The 1957 CIA–MI6 Syria regime-change plan

A set of Cold War documents describes a plan that sounds like something from a spy thriller, except the people involved were reportedly sitting at the highest levels of Britain and the United States. In 1957, Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and President Dwight Eisenhower were said to have approved a joint CIA MI6 plan aimed at removing Syria's government.

The proposed strategy reportedly involved staging fake incidents along Syria's borders so that neighboring pro Western governments could use them as a justification for military intervention. The documents also described plans to eliminate three of the most influential political figures in Damascus, turning the proposed operation into something far more serious than ordinary diplomatic pressure.

What makes the episode particularly striking is that these were reportedly plans discussed decades before the better known regime change campaigns in the Middle East. The documents describe covert options and proposed actions rather than proving that the operation was ultimately carried out, but they provide a remarkable glimpse into how far Western intelligence planning against Syria had reportedly gone during the Cold War.