Before 'Coup 53,' the US and Iran were old friends

The British- and American-backed plot to overthrow Iran’s prime minister in 1953 laid the groundwork for the 1979 Iran hostage crisis and decades of hostility with the U.S. A documentary about the plot released on Aug. 19 offers new details of what happened.I believe it is worth recalling the time before the events chronicled in “Coup 53,” when the two countries had a distinctly different relationship.In the 1800s, American missionaries journeyed to what was then called Persia.