The US War on Democracy: Mosaddeq, Allende,

The United States doesn’t export democracy. It buries it alive.

Two men, continents apart, decades apart, but bound by the same fate: Mohammad Mosaddeq of Iran and Salvador Allende of Chile. Both elected by their people. Both overthrown by the United States. Both remembered not in American textbooks, but in the scars their nations still carry.

Mosaddeq came to power in 1951 with a simple, unforgivable demand: that Iran’s oil should belong to Iranians. For half a century, British and American companies had sucked Iran’s wealth from beneath its feet. Mosaddeq nationalized it. The Iranian people cheered. Washington panicked. Democracy was fine—until it threatened ExxonMobil.

So the CIA staged Operation Ajax. Bribes were paid. Newspapers were bought. Riots were staged. Mosaddeq was kidnapped. The Shah returned in chains of gold, ruling by torture and U.S. arms. For 26 years, Iran’s democracy was smothered so that American oil executives could breathe easy.

Two decades later, across the Pacific, another danger emerged: a Marxist elected to power through the ballot box. Salvador Allende in Chile. His crime? Wanting bread for all, not just for bankers. Allende nationalized copper, made healthcare free, and launched agrarian reform. His revolution didn’t need guns—it had votes. And that terrified Washington more than bullets ever could.

So they crushed him.

The U.S. poured millions into Chile’s far right, sabotaged its economy, and empowered General Augusto Pinochet to lead a brutal military coup in 1973. Allende was murdered—or martyred, depending on which way the rifle pointed. The palace was bombed. Democracy died under a rain of American steel.

Today, we are told that the United States defends democracy across the globe. That it is a “force for good.” But Mosaddeq and Allende tell a different story. A story of elected governments strangled in their cradles. Of peasants and workers robbed of their victories. Of an empire that will tolerate any tyranny—so long as it's obedient.

Washington doesn't fear dictators. It installs them.

What it fears is people. Poor people. Brown people. People who believe that they should control their own land, their own labor, their own future.

It fears real democracy—popular, anti-imperialist, economically just democracy is incompatible with Imperialist Extractivism. One of them must die for the other to live.

Mosaddeq knew this. Allende knew this. So must we.