Wikipedia's version of the 1953 coup d'etat in Iran - part 4

With Iran being all over America's 2009 headlines for production of nuclear material... and current reports of significant civil unrest there... I offer the fourth of an ongoing piece on the 1953 Iranian coup d'etat that I found on Wikipedia.

Wikipedia clearly notes that this piece has both its neutrality and factual accuracy disputed. Nonetheless, this perspective on history may be useful in understanding US-Iran relations. And I'm doing this as much for my own edification, as for anyone else who may be interested. These posts are not intended to indicate my agreement or disagreement with anything written.

US support and funding continued after the coup, with the CIA training the Shah's secret police, SAVAK. Originally, the Eisenhower Administration considered Operation Ajax a "successful secret war", but, given its blowback, that assessment is no longer generally held, because of the coup's "haunting and terrible legacy".[16] The coup d’état was "a critical event in post-war world history" that replaced Iran’s native, and secular parliamentary democracy with an authoritarian monarchy.[17] The coup is widely believed to have significantly contributed to the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which deposed the Shah and replaced the pro-Western monarchy with the anti-Western Islamic Republic of Iran.[18]

Tim White