During the "nuclear weapons" portion of the speech, Obama stated, "In the middle of the Cold War, the United States played a role in the overthrow of a democratically elected Iranian government." It was the first acknowledgement by a U.S. President of the United States government's involvement in the 1953 Iranian coup d'état; although then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had acknowledged it as well in a speech in 2000.