Read This: All the Shah's Men

All the Shah's Men by Stephen Kinzer tells the true story of Operation Ajax, the CIA lead coup of democratically elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh.  Democratically elected, secular, and moderate Mossadegh was a highly popular figure in Iranian politics.  In addition to the above qualities, Mossadegh was nationalistic and despised foreign influence which led to a feud with the exploitative Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (later British Petroleum) and the British Empire.

John and Allen Dulles, Kermit Roosevelt (grandson of  President Teddy Roosevelt), General H. Norman Schwarzkopf (father of Gulf War commander General Norman Schwarzkopf), Eisenhower, and Winston Churchill all played key parts in the coup.  Roosevelt in particular played the role of James Bond paying bribes, disseminating propaganda, and arranging for chaos on the the streets of Tehran.

The books reads in part espionage thriller and part history textbook.  More importantly, as far as I can tell, this is the only comprehensive account of perhaps the most important episode in modern history in the Middle East.  The prevailing narrative is that the Iranians hate us because of an Islamic world view and they hate our way of life.  Some of that may be true, but perhaps it has more to do with a coup that removed the only moderate political force in the country, replacing it with a brutal dictator, and then the only organized opposition left was Islamic fundamentalists.

It's not a stretch to say that if Operation Ajax failed, the world might have been a much different place, perhaps for the better.  Iran had friendly relations with the United States and was a true representative government that allowed for freedom of the press, assembly, and religion.  Perhaps a democratic Iran would have served as an example to other nations in the region countering the theocracies, monarchies, and dictatorships that now make up the region.  If Ajax had failed, maybe the CIA would have been more reluctant to interfere in Guatemala, Chile, Nicaragua, and elsewhere.  I'm arguing counter-factuals now, so just go read the book.