to other worthwhile goals. It would give a boost to the president’s lofty commitment to greater openness, a part of his record that has come under fire from his supporters in recent years. More importantly, it would at last provide the American people access to a chapter of their recent history they have every right to see. It would even strike a blow for the currently unfashionable principle of judging our past — and our elected officials — on the basis of historical fact rather than self-serving partisan invention.
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