- Corbis / Bettmann By JAMES RISEN Requires Adobe Acrobat he Central Intelligence Agency's secret history of its covert operation to overthrow Iran's government in 1953 offers an inside look at how the agency stumbled into success, despite a series of mishaps that derailed its original plans. Written in 1954 by one of the coup's chief planners, the history details how United States and British ...www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/041600iran-cia-index.html