Following the resignation and overthrowel of President Arbenz, the CIA had to justify their intervention in Guatemala.
President Arbenz address his followers , June 18, 1954
"The United Fruit Company and US monopolies, together with US ruling circles are responsible for...We know how representatives of workers and peasants have been murdered in occupied cities, especially in Bananers [Banana Republics]. That was an act of vengeance by the United Fruit Company."
-President Arbenz Resignation Speech June 27, 1954
The primary PBHISTORY goal was to immediately exploit the documents gathered by the Guatemalan Comite for intelligence and propaganda purposes.
-Memorandum to Mr.Dulles, 1955 (John Foster Dulles)
Memorandum for Mr.Dulles (CIA)
New York Times Article June 1954 (NYTimes)
Operation PBHistory commenced by seizing documents from the Arbenz government. They could analyze them to find any connections between them and the Soviet regime. Exposing this connection, they thought, would be able to communicate to the world that they were justified in taking military action in Guatemala.
(Memorandum for Dulles 2)
Their search came up inconclusive, revealing no ties to the Soviet Union. After another search by the CIA came back, the operation was terminated on September 28, 1954, only 4 months after the coup d'etat.
(Dulles 1)
Banner supporting the Guatemalan Army of the Poor, Huehuetenango, Guatemala (1982)
"Very few of the documents discovered were of the hot, top level damaging type which might have been successfully exploited on an international basis."
-Memorandum for Dulles (1955)
Guatemala entered a phase in its history plagued with conflict for the next four decades. The Civil War was at the core the fight to bring back the populous policies taken away during the 1954 Guatemalan Coup d’etat. Fought between the Guatemalan government and various leftist groups, they fought for the effective land reforms brought by President Arbenz. America supported Guatemala’s dictators to suppress their people.
"Any propaganda exploitation of documents should be accomplished as soon as possible after the downfall of the defeated Communist government to take fullest advantage of world press play."
-Memorandum for Dulles (1955)
The Militant June 1954
The plot succeeded. Today Eisenhower could confess that “it would be deceitful if he tried to hide his pleasure over the ouster of the Communists and their supporters in Guatemala.” Ambassador Peurifoy, whom the Associated Press, in the prize understatement of the year, credited with the “ major part” in toppling the legally elected Arbenz government by force and violence. Wall Street cheered too as the stocks of the United Fruit Co. shot up two points in one day."
-Jospeh Hansen The Militant
TIME Cover (Hamlin Baker)
"President Jacobo Arbenz, the stubborn, enigmatic career soldier who had started the trouble in the first place by flinging wide the palace doors and welcoming Communists into his government..."
-Cover Article Time Magazine
"Guatemala had been snatched from the clutches of Communism and restored to the free world"
-Newsweek December 1954
Nixon and Armas in a Conference, Feburary 1955
"President Castillo Armas' objective, to do more for the people in two years than the Communists were able to do in 10 years, is important. This is the first instance in history where a Commnist government has been replaced by a free one. The whole world is watching to see which does the better job."
-Vice President Nixon 1955
“The last Latin American revolutionary democracy – that of Jacobo Arbenz – failed as a result of the cold premeditated aggression carried out by the United States. Its visible head was the Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, a man who, through a rare coincidence, was also a stockholder and attorney for the United Fruit Company.”
-Che Guevarra in reaction to the 1954 Coup
The political climate of the 1950s is defined by America’s embrace of Capitalism and Consumerism. This resulted in its other defining feature, anti-communism.
Fidel Castro establishing Communist government after Cuban Revolution (1960)
The sight of nations like Guatemala and Cuba revolutionizing was a strike at America’s pride. Success of a different economic doctrine to oppose capitalism caused America to terrorize and strive to cut liberated countries out of world trade.
United States imposes lasting embargo on newly liberated Cuba (NYTimes)
The Guatemalan Coup d’etat stands as a symbol of American Imperialism and a key to understanding the socio-political climate of the 1950s.