Donald Newton Wilber (November 14, 1907, Wisconsin-February 2, 1997, Princeton, New Jersey), American writer and spy. Wilber was the architect of the CIA project "Operation Ajax", a successful plot to overthrow the government of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq. The plot replaced Iran's first democratically elected leader with a brutal dictator and monarch. The coup installed the monarchy of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi who ordered the deaths of thousands of Iranians through SAVAK, the Shah's tightly controlled secret police.