Electronic resource review

Review of Operation Ajax: The Rise and fall of Iranian democracy

 Operation Ajax has the compulsive power of theatre - yet is a book, a graphic novel that is staged electronically. The reader controls the pace, by touching the screen to advance frames. Abrupt changes in perspective and animations are accompanied by atmospheric sound effects, music and plenty of action.

The opening scene finds the narrator peering furtively from the corners of his much enlarged eyes, the following frame his hands rigidly grip a briefcase, then the focus is his pursuing legs. We never discover the narrator's name. It emerges that he is a CIA spy, both victim and accomplice to operation Ajax, code name for the plan in 1953 to depose Dr Mossadegh, the elected leader of Iran, on the grounds that the country was susceptible to communist takeover.

Now retired, but haunted by memories, the narrator retells his story. He recalls the historic background of Britain's profiteering from Iranian oil and then the movement to nationalize the oil company, led by Mossadegh, followed by the cold war. To escape his wife and boring desk job at the CIA, the narrator volunteers for operation Ajax. However while in transit to Iran he entertains second thoughts. He reflects that the man to be deposed is Iran's first doctor of law and was imprisoned for  his pro-democracy agitation. Through the narrator's eyes, the reader becomes familiar with the historic figures, behind operation Ajax and their technique of threatening the Shah and hiring crowds to fake a communist uprising.

 This novel could be used as a teaching resource. It supports 21st century literacy skills, such as reading multimodal texts (Australian, Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority, ACARA, 2013A,) and critical literacy (McLaughlin & DeVoogd, 2004; ACARA, 2013B), through its recurrent exposure of the chasms that separate reality and  propaganda.  Contemporary newsreels form part of the narrative, and they give a vivid feel for the mood of the times and allow the reader to see how events described in the novel are morphed in the news broadcasts. There are also declassified CIA dossiers outlining the operation and the buying of  crowds to fake street protests. This is a relevant resource for VCE unit 2, twentieth century history 1945-2000 (Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, 2013C) since it relates to the cold war, America as a superpower and has repercussions on present political issues. However its a pity that the sources for the information are not described, neither are the gaps (Balaghi, 2013) in those sources referred to, and a feminine perspective is lacking. A few frames are rather sexually explicit.

References 

Australian Curriculum and Assessment Authority. (2013A).   English. Aims. In The Australian Curriculum. F-10 Curriculum. Retrieved from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/english/Aims

Australian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (2013B). General capabilities. Critical and creative thinking. In The Australian Curriculum. F-10 Curriculum. Retrieved from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/GeneralCapabilities/critical-and-creative-thinking/introduction/introduction

Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (2013C). History. Victorian certificate of education study design. Retrieved from http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/vce/history/history-sd.pdf

Balaghi, S. (2013). Silenced histories and sanitized autobiographies: The 1953 CIA coup in Iran. Biography, 36(1), 71-96.

Burwen D.,, de Seve, M. Kinzer, S. (2010). Operation Ajax: The Rise and fall of Iranian democracy. Cognito Comics

McLaughlin, M. & DeVoogd, G. (2004). Critical literacy as comprehension: Expanding reader response. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 48(1), 52-62. doi:10.1598/JAAL.48.1.5