Thread by @karolcummins

The 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état, code-named Operation PBSUCCESS, was a covert operation carried out by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that deposed the democratically elected Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz

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And ended the Guatemalan Revolution of 1944–1954.

The US installed the military dictatorship of Carlos Castillo Armas, the first in a series of U.S.-backed authoritarian rulers in Guatemala.

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📌The United Fruit Company was well connected to the Eisenhower administration. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and his New York law firm, Sullivan and Cromwell, represented the company.

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📌”Allen Dulles, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and brother of John Foster Dulles, had served on UFCO's Board of Trustees and owned shares of the company.” Imagine that!

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Ed Whitman, the company's top public relations officer, was the husband of Ann Whitman, President Eisenhower's private secretary.

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Ed Whitman produced a film, Why the Kremlin Hates Bananas, which depicted UFCO fighting on the front line of the Cold War. The company’s efforts paid off. It picked up the expenses of journalists who traveled to Guatemala to learn its side of the crisis,

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“The Guatemalan Revolution of 1944 forced the resignation of the right-wing dictator, Ubico, who by then had ruled the nation for 13 years.

The country held what many believed was the first true election in its history.”

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“Popularly electing Dr. Juan Jose Arévalo to the presidency. A new constitution, based on that of the United States, was adopted.”

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“Arévalo was followed by Colonel Jacobo Arbenz, who became president in democratic elections in 1951.

After Arbenz came to power, he extended political freedoms, allowing Communists in Guatemala to participate in politics.”

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“With the Cold War in full force, the United States was extremely concerned with the decision to allow Communists to enter politics, so close to home in the Western Hemisphere.”

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“The United States became further alarmed after President Arbenz proposed “Decree 900,” to redistribute undeveloped lands held by large property owners to landless farmers, which constituted 90% of the population.”

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“The United States likened this land reform policy to that enacted by Communist regimes.

By 1952, Arbenz had expropriated 225,000 acres and made them available to rural workers and farmers.”

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“At the time, just two percent of landowners owned 70% of useable agrarian lands, and farm laborers were kept in a form of debt slavery.

The biggest obstacle to land reform in Guatemala was the United Fruit Company.”

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“While the government compensated property owners for the expropriated lands, United Fruit believed the compensation was not enough.”

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“The company demanded to be reimbursed for the full market value of the land, while the Guatemalan government was only willing to pay according to the worth of the land claimed in May 1952 tax assessments.”

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📌”This was problematic because United Fruit, like other big companies, had understated the value of the land to reduce its tax burden.

📌The Guatemalan government was able to seize 40% of the land held by the giant corporation at little cost.”

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“United Fruit felt that Arbenz was challenging it politically and financially.

📌The company/CIA began a massive anti-communist propaganda effort against Guatemala in the U.S. press.”

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📌”Eisenhower had vowed to reduce Cold War military spending. Instead, the United States utilized the newly created Central Intelligence Agency to launch a covert operation to remove Arbenz.

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“In 1952, the CIA began recruiting an opposition force to overthrow him.

Looking to the Guatemalan military, the CIA chose a disgruntled, anti-Arbenz officer, named Carlos Castillo Armas, to lead the operation.”

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On June 17, 1954, with the support of the U.S. government and the CIA, Armas launched an invasion.

The invading forces numbered only 150 men, but the CIA had convinced the Guatemalan public and Arbenz that a major invasion was underway.

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“The CIA set up a clandestine radio station to broadcast propaganda messages, jamming Guatemalan radio signals.

Skilled American pilots were hired to bomb strategic points in Guatemala City.”

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“U.S. personnel flew the invasion aircrafts and filled the airways with bogus transmissions, adding to the impression.”

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The CIA used spies within the Guatemalan military and government to actively undermine President Arbenz's authority, demoralize his supporters, and block efforts to defeat Armas.

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Unaware that the CIA was orchestrating the military coup against him, Arbenz turned to the U.S. government for help, placing his faith in a so-called ally that stated it was committed to advancing and spreading democracy.

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“On Sunday, June 27, 1954, President Jacobo Arbenz resigned from office and fled Guatemala.

📌The CIA replaced him with a military dictator, Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas, whom the CIA designated the “liberator” of the Guatemalan people”

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This is quite the story & along with political corruption in the Eisenhower adm & CIA (both invested in Fruit CO), they invaded/unseated Guatemala’s president & installed a dictator to prevent the State of Guatemala from expropriating the Fruit co’s land for an understated amount

RW Fascists believe in small gov’t (privatize as much as possible) & fuedal society.

LW Communistic Socialists believe in large gov’t to the extent the gov’t can expropriate land & corporations/business from their owners “for the workers”.

Hence fear of both extremes.