Breaking History Ep. 104: Iran’s Century of Empire, Oil, and Revolutions – Featuring Cynthia Chung

In this sweeping episode, Matt Ehret and Ghost are joined by Cynthia Chung (cynthiachung.substack.com) for a masterclass on Iran’s modern history. Cynthia walks through her trilogy of essays chronicling how Britain and later the United States engineered regime change to control Iranian oil, beginning with the 1872 Reuter concession that handed Britain the country’s economic lifeblood. The conversation traces the 1953 CIA-MI6 coup against Prime Minister Mossadegh for nationalizing oil, the Shah’s ambitions to industrialize and escape colonial dependence, and the suspicious rise of Khomeini’s revolution.

The hosts expose how the same Western networks behind the overthrow of Mossadegh later fueled the Iran-Iraq war, Iran-Contra, and decades of chaos designed to prevent regional cooperation and modernization. They explore the Carter Doctrine, Brzezinski’s arc of crisis, and how strategies used to fracture Iran are still deployed across the world. The episode closes with reflections on Iran’s attempts to reclaim sovereignty through the Belt and Road Initiative and a vision of economic development to transcend engineered conflicts. Rich with historical detail, this conversation challenges the simplistic narratives that have shaped public perception for generations.