U.S. plot of '54 led to 30-year civil war

[struggle4progress]

<snip>
On June 17, 1954 - 50 years ago this Thursday - about 150 insurgents crossed the border into Guatemala from Honduras.

Within days, CIA bombers were strafing the capital, Guatemala City, and agency propagandists were broadcasting fake reports about rebel battlefield triumphs.

On June 27, the elected president fled the country, never to return. Arbenz's three-year rule was best known for its ambitious land-reform program. With his departure, Washington no longer had to worry that his social-reform ideas could inspire a peasant rebellion in neighboring countries.
<snip>

For Guatemala, it was a prelude to a tragic civil war that was to last 30 years. About 200,000 Guatemalans died, largely because of the excesses of the Guatemalan military. A postwar independent commission concluded that the military had committed "acts of genocide," mostly against the country's indigenous population.
<snip>

http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031776024129&path=!nationworld&s=1037645509161

The time has really come for us to assimilate the lessons of this history. If we want a peaceful world, the US cannot toy with other people's lives in this way.

[Merlin]

1. You are so right. But I've heard the same for 40 years.

Fact is nobody in America gives a rat's ass what happens in Latin America. They don't know. They don't want to know. I know of no way to reach Americans on this issue. Their tax dollars at work. Making the world safe for United Fruit Co.

[struggle4progress]

2. Yeah, that's the perpetual problem. But who can give up?

[horrifiedheartlander]

3. media blackout

It would help if our media informed American readers/listeners/viewers about the inanities and atrocities committed in OUR name.

[struggle4progress]

4. Sometimes they do, as in the case of Abu Ghraib.

But network news is a money-making entertainment feature from the corporate view. And of course the networks are part of the status quo and represent specific interests, so media monopolies really can limit coverage.

Welcome to DU :toast:

[reprehensor]

5. Bump. n/t

[starroute]

6. It all ties back in to the BFEE

The coups against Mossadegh in Iran and Arbenz in Guatemala were among the first acts of Allen Dulles after he became CIA director under Eisenhower in 1953.

Allen Dulles had worked for United Fruit in the late 20's, and both he and his brother, John Foster Dulles (who was Eisenhower's Secretary of State) had continuing financial connections with the company. It is clear that the coup was at least as much a matter of personal interest as of government policy.

As Wall Street lawyers in the 1930's, Allen and John Foster Dulles had represented many Nazi firms. Beginning in 1934, they also represented Prescott Bush and Averell Harriman in their covert dealings with Nazi firms, and this connection continued after the war. In 1951, Allen Dulles became deputy director of the CIA and worked closely with Harriman, who was Truman's national security advisor. In 1952, the Dulles's were instrumental in helping Prescott Bush be elected senator from Connecticut.

Yes, there are important lessons to be learned from the coup in Guatemala. But those lessons are not simply that the US has behaved badly. Rather, they are that a small group of people has hijacked the machinery of the US government for their own selfish purposes -- and have been doing so for the last 50 years.