1952–1953: Iran

Main article: 1953 Iranian coup d'état

Since 1944, Iran was a constitutional monarchy ruled by the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. From the discovery of oil in Iran in the late nineteenth century major powers exploited the weakness of the Iranian government to obtain concessions that many believed failed to give Iran a fair share of the profits. During World War II, the UK, the USSR and the US all became involved in Iranian affairs. Iranian officials began to notice that British taxes were increasing while royalties to Iran declined. By 1948, Britain received substantially more revenue from the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) than Iran. Negotiations to meet this and other Iranian concerns exacerbated rather than eased tensions.

On March 15th 1951 the Majlis, the Iranian parliament, passed legislation championed by reformist politician Mohammad Mosaddegh to nationalize the AIOC. The senate approved the measure two days later. Fifteen months later, Mosadegh was elected Prime Minister by the Majlis. International business concerns then boycotted oil from the nationalized Iranian oil industry. This contributed to concerns in Britain and the US that Mosadegh might be a Communist. He was reportedly supported by the Communist Tudeh Party.

The CIA began supporting 18 of their favorite candidates in the 1952 Iranian legislative election, which Mosaddegh suspended after urban deputies loyal to him were elected. The new parliament gave Mosaddegh emergency powers which weakened the power of the Shah, and there was a constitutional struggle over the roles of the Shah and prime minister. Britain strongly backed the Shah, while the US remained neutral. However, America's position shifted in late 1952 when Eisenhower was elected U.S. president. The CIA launched Operation Ajax, directed by Kermit Roosevelt, Jr., to remove Mosaddegh by persuading the Shah to replace him, using diplomacy and bribery. The 1953 Iranian coup d'état, (known in Iran as the "28 Mordad coup"), orchestrated by the intelligence agencies of the United Kingdom (under the name "Operation Boot") and the United States (under the name "TPAJAX Project") replaced Mosaddegh with the CIA's choice, General Fazlollah Zahedi, through decrees dictated by the CIA's Donald Wilber. The coup saw the transition of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi from a constitutional monarch to an authoritarian, who relied heavily on United States government support.

That support dissipated during the Iranian Revolution of 1979, as his own security forces refused to shoot into crowds of nonviolent protestors, which included family and friends of many in the security forces.

2007: Iran

Seymour Hersh wrote that, in 2007, the Bush administration requested and received funding from Congress for covert actions to undermine Iran's religious leadership by supporting the Ahwazi Arab and Baluchi minority groups and other dissident organizations and gathering intelligence on Iran's nuclear programme. Hersh reported anonymous sources describing a presidential finding signed by Bush, which one source said was focused on "undermining Iran's nuclear ambitions and trying to undermine the government through regime change", although another source, Admiral William Fallon said the focus "had been not on the Iranian nuclear issue, or on regime change there, but on 'putting out the fires in Iraq'.”