TR grandson haunts US Iran policy for 66 years

Kermit Roosevelt, Jr. was the grandson of Teddy Roosevelt. Grandpa Teddy, the premier warmongering president in US history, would have been proud of Kermit, who, as a top CIA official, helped topple two Arab governments in two years. In 1952 he encouraged the Free Officers Movement which engineered a coup against Egyptian King Farouk. But a year later, he did more than encourage a coup. He essentially instigated the coup that deposed elected Iranian president Mossedegh, who threatened Britain's control of Iranian oil. Kermit used his contacts among Egyptian Anglophiles and pro Shah forces to get Mossedegh's removal started. But advance knowledge of the coup allowed Mossedegh to prevail, so much so, Roosevelt's CIA bosses demanded he leave Iran immediately. Instead, he conjured up the ghost of TR, inspiring him to instigate a second coup that was successful. It became the model for CIA backed coups, both successes and failures, throughout the Cold War. A year later Ike secretly gave Roosevelt a National Security Medal for keeping Iranian oil safe for the West. Apparently, Ike didn't want to go public with an illegal, immoral and criminal overthrow of a sovereign government. And 66 years on the Neocons of today foment war in the Roosevelt tradition to reclaim Iran for a new American sock puppet.