When was arbenz overthrown

He was a much more leftist-thinking individual than Arana was and probably even than Arevalo was. The election took place and he was elected.

What [Arbenz] did was allow the Arevalo program to go farther and farther. He was very much in favor of the liberalization of the labor laws, which again hurt the United Fruit Company right away. He encouraged the importation of arms from Czechoslovakia. In general he took a very, very liberal path and soon he was being called a communist in the eyes of the Americans, the United Fruit Company in particular.

When it was all over he took refuge in Cuba. I am inclined to think that myself. They wanted him out because he was affecting their interests very severely…. So, certainly you had to be sympathetic to their problem.

They were getting screwed. So what to do? You make your representations telling them that it was going to affect our relations very severely, and it did. Things were very ticklish and confrontational between the United States and Guatemala in those days…. They had us, the United Fruit, as hostage. This was the first time there had been anything like a possible or real communist government in our hemisphere and that was pretty upsetting at that time.

And it was very real regardless whether Arbenz was a communist or not, and it was very shocking to us at that time. But it was not a government interested in the kinds of reforms the previous government, the Arbenz government, had set about to implement…. The previous government was communist in the sense that it was committed to social reform, to helping poor people, to all of the things which in theory the Alliance for Progress was committed to.

This was a government which really was trying to do that. Holland was sworn in by [Secretary of State John Foster] Dulles seen right in Venezuela at an InterAmerican conference, where Dulles was working on a resolution which would be an anticommunist declaration by all of the American Republics, and which he succeeded in having passed by the meeting.

When Holland came back from this conference, he tried to obtain from me explanations of my conception of our policies toward Latin America. I felt as though I was somewhat floundering in my efforts to explain just what we were trying to accomplish, because at that point, I was somewhat baffled by the changes, and attitude, of the outgoing and incoming administrations.

The CIA is helping in the mounting of a military invasion. I told Mr. I could have told you the same thing when I was in your office when you told me about this.

My recommendation is that you try to persuade Mr. Dulles to let you make an effort to handle this problem with Guatemala in some other way. The revolutionary movement was being mounted in Honduras, but it was going to come into Guatemala against Arbenz. I recommend that you make an effort to try to handle it in some other way. History Lab Focus Question: Were the actions taken by the United States in Guatemala in motivated primarily by a fear of communism containment or to protect American business interests bananas?

To assess the actions of the United States in the overthrow of Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz in , students will examine documents, film clips, and visual images. They will determine the motivations of the key individuals and organizations that participated in the coup, and decide if the United States acted primarily to contain communism or to protect the business interests of the United Fruit Company.

Present students with the overarching question: How did the Cold War influence American foreign policy decisions? To understand and answer this large question, tell students that they will focus on a specific foreign policy topic: The intervention of the United States in the overthrow of the president of Guatemala, Central America, in To prepare for the History Lab, students will read background information on U.

Afterwards, they will complete a chart, highlighting the motivations of key players in the Guatemalan coup. This will be assigned as homework before starting the History Lab. Students will work collaboratively in assigned groups. Divide students into groups of four, based on their personalities and strengths. Distribute the remaining six RS 05 - RS 10 sources to each group. Each student is responsible for two sources within their group.

Student "A" is responsible for the two sources labeled "A," etc. Students will work independently on their subtext chart for the assigned sources. Give students 25 to 30 minutes to complete this assignment. The subtext chart requires that students determine if their sources supports the idea that the coup was planned by the United States because Guatemala represented a national security threat, or because business interests were at stake. Students should also analyze the subtext of the source by answering the questions:.

As a group, students will share their interpretations of the sources, while completing their chart for all seven sources. Ask students the following questions to connect the lab to the overarching question: How did the Cold War influence American foreign policy decisions? Students will write a three-paragraph news briefing on the American involvement in the Guatemalan coup from the perspective of a Soviet state-run newspaper in July of Students will analyze how the Soviets would have depicted the actions of the United States in Guatemala and how they may have used the events for propaganda.

They will determine how these actions could have affected U. Remind students to cite specific information from the sources provided to support their central argument. Text: This official CIA document assessed President Arbenz's political orientation and determined that he both recognized and worked with known members of the Communist Party, but they did not influence his decision-making.

While Arbenz was of little concern to the United States, the possibility of a communist coup in Guatemala deserved its consideration. This document was written in October of , after Arbenz had passed land reform acts, expropriating idle land. He had already recognized the Guatemalan Communist Party because of his belief in political freedom. Subtext: This official document was intended only for members of the CIA and high-ranking government officials.

The author was likely a CIA agent working in Guatemala. The document was produced during the investigation into President Arbenz's alliances and questioned his possible affiliation to the Communist Party in Guatemala.

The author clearly believed there was a communist threat in Guatemala, but did not think that Arbenz constituted a threat to the United States. John E. Peurifoy Telegram to Dept. Peurifoy's telegram to Department of State, Dispatch No. The meeting lasted six hours and was the only time the two men met in person.

During the conversation, they had several disagreements. Arbenz insisted there were only a few communists in Guatemala, with no real power. Peurifoy spoke of a significant communist threat in the country. The two men also disagreed about the role of the United Fruit Company. Arbenz insisted the problem that existed between the two nations was not due to communism, but in fact, to issues with the United Fruit Company and land reform.

Peurifoy insisted that American business interests had no impact on American foreign policy. Peurifoy was a well-known anti-communist. Subtext: Peurifoy wrote this telegram believing that only high ranking members of the State Department would read it; which certainly influenced the way he composed the telegram.

It was clear in the telegram, that Peurifoy was unwilling to reason with Arbenz or listen to him justify his decisions in Guatemala.

Peurifoy believed that if Arbenz was going to allow a "Commie influence from so few" he should be removed from office. He read his resignation speech over Guatemalan radio. It is hard to know how many Guatemalans heard the speech, because the CIA had partially jammed its transmission over the airwaves. In the speech, Arbenz directly blamed the financial interests of the United States and the United Fruit Company for his downfall. He stated that there was no communist threat in Guatemala and defended his democratic principles.

Context: The speech was written by President Arbenz, after he realized that he could not overcome the forces attempting to overthrow his government. His last public radio address to the Guatemalan people took place on 27 June , when he resigned the presidency. Subtext: Knowing this was his last presidential address, Arbenz wrote a defensive speech that bitterly laid blame for the coup on the United States. Arbenz emphatically stated that communism was only an excuse for the American government, which sought to protect its business interests in his country.

His audience was the citizens of Guatemala and the world. After resigning, Arbenz never wrote again about the events of the coup. The speech was clearly emotional, since it was the only opportunity Arbenz had had to defend himself before being exiled.

Fried and others, eds. Text: In this media address, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, alerted the American public to the communist forces that had attempted to seize Guatemala. He referred to Guatemala as an example of the "intrusion of Soviet despotism. Dulles informed the American people that the President Jacobo Arbenz has resigned, because it was what the Guatemalan people wanted.

He made no mention of American involvement in the event, but considered it an American victory against communism in the Western Hemisphere. Context: One week after Arbenz's resignation, Dulles spoke publically to the American people to discuss the events in Guatemala. Dulles was known as an aggressive anti-communist supporter during the early Cold War.

Subtext: Dulles' speech was intended for the American public. Dulles made no mention of his personal and family connections to the United Fruit Company, but the company's well-being in Guatemala was certainly important. In the address, Dulles did not mention the role of the U. He was deceptive in trying to dispel rumors that United Fruit was involved in the coup, explaining that the company only had the best of intentions in Guatemala.

He exaggerated the communist presence in the country, and led the American public to believe Guatemala was a communist stronghold, because it was in his best interest politically.

In addition, Dulles used the speech to reinforce the idea that communism could spread anywhere, heightening the already existing fear among the American people.

With an aggressive anti-communist stance, the overthrow of the Arbenz regime bolstered the Eisenhower administration in the eyes of the American public. Text: In this newspaper article, the author, who was identified as a Latin American affairs staff writer, discussed communist infiltration in Guatemala.

The article said that while some were skeptical, a threat existed because of President Arbenz's policies towards the communists in his country. This source indicated that the United States was not exaggerating the threat of communism that was developing in Guatemala. An unidentified Latin American source was quoted as saying that the threat did not lie with the Guatemalan people, but, rather, with Arbenz himself.

The observer believed that Arbenz allowed the communists to operate in order to provoke the United States into taking action, thus providing ammunition and propaganda for the Soviet Union to use against the Americans. Context: The article was published in January of During this period, the United Fruit Company held press junkets in Guatemala for prominent newspapers.

These junkets promoted favorable coverage of the United Fruit Company in Guatemala. The information was crafted carefully to reflect well on the company, while condemning the Arbenz administration.

The Christian Science Monitor was among the publications that regularly participated in these junkets. Subtext: This article was written by an unidentified Latin American affairs staff member and was intended for the readers of the Christian Science Monitor.

The article stated that the communist threat in Guatemala was real and that Arbenz allowed communists to operate because he was trying to bait the U. This was significant because journalists from the Christian Science Monitor attended several United Fruit Company press junkets in Guatemala. These press junkets were carefully orchestrated, biased, and damaging to objective journalism within the United States.

The article was strongly influenced by the United Fruit Company and its anti-communist Guatemalan press campaign. Source: Dwight D. Text: This excerpt from President Dwight D. In the excerpt, Eisenhower justified the overthrow of Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz, because of the communist threat the country had posed to the United States and the rest of the Western Hemisphere. However, Eisenhower did not disclose the CIA's full involvement in the coup, stating that the CIA intervened to provide air support when the anti-communist forces of Castillo Armas were struggling.

Eisenhower attributed the coup to overall distrust and disapproval of the Arbenz regime. Eisenhower's personal account of his entry into politics and his first administration as President of the United States. Eisenhower wrote the book in , at the height of the Cold War, three years after his presidency had ended and nine years after the overthrow of Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz. After years of answering Freedom of Information Act requests with its standard "we can neither confirm nor deny that such records exist," the CIA has finally declassified some pages of over , estimated to be in its secret archives on the Guatemalan destabilization program.

The Agency's press release stated that more records would be released before the end of the year. The small, albeit dramatic, release comes more than five years after then CIA director Robert Gates declared that the CIA would "open" its shadowy past to post-cold war public scrutiny, and only days after a member of the CIA's own historical review panel was quoted in the New York Times as calling the CIA's commitment to openness "a brilliant public relations snow job.

Arbenz was elected President of Guatemala in to continue a process of socio- economic reforms that the CIA disdainfully refers to in its memoranda as "an intensely nationalistic program of progress colored by the touchy, anti-foreign inferiority complex of the 'Banana Republic. As early as February of that year, CIA Headquarters began generating memos with subject titles such as "Guatemalan Communist Personel to be disposed of during Military Operations," outlining categories of persons to be neutralized "through Executive Action"--murder--or through imprisonment and exile.

The "A" list of those to be assassinated contained 58 names--all of which the CIA has excised from the declassified documents. But, according to the CIA's own internal study of the agency's so-called "K program," up until the day Arbenz resigned on June 27, , "the option of assassination was still being considered. Between and , human rights groups estimate, the repressive operatives of sucessive military regimes murdered more than , civilians. Haines, June CIA records on assassination planning in Guatemala were first gathered pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed in All of them were withheld on national security grounds at that time.

In , the CIA's historical staff "rediscovered" these records during a search of Guatemala materials to be declassified as part of the agency's "Openness" program. A staff historian, Gerald Haines, was assigned to write this brief history of these operations.