Donald Wilber Donald Newton Wilber ( November 14 , 1907 , Wisconsin - February 2 , 1997 , Princeton , New Jersey ) , American writer and spy . Wilber was the architect of the CIA project " Operation Ajax " , a successful plot to overthrow the government of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq . The plot replaced Iran ' s first democratically elected leader with a brutal dictator and monarch . The coup installed the monarchy of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi who ordered the deaths of thousands of Iranians through SAVAK , the Shah ' s tightly controlled secret police . Wilber served as a United States intelligence officer with the Office of Strategic Services ( OSS ) , and was an active participant in the power struggles of nations , especially during the rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union in Iran after World War II . In addition to orchestrating the coup in Iran to benefit oil barons in Britain and the United States , in his spare time , Wilber wrote histories , travelogues and commentaries on Iran , Afghanistan and Sri Lanka . Background . Wilber studied the ancient and modern Middle East . He received his A . B . ( 1929 ) , M . F . A . , and Ph . D . ( 1949 ) from Princeton University , where he was the first student to receive a doctorate in architectural history . In 1939 Wilber married Margaret Patterson Surre ; they had two daughters , Sara Wilber Cohen and Margaret Newton Wilber . His book " Iran Past and Present " , was published in nine editions . Wilber collected oriental rugs , and was president of the Princeton Rug Society for many years . He spent forty years in the Middle East . His memoir , which partially recounts his role in the coup , is " Adventures in the Middle East and Iran , Past and Present and Iran Past " . CIA Plot . In August 2003 , California State University Economics Professor Sasan Fayazmanesh , an Iranian expatriate , wrote : On April 16 , 2000 , " The New York Times " broke what its writer , James Risen , called the US ' s " stony silence " by devoting a number of pages to publishing parts of a still classified document on the " secret history " of the 1953 coup . The history was written by one Donald N . Wilbur , an expert in Persian architecture and one of the " leading planners " of the operation " TP - Ajax . " The report chronicled gruesome details of the events in 1953 : how , by spending a meager sum of $ 1 million , the CIA " stirred up considerable unrest in Iran , giving Iranians a clear choice between instability and supporting the shah " ; how it brought " the largest mobs " into the street ; how it " began disseminating ' gray propaganda ' passing out anti - Mossadegh cartoons in the streets and planting unflattering articles in local press " ; how the CIA ' s " Iranian operatives pretending to be Communists threatened Muslim leaders with ' savage punishment if they opposed Mossadegh ' " ; how the " house of at least one prominent Muslim was bombed by CIA agents posing as Communists " ; how the CIA tried to " orchestrate a call for a holy war against Communism " ; how on August 19 " a journalist who was one of the agency ' s most important Iranian agents led a crowd toward Parliament , inciting people to set fire to the offices of a newspaper owned by Dr . Mossadegh ' s foreign minister " ; how American agents swung " security forces to the side of the demonstrators " ; how the shah ' s disbanded " Imperial Guard seized trucks and drove through the street " ; how by " 10 : 15 there were pro - shah truckloads of military personnel at all main squares " ; how the " pro - shah speakers went on the air , broadcasting the coups ' success and reading royal decrees " ; how at the US embassy , " CIA officers were elated , and Mr . Roosevelt got General Zahedi out of hiding " and found him a tank that " drove him to the radio station , where he spoke to the nation " ; and , finally , how " Dr . Mossadegh and other government officials were rounded up , while officers supporting General Zahedi placed ' unknown supports of TP - Ajax ' in command of all units of Tehran garrison . " " It was a day that should have never ended , " Risen quotes Wilbur as saying , for " it carried with it such a sense of excitement , of satisfaction and of jubilation that it is doubtful whether any other can come up to it . " Publications . Wilber is the author of articles and books , including : References . 4 . ^ Zinn , Howard & Buhle , Paul . A People ' s History of American Empire . New York : Metropolitan Books , 2008 . p . 235