Former president Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán on the cover of TIME magazine in June 1954 after his overthrow

Operation PBSUCCESS was a CIA-organized covert operation that overthrew the democratically-elected President of Guatemala, Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán in 1954. Arbenz's government put forth a number of new policies that the US intelligence community deemed to be Communist in nature, and, suspecting that the Soviet Union was pulling the strings, subsequently fueled a fear of Guatemala becoming a "Soviet beachhead in the western hemisphere"¹ within the CIA and the Eisenhower administration -- a concern that found no shortage of believers outside of this circle given the intensely anti-Communist McCarthyism prevalent at the time. Arbenz also instigated sweeping land reform acts that antagonized the US-based multinational United Fruit Company, which had large stakes in the old order of Guatemala and lobbied various levels of US government furiously for action against Arbenz. Contrary to popular belief, though, the responsibility of the United Fruit Company in instigating the coup d'etat was relatively small. ³ Image File history File links Time_magazine_28-06-1954_Arbenz. ... Image File history File links Time_magazine_28-06-1954_Arbenz. ... Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, pictured above with his wife, was the democratically elected, center-left agrarian reformist President of Guatemala. ... (Clockwise from upper left) Time magazine covers from May 7, 1945; July 25, 1969; December 31, 1999; September 14, 2001; and April 21, 2003. ... 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The CIA Seal The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is an American intelligence agency, responsible for obtaining and analyzing information about foreign governments, corporations, and individuals, and reporting such information to the various branches of the U.S. Government. ... Covert operations are military or political activities that are not only clandestine (undertaken in a manner that disguises the identity of the perpetrators) but also covert, i. ... The President of Guatemala has been the usual title of the leader of Guatemala since 1851, when that title was assumed by José Rafael Carrera, who had been acting as head of government as general and Caudillo since 1840. ... Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, pictured above with his wife, was the democratically elected, center-left agrarian reformist President of Guatemala. ... 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Motto: E pluribus unum (1789 to present) (Latin: Out of Many, One) In God We Trust (1956 to present) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington, D.C. Largest city New York Official language(s) None at federal level; English de facto Government • President • Vice President Federal republic George W... Communism - Wikipedia /**/ @import /w/skins-1. ... A beachhead is a military term used to describe the line created when a unit (by sea) reaches a beach, and begins to defend that area of beach, while other reinforcements (hopefully) help out, until a unit large enough to begin advancing has arrived. ... The geographical western hemisphere of Earth, highlighted in yellow. ... Dwight David Ike Eisenhower (October 14, 1890–March 28, 1969), American soldier and politician, was the 34th President of the United States (1953–1961) and supreme commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II, with the rank of General of the Army. ... McCarthyism took place during a period of intense suspicion in the United States primarily from 1950 to 1954, when the U.S. government was actively countering American Communist Party subversion, its leadership, and others suspected of being Communists or Communist sympathizers. ... The United Fruit Company (1899–1970) was a major American corporation that traded tropical fruit (primarily bananas and pineapples) grown in Third World plantations and sold in the United States and Europe. ... A coup détat, or simply a coup, is the sudden overthrow of a government, usually done by a small group that just replaces the top power figures. ...

The operation, which was put into motion early in 1952 and concluded in 1954, planned to arm and train an ad-hoc "Liberation Army" of about 400 fighters under the command of a then exiled Guatemalan army officer, Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas, and to use them in conjunction with a complex and largely experimental diplomatic, economic, and propaganda campaign. Following closely on the heels of the successful CIA-orchestrated coup which installed the Shah as ruler of Iran in 1953 (see Operation Ajax), it employed ideas and methods that were relatively new at the time and, due to the ostensible success of the operation, led to Operation PBSUCCESS becoming the de facto model for the overthrow or destabilization of an unfavourable government for some time to come, including for the abortive coup in Cuba in the early 1960s and Chile in 1970. 1952 (MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Colonel is a military rank of a commissioned officer, with the corresponding ranks existing in nearly every country in the world. ... Castillo Armas wearing the presidential sash after his taking of power Carlos Castillo Armas (November 4, 1914 – July 26, 1957) was president of Guatemala from July 8, 1954 until his assassination in 1957. ... The United Nations, with its headquarters in New York City, is the largest international diplomatic organization. ... Buyers bargain for good prices while sellers put forth their best front in Chichicastenango Market, Guatemala. ... U.S. propaganda poster, depicting a Nazi stabbing a Bible. ... Shah is an Iranian term (Persian and Kurdish) for king, and has also been adopted in many other languages. ... 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1953 calendar). ... Soldiers surround the Parliament building in Tehran on August 19, 1953. ... De facto is a Latin expression that means in fact or in practice. It is commonly used as opposed to de jure (meaning by law) when referring to matters of law or governance or technique (such as standards), that are found in the common experience as created or developed without... Combatants Cuban Government Forces Cuban exiles trained by the US Commanders Fidel Castro Grayston Lynch Pepe San Roman Erneido Oliva Strength 51,000 1,500 Casualties 2,200; estimated 114 dead 1,189 captured Cuban poster warning before invasion showing a soldier armed with an RPD machine gun. ...

The operation was preceded by a separate contingency plan of invasion, Operation PBFORTUNE, and was succeeded by an operation whose objective was to gather documents after the overthrow that would assist in the effort to incriminate Arbenz as a Communist puppet, known as Operation PBHISTORY. ² Operation PBFORTUNE was the name of a contingency plan drafted by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in 1951 that outlined a method of ousting President Jacobo Arbenz of Guatemala if he was deemed a Communist threat in the hemisphere. ... A puppet state is a state whose government, though notionally of the same culture as the governed people - owes its existence (or other major debt) to being installed, supported or controlled by a more powerful entity, typically a foreign power. ...

Note on naming

Main article: CIA cryptonyms

The operation name, PBSUCCESS, is a cryptonym, otherwise known as a codename. Each CIA cryptonym contains a two character prefix called a digraph, which designates a geographical or functional area. In this case, PB stands for "Presidential Board" and with the words that followed, SUCCESS and FORTUNE, simply being indicative of the general optimism and confidence amongst its planners at the CIA at the time. This varied from the normal CIA practice of choosing arbitrary or deliberately misleading words to complete a cryptonym.-1... A code name or cryptonym is a word or name used clandestinely to refer to another name or word. ...

Background

Main articles History of Guatemala, Decree 900

Arbenz, who played an important role in the "October Revolution" of 1944 which liberated Guatemalans from the oppressive and corrupt dictatorship of General Jorge Ubico, was a popular figure at the time of his election in 1951, winning 65% of the vote in an election that was remarkably open and free given the armed outbreaks of previous months. An intellectual, he advocated social and political reforms, unionization, and land reform. For the latter, Arbenz secretly met with members of the Communist Guatemalan Labor Party (known by its Spanish acronym 'PGT') in order to establish an effective land reform program. Such a program was proposed by Arbenz as a means of remedying the extremely unequal land distribution within the country: in 1945, it was estimated that 2% of the country's population controlled 72% of all arable land, but with only 12% of it being utilized. // pre-asian democracy The Maya civilization flourished throughout much of Guatemala and the surrounding region for close to 2000 years before the Spanish arrived in the early 16th century. ... Decree 90 was a Guatemalan land reform law ordered in 1952 by President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán. ... // pre-asian democracy The Maya civilization flourished throughout much of Guatemala and the surrounding region for close to 2000 years before the Spanish arrived in the early 16th century. ... Jorge Ubico, President of Guatemala (1931-1944) Jorge Ubico y Castañeda (November 10, 1878; † 14 July 1946) was President of Guatemala from 14 February 1931 to 4 July 1944. ... 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... Guatemalan Party of Labour The Guatemalan Party of Labour (Partido Guatemalteco del Trabajo) was a Communist party in Guatemala. ... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ...

Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, pictured with his wife

While Arbenz's Agrarian Reform act of 1952, known as Decree 900, was welcomed by impoverished peasants who made up the majority of Guatemala's population, it provoked the ire of the upper landowning classes and factions of the military, who accused him of bowing to Communist influence. This tension resulted in noticeable civil unrest in the country and fueled the indignation of the United Fruit Company (UFC), which had come to gain a virtual monopoly on a wide variety of Guatemalan industries. Under Ubico, and Ubico's predecessor Manuel José Estrada Cabrera, Guatemala was widely opened up to foreign investment, with special favours being made from Ubico to the United Fruit Company in particular. The UFC responded by pouring investment capital into the country, buying controlling shares of the railroad, electric utility, and telegraph, while also winning control over the majority of the country's best land and de facto control over its only Atlantic port facilities. As a result, the Guatemalan government was often subservient to the UFC's interests. After the revolution of 1944, the Company suffered a long series of defeats in the form of social and economic reforms by Juan José Arévalo and his government, followed by Arbenz's government's initiatives, which were particularly hostile to the Company's interest. In March 1953, uncultivated lands owned by United Fruit lands were to be expropriated with a proposed compensation plan, where the Guatemalan government would pay the United Fruit roughly US$600,000 based on the company's declared taxes. In the following October 1953 and in February 1954, the Guatemalan government took another 150,000 acres of uncultivated land from the United Fruit Company, bringing the total amount of appropriations to almost 400,000 acres. In April 1954, the US State Deparment, not the UFC, delievered a note to the Arbenz government, demanding that Guatemala pay US$15.8 million for the land. Arbenz File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Arbenz File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... 1952 (MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Decree 90 was a Guatemalan land reform law ordered in 1952 by President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán. ... The United Fruit Company (1899–1970) was a major American corporation that traded tropical fruit (primarily bananas and pineapples) grown in Third World plantations and sold in the United States and Europe. ... Manuel José Estrada Cabrera (November 21, 1857 – September 24, 1923) was President of Guatemala from 8 February 1898 to 15 April 1920. ... This is the top-level page of WikiProject trains Rail tracks Rail transport refers to the land transport of passengers and goods along railways or railroads. ... A public utility is a company that maintains the infrastructure for a public service. ... Telegraphy (from the Greek words tele = far away and grapho = write) is the long distance transmission of written messages without physical transport of letters, originally over wire. ... Juan José Arévalo Bermejo (1904 – 1990) was the first of the reformist presidents of Guatemala after the rule of dictators in 1944. ...

After the expropriations began, the United Fruit Company began lobbying the US government in an attempt to draw them into their confrontation with Arbenz. The US State Department responded by, amongst other things, successfully seeking approved cuts in economic aid and cuts in trade, with devastating effect to Guatemala, since "85% of Guatemala’s exports are sold in the country and 85% of their imports come from the US”. Internal US State Department documents stated that the cutoff would have to be done “quietly” because this was “a violation of the Non-intervention agreement, to which we are party”…“If it became obvious that we were in violation of this agreement, other Latin American government would rally to the support of Guatemala.”⁵ While the role the UFC played in instigating the overthrow is often over-stated, the State Department was indeed concerned about the company and, moreover, about the potential the land reform decree had for opening up radicalization in Guatemala and destroying the political effectiveness of large landholders. This, combined with escalating Soviet-American tensions and anxiety about the possibility of the Soviet Union making incursions into America's hemisphere of influence, led agency analysts to see Arbenz as a Soviet agent and a threat that needed to be urgently dealt with. A sphere of influence (or SOI) is an area or region over which an organization or state exerts some kind of indirect cultural, economic, military or political power. ...

Operation PBFORTUNE

Main article: Operation PBFORTUNE

In early 1952 CIA apprehension about an imminent Communist takeover had peaked and the agency began seriously exploring options for Arbenz's overthrow. The most viable option being considered was the covert backing of rebel groups and dissidents already active in Guatemala and the then CIA Director of Central Intelligence (DIC) Walter B. Smith sent an agent to Guatemala City to investigate potential candidate individuals or organizations. At the time the state of the opposition to Arbenz was inert, divided, and increasingly fractious. The agent returned empty handed. Fortunately for the CIA, this roughly coincided with the first state visit of the President of Nicaragua, Anastasio Somoza. He informed them of Castillo Armas's small rebel group and stated that, with the CIA's support, he and Armas could unseat Arbenz. They also could expect financial backing from Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo and, as Armas later claimed, from internal elements within the Guatemalan army. DCI Smith urged his subordinates to follow up on this and to establish contacts with Armas, which they did in June of the same year. At the CIA's request, Armas then relayed to them a plan for invasion, which was to launch from El Salvador, Mexico, and Honduras (from UFC land) and would be coordinated with simultaneous uprisings within Guatemala. Armas requested arms, money, aircraft, and boats and informed them that he would launch the invasion as planned regardless of the CIA's support if need be. In July the CIA secured arms, transport, and $225,000 (US) for Armas, and furnished a few WWII-era airplanes. In September the CIA secured State Department approval and Operation PBFORTUNE was set. Operation PBFORTUNE was the name of a contingency plan drafted by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in 1951 that outlined a method of ousting President Jacobo Arbenz of Guatemala if he was deemed a Communist threat in the hemisphere. ... 1952 (MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... In the United States, the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) serves as the head of both the Intelligence Community and the Central Intelligence Agency. ... Guatemala City (in full, La Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción; locally known as Guatemala or, informally, Guate) is the capital and largest city of Guatemala and in Central America. ... State visits usually involve a military review. ... List of Presidents of Nicaragua list may not be complete José Núñez 1839 Evaristo Rocha 1839 Patricio Rivas 1839 Joaquín del Cosío 1839 Hilario Ulloa 1839 Tomás Valladares 1839-1840 Patricio Rivas 1840-1841 Pablo Buitrago 1841-1843 Juan de Dios Orozco 1843 Manuel Pérez... Anastasio Somoza was the name of two presidents of Nicaragua. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Dictatorship. ... This article is about Rafael L. Trujillo, former president of the Dominican Republic. ... Operation PBFORTUNE was the name of a contingency plan drafted by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in 1951 that outlined a method of ousting President Jacobo Arbenz of Guatemala if he was deemed a Communist threat in the hemisphere. ...

One of two major setbacks occurred shortly afterwards when, while preparing for the arms shipment, the operation had to be called off. Somoza had been speaking of the invasion plan with other Central American leaders and the operation's cover, which was very important due to the fragile diplomatic situation the United States had with the region, was blown. While Operation PBFORTUNE was officially terminated, the operation led a twilight existence with the arm shipment prepared prior still kept in waiting and with Armas being kept on a $3,000 a week retainer, which allowed him to hang on to his small troupe of rebels. Central America is the region of North America located between the southern border of Mexico and the northwest border of Colombia, in South America. ...

With the departure of President Truman and the arrival of Eisenhower hopes were again raised within the CIA about the possibility of reviving the invasion. Eisenhower expressed favour towards covert operations as a means of cheaply and covertly combating the Soviet Union. While working towards getting this support, anxiety within the Agency about the possibility of a premature coup attempt being enacted by over-eager rebel groups began to rise and was justified in early 1953 when a futile and poorly planned invasion was attempted by a rebel group marginally associated with Armas. The invasion precipitated exactly the reaction feared within the Agency: the Guatemalan government was provided with a pretext to severely clamp down on anti-communist elements within their county -- jailing many -- and there was a popular backlash against the anti-communists amongst the people. With almost all of their local assets destroyed, the CIA was forced to rely solely on the much more fragmented exile groups. For the victim of Mt. ... Dwight David Ike Eisenhower (October 14, 1890–March 28, 1969), American soldier and politician, was the 34th President of the United States (1953–1961) and supreme commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II, with the rank of General of the Army. ... 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1953 calendar). ...

The Coup

After all but abandoning the project during the summer of 1953, the National Security Council revived the project in August of that year after a review of the situation in light of the success of the recent CIA-organized coup in Iran. Re-naming the operation to "PBSUCCESS", the planners consolidated all of the successful elements of previous operations, combining psychological, diplomatic, economic, and paramilitary actions. Economically, the Agency enlisted the help of some top-ranking American businessmen who would be assigned to put covert economic pressures on Guatemala by creating shortages of vital imports and cutting export earnings. Diplomatically, the Agency planned to convene a meeting of Organization of American States (OAS) with the specific intention of using it to ostracize and alienate Guatemala from the other countries in the region, as well as increasing "aid" to neighboring countries Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador to win over their consent and, in the case of the later two, to gain the use of their land as a staging area for the invasion. Once the building of pressure using diplomatic, economic, and propagandistic means reached its zenith, the CIA planned to then let Armas' rebels loose when the country was at its most unstable. A National Security Council is an executive body which coordinates national security issues and typically includes the heads of departments involved in diplomacy and defense with a small staff. ... The Organization of American States (OAS; OEA in the other three official languages) is an international organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C., USA. Its members are the 35 independent nations of the Americas. ... Foreign aid, international aid or development assistance are situations in which one country helps another country through some form of donation. ...

Upon establishing operation headquarters in Florida in December 1953, the Agency started recruiting pilots, oversaw the training of rebels, set up a radio station to use for propaganda purposes, and stepped up the diplomatic pressure on Guatemala. Although they couldn't halt the exports of coffee, a major industry in Guatemala at the time, they succeeded in foiling two deals to buy arms and ammunition from Canada and Germany. Faced with dwindling military supply and witnessing the build up of armaments in neighboring countries, Arbenz started to seriously take into account the possibility of an invasion, which had been rumored for months and finally confirmed when a defector from the Agency's stable of rebels informed the Arbenz regime of PBSUCCESS and its details, and began looking for potential sellers of crucial supplies. This brought Arbenz to conclude a secret deal with Communist Czechoslovakia for 2,000 tonnes of captured German arms that were left in storage since the end of World War II a decade ago. While the arms deal was met with a Soviet protectorate, their knowledge of it was limited and the deal was strictly cash-and-carry. When the arms shipment arrived the CIA took their opportunity and promoted the transaction as proof of the Soviet hand pulling the strings and it ended up being a major propaganda victory for the CIA insofar as winning the American public's support for regime change in Guatemela was concerned. Official language(s) English Capital Tallahassee Largest city Jacksonville Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 22nd 170 451 km² 260 km 800 km 17. ... Combatants Allies: Poland, British Commonwealth, France/Free France, Soviet Union, United States, China, and others Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan, and others Casualties Military dead:17 million Civilian dead:33 million Total dead:50 million Military dead:8 million Civilian dead:4 million Total dead:12 million World War II...

After the revelation of the Czech arms shipment and the domestic support it whipped up, the US drastically stepped up both its covert and overt campaigns. This culminated in a full out sea blockade of Guatemala by the American Navy. Known as Operation HARDROCK BAKER, the US positioned submarines and warships to stop and inspect all incoming ships for arms. The blockade's blatant illegality had a decisive psychological impact in Guatemala as well, extinguishing the remaining hope of international law coming to the assistance of Guatemala in case of an American invasion. USS Los Angeles A submarine is a specialized watercraft that can operate underwater. ... Diagrams of first and third rate warships, England, 1728 Cyclopaedia. ...

Propaganda

Still a somewhat new field at the time, psychological warfare was given a special place in the operation. The CIA planned to make heavy use of rumor, pamphleterring, poster campaigns, and, most of all, radio, which had turned the tide at the critical moment in the Iran operation. Although relatively few Guatemalans personally owned a radio, the radio was considered to be an authoritative source, and the CIA hoped that word of mouth would assist in the dissemination of their propaganda to an audience greatly exceeding those with radios. The radio station, La Voz de la Liberacion (The voice of liberation), was set up in Miami but claimed to be operating from "deep in the jungle" and broadcast a mix of popular music, humor, and anti-government propaganda. While the broadcasts were overtly tailored to the general populace, they were specifically and subversively targeted at "men of action", particularly the officers in the Guatemalan military, whose complicity was essential to the success of the operation. The Guatemalan army, made up of around 5,000 well trained and armed soldiers, was more than a match militarily for Armas's 400 undisciplined rebels. Depending on a strictly military success was not an option, and winning the officer class over, mostly through intimidation, was pivotal to the success of the operation. Immediately preceding the invasion propaganda efforts were intensified with Armas sending warplanes to fly low over the capital, buzzing the presidential palace, and drop leaflets urging the military to disavow their Communist government. A pamphlet is an unbound booklet (that is, without a hard cover or binding). ... This article is about the city in Florida. ...

Internal propaganda activities were taken up mostly by student groups under direct instruction of CIA experts stationed at the Florida headquarters. Employing many advanced ideas and techniques, they met with immediate success. They started a weekly pamphlet and plastered the number "32" -- for Article 32 in the constitution that prohibited international political parties -- on buses and walls across the whole country, garnering much local media attention. Encouraged by this initial success the group began using an increasingly wide variety of ideas and approaches. One scheme was to put stickers saying "A communist lives here" on the homes of Arbenz's supporters. Another was to send out fake death notices for Arbenz or other leading members of his cabinet to local newspapers. These activities reached such a height that Arbenz found it necessary to take harsh measures to stymie them, arresting many members of the student groups, limiting freedom of assembly, and intimidating newspapers into ignoring their activities. These severe clampdowns essentially turned Guatemela into the repressive regime that the Agency was trying to portray it, which only succeeded in giving ammunition to Agency claims and hastening Arbenz's downfall.

Invasion

At 8:00 pm on June 18 Castillo Armas's forces crossed the border. Divided into four groups, his roughly 400 strong party invaded at 5 key points along the Guatemalan-Honduran and the Guatemalan-Salvadorian border. This was done to give the impression of a massive forces invading along a wide front, and also to disperse the men so as to minimize the chance of the entire force being routed in a single unfavorable engagement. In addition to these regular troops, 10 trained saboteurs slipped in ahead and were given the task of blowing up key bridges and cutting telegraph lines. All of the invading forces were instructed to minimize actual encounters with the Guatemalan army, for many reasons but most of all to avoid giving reason for the uniting of the army against the invaders. The entire course of the invasion was specifically designed to sow panic and to give the impression of insurmountable odds in order to bring the populace and the military over to its side, rather than defeat them. During the invasion radio propaganda also assisted towards this end, transmitting false reports of huge forces joining the local populace in a popular revolution.

Almost immediately, Armas's forces met with decisive failure. Invading on foot and hampered by heavy equipment, it was in some cases days before the rebels reached their objectives. This weakened the psychological impact of the initial invasion, as local Guatemalans realized they were in no immediate danger. One of the first groups to reach its objective, the group of 122 rebels whose task it was to capture the city of Zacapa, were severely crushed by a small contingent of 30 Guatemalan army soldiers, leaving only 28 rebels who had escaped death or capture. An even larger defeat was handed to the group of 170 rebels who undertook the task of capturing the heavily guarded port city of Puerto Barrios. After the police chief spotted the invading force, he quickly armed local dock workers and assigned them defensive roles. In a matter of hours the vast majority of the rebels were killed or captured, with the remaining men fleeing back into Honduras. Within 3 days, two of Armas's four prongs were out of commission. Attempting to recover momentum, Armas ordered an air attack on the capital the following day. This too failed, as a single slow flying plane managed to bomb a small oil tank, creating a minor fire that was doused in 20 minutes. ⁴ Zacapa is a city in eastern Guatemala, along the Motagua river. ... Puerto Barrios is a city in Guatemala, located at on the Gulf of Honduras at 15. ...

After these rebel failures, Arbenz ordered his military commander to allow Armas's forces to advance deep into the country. Arbenz and his chief commander didn't fear Armas's ragtag army, but there was a concern that, were the rebels to be too severely crushed, it would provide a pretext for direct American intervention. This fear spread widely amongst the officer class, with no one wanting to engage and defeat Armas's increasingly insignificant force. Rumors spread wildly of a Marine landing in Honduras in preparation of invasion. Arbenz began to fear that the officers would be cowed and strike a deal with Armas and took actions to win back their confidence. Confirmation of this fear was given when an entire army garrison surrendered to Armas a few days later in the town of Chiquimula. Arbenz summoned his cabinet to explain that the army was in revolt and on June 27th Arbenz announced his resignation. United States Marine Corps Emblem The United States Marine Corps (USMC) is the second smallest of the five branches of the United States armed forces, with 170,000 active and 40,000 reserve Marines as of 2002. ... Chiquimula is a city in Guatemala. ...

Aftermath

Castillo Armas wearing the presidential sash after his taking of power

In the 11 days after Arbenz's resignation five successive juntas occupied the presidential palace, each more amenable to American demands than the last, with Armas himself finally taking office at the end. He proved to be embarrassingly inept and his corrupt and repressive policies renewed civil conflict unseen in the country since before the revolution of 1944. An unexpected result of the coup was the ferocious condemnation of it by the international press. Le Monde and The Times both attacked the America's "modern form of economic colonialism." There was a widespread and long-lasting protest of the coup in Latin America, with Guatemala becoming a symbol of resistance to American designs for the region. United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold accused the US's actions of being at odds with the UN Charter and even West German papers, usually gentle to America, were condemning the coup. Image File history File links Castillo_armas_1954. ... Image File history File links Castillo_armas_1954. ... A belt is a flexible band, made of either leather or a type of cloth, worn around the waist, generally serving the purpose of supporting clothing items that would otherwise become too loose, particularly trousers. ... Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper with a circulation in 2002 of 389,200. ... The Times is a national newspaper published daily in the United Kingdom. ... World map of colonialism at the end of the Second World War in 1945. ... United Nations - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... A large number of international organizations and other bodies have a secretary general or secretary-general as their chief administrative officers or in other administrative capacities. ... Order: 2nd Secretary-General Term of Office: April 10, 1953–September 18, 1961 Predecessor: Trygve Lie Successor: U Thant Born: July 29, 1905 Place of birth: Jönköping, Sweden Died: September 18, 1961 Place of death: Ndola, Northern Rhodesia Dag Hammarskjöld (July 29, 1905 – September 18, 1961) was a Swedish diplomat... The United Nations Charter is the constitution of the United Nations. ... West Germany was the informal but almost universally used name for the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 until 1990, during which years the Federal Republic did not yet include East Germany. ...

Operation PBHISTORY

After the campaign, the CIA sent a handful of agents to Guatemala in order to gather and analyze government documents that would, amongst other things, find evidence that would support the CIA's belief that Guatemala was a rising Soviet puppet state, in an operation that was known as Operation PBHISTORY. Despite amassing well over 150,000 pages, they found very little to substantiate the key premise of the invasion⁴ ; the socialism that gained influence under Arbenz's presidency in fact had no ties to the Soviet Union whatsoever. In addition, internal CIA documents released during the CIA's brief "openness" initiative in the 1990's after the fall of Soviet Union, revealed that the United Fruit Company actually played much less of a role in the coup than previously thought, and with McCarthy-era Communist paranoia being the main factor influencing the decision to overthrow Arbenz. Nevertheless, despite most Guatemalans' attachment to the original ideals of the 1944 uprising, some private sector leaders and the military began to believe that Arbenz represented a Communist threat and supported his overthrow. This article is about the year. ... Joseph Raymond McCarthy Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was a Republican Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 to 1957. ...

Resources

See also

• History of Guatemala
• CIA cryptonyms
• List of U.S. foreign interventions since 1945
• Banana republic
• Plausible deniability
• Church Committee
• CIA

// pre-asian democracy The Maya civilization flourished throughout much of Guatemala and the surrounding region for close to 2000 years before the Spanish arrived in the early 16th century. ... -1... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with . ... Banana Republic flag Banana republic is a pejorative term for a small, often Latin American or Caribbean country, politically unstable, dependent on limited agriculture, and ruled by a small, wealthy and corrupt clique. ... Plausible deniability is the term given to the creation of loose and informal chains of command in government, which allow controversial instructions given by high-ranking officials to be denied if they become public. ... The Church Committee is the common term referring to the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, a Senate committee chaired by Senator Frank Church (D-ID) in 1975. ... The CIA Seal The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is an American intelligence agency, responsible for obtaining and analyzing information about foreign governments, corporations, and individuals, and reporting such information to the various branches of the U.S. Government. ...

Notes

• Note 1: Cullather, Nick (1999). Secret History: The CIA's classified account of its operations in Guatemala, 1952-1954, Standford University Press. ISBN 0804733112., pg 17, quoting Allen Dulles
• Note 2: Cullather, Nick (1999). Secret History: The CIA's classified account of its operations in Guatemala, 1952-1954, Standford University Press. ISBN 0804733112., pg 106
• Note 3: A U.S. State Department report released in 2003 states that social unrest within Guatemala and Arbenz's alleged Communist ties were the reason the CIA first drew up a contigency plan to oust Arbenz, entitled Operation PBFORTUNE (later changed to Operation PBSUCCESS.) The plan was drafted in 1951, before the U.S.-based United Fruit Company's landholdings had been expropriated. [1]

Mr. Arbenz. Richard Bissell, a former Special Assistant to the Director of Central Intelligence, says in an interview that there "is absolutely no reason to believe" the desire to help United Fruit played "any significant role" in reaching the decision.--Crisis in Central America on PBS Frontline, The New York Times April 9, 1985, Page 16

• Note 4: Cullather, Nick (1999). Secret History: The CIA's classified account of its operations in Guatemala, 1952-1954, Standford University Press. ISBN 0804733112., pg 90
• Note 5: La Feber, Walter (1993). Inevitable Revolutions The United States in Central America, Norton Press. ISBN 0393034348., pg 116-117, quoting Notes of Undersecretary's Meeting, 15 June 1951, FRUS, 1951, 2:1440-43, 1445

Allen Welsh Dulles (April 23, 1893 – January 29, 1969) was an influential director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1953 to 1961 and a member of the Warren Commission. ... The United States Department of State, often referred to as the State Department, is the Cabinet-level foreign affairs agency of the United States government, equivalent to foreign ministries in other countries. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Operation PBFORTUNE was the name of a contingency plan drafted by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in 1951 that outlined a method of ousting President Jacobo Arbenz of Guatemala if he was deemed a Communist threat in the hemisphere. ... 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... The United Fruit Company (1899–1970) was a major American corporation that traded tropical fruit (primarily bananas and pineapples) grown in Third World plantations and sold in the United States and Europe. ...

References & Further reading

• Cullather, Nick (1999). Secret History: The CIA's classified account of its operations in Guatemala, 1952-1954, Standford University Press. ISBN 0804733112.
• La Feber, Walter (1993). Inevitable Revolutions The United States in Central America, Norton Press. ISBN 0393034348.
• Immerman, R. H., The CIA in Guatemala: The Foreign Policy of Intervention, University of Texas Press: Austin, 1982.
• Kinzer, Stephen and Schlesinger, Stephen. 1999. Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala. Cambridge Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
• Miguel Ángel Asturias, Week-end in Guatemala, 1956, is a fictional account of these events.
• Vidal, Gore, Dark Green, Bright Red, Ballantine Publishing Group, 1950, revised 1968. Gore's fiction uncannily presages the Guatamalean coup d'etat.

Miguel Ángel Asturias (October 19, 1899 – June 9, 1974) was a Guatemalan writer and diplomat. ... Gore Vidal, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1948 Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (born October 3, 1925), known simply as Gore Vidal, is a well-known American writer of novels, plays and essays, and has been a public figure for over fifty years. ...

External links

• CIA.gov - CIA's declassified documents on Guatemala CIA Documents Chronicling the 1954 Coup
• US State Dept. site - Foreign Relations, 1952-1954: Guatemala
• American Accountability Project - The Guatemala Genocide
• Consortiumnews.com - Guatemala -- 1954: Behind the CIA's Coup
• Guatemala Documentation Project - Provided by the National Security Archive.
• Video: Devils Don't Dream! Analysis of the CIA-sponsored 1954 coup in Guatemala.