Nuclear security

How the United States helped Iran set up its nuclear program

The story of Iran's interest in nuclear technology goes back to the 1950s.

Iran was then being led by the young shah, who had been installed in power in 1953 after a CIA-led coup against the elected government of Mohamad Mossadeq. The then US president, Dwight Eisenhower, who had sanctioned the coup, introduced a program called Atoms for Peace.