U.S. Rivals Are Facing Unrest. Is It Due to Luck or Skill?

How Should the CIA Handle Iran’s and China’s Protests? (foreignpolicy.com)

According to documents the CIA released in 2013 acknowledging its role, Britain’s MI6 and the CIA enjoyed a much more permissive and advantageous operational environment than found today in Russia, China, or Iran. Iran in 1953 was a relatively open and democratic society. In supporting the coup, the United States and the United Kingdom recruited allies among the Islamic clergy and leveraged bribery to secure the cooperation of the Iranian majlis and senior military officers and to rent crowds. That sort of approach is more difficult today.

Against the more restrictive environments such as those in Russia, China, and Iran, the United States has in the past cooperated with exile groups to promote internal change. Operating against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, for example, the United States relied foremost on Ahmed Chalabi, leader of the Pentagon-backed Iraqi National Congress, realizing only too late how little he and such groups represented the country or enjoyed popular followings.