Even Better Than the Real Thing: PR Mind Control (US overthrow of Guatemalan gov't)
(Great article for progressives, showing a closer look at how US propagandist monstrosity Edward Bernays directed US pubic opinion to support US overthrow of a sovereign government in Central America in 1954.The Guatemala section is only part of the article.)
Weekend Edition September 12-14, 2014
Even Better Than the Real Thing
PR Mind Control
by MICKEY Z
“As force is always on side of the governed, the governors have nothing to support them but opinion.”
- David Hume
~snip~
“A gold piece for every banana”
Bernays believed, and argued to Eisenhower, that fear of communists should be induced and encouraged, because by unleashing irrational fears, it would make Americans loyal to the state and to capitalism,” writes Tim Adams, in the London Observer.
The United Fruit Historical Society website offers an instructive chronology of the United Fruit Company (now Chiquita). The entries include:
1901: The government of Guatemala hires United Fruit Company to manage the country’s national post service.
1904: Guatemalan dictator Manuel Estrada Cabrera grants United Fruit a 99-nine year concession to construct and maintain the country’s main rail line from Guatemala City to Puerto Barrios.
1924: The Guatemalan government gives a concession to the United Fruit for 20 square miles of uncultivated land.
United Fruit’s domination of this Central American nation was challenged when, in a landslide victory, Jacobo Arbenz was freely and fairly elected president of Guatemala in 1951. Wishing to transform his country “from a backward country with a predominantly feudal economy to a modern capitalist state,” Arbenz’ modest reforms and his legalizing of the Communist Party were frowned upon in U.S. business circles.
The Arbenz government became the target of a U.S. public relations campaign headed by none other than Edward Bernays. “As I anticipated,” the PR pioneer boasted, “public interest in the Caribbean skyrocketed in this country.”
Two years after Arbenz became president, Life magazine featured a piece on his “Red” land reforms, claiming that a nation just “two hours bombing time from the Panama Canal” was “openly and diligently toiling to create a Communist state.”
It matters little that the USSR didn’t even maintain diplomatic relations with Guatemala; the Cold War was in effect. Ever on the lookout for that invaluable pretext, the U.S. business class scored a public relations coup when Arbenz expropriated some unused land controlled by United Fruit Company. His payment offer was predictably deemed inappropriate.
More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/09/12/pr-mind-control/
= new reply since forum marked as read
There was one mega-bull-goose-loony, running wild, and apparently others very much like him.
This crazy blood-thirsty streak goes back a long way, doesn't it? Just say you're trying to destroy the enemy ("commies" or "narcotraffickers" or "them damned terrorists"
and you're off to the races, pockets stuffed with newly minted money, armed to the teeth, to any place your heart desires, to flush out those damned enemies. Make millions and millions of dollars on the way, lose all your enemies by calling them out as "enemies" of the beloved country. Get them assassinated!
The sky's the limit.
I have NEVER heard getting shingles is a motivation for suicide.
Strange, strange world.
Thank you for mentioning this name. I have more reading ahead to do on this guy. Mind-blowing creepiness! There are people living now who would worship him, I have NO doubt.
with two other Republicans.
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