After the Second World War, the containment of communism was a primary concern for the United States. To avoid direct military confrontation with the Soviet Union, the United States used the newly created CIA in surreptitious operations to respond to perceived communist threats. In 1953, the focus of the Cold War turned to Guatemala. The CIA’s involvement in Guatemala was a demonstration of the capacity and reach of America’s power relating to foreign policy. President Jacobo Arbenz was soft on communism and believed that political freedom was a right, and although the movement was small, the United States did not hesitate to take action. Arbenz legalized labor unions and passed land reform to redistribute idle land to the lower classes of the country, including land that belonged to the United Fruit Company. The UFCO owned more than 40% of the country land and was exempt from taxes and import duties. Decree 900 was passed in 1952 and allowed the government to have control of unused UFCO land which they had held in order to prevent competitors from benefitting from it. In response the UFCO launches a propaganda campaign to label Arbenz as an increasingly communist leader.  The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, US News and World Report published stories which supported the idea that the government of Guatemala was on its way to communism. In this climate of elevated public fear of communism and pressure from the UFCO, President Eisenhower decided to take action. He authorized the CIA in August 1953 to plan a coup against Arbenz. The CIA chose Castillo Armas to lead rebel forces and guaranteed him the role of president after Arbenz removal. Armas only had a couple hundred supporters and was only able to go against Arbenz with the help of the American government. 

I read the CIA and Guatemala Assaination Proposals, 1952-1954 with analysis by CIA history staff Gerald Haines, 1955 and this document directly exposes the instructional guides on assasination under Operation PBSuccess. These documents were released May 23,1997 and cemented the CIAs involvement in the 1954 Guatemalan coup. The CIA released 1.4% of the 100,000 documents relating to the coup. This document supports that the United States and the director of the CIA, Walter Smith believed that Arbenz was in fact leading Guatemala toward a communist regime. The CIA created the PBFortune designed to “topple the Arbenz regime”. This document supports that PBFortune proposed the assasination of Arbenz and the officers which compiled a “hit list” of leaders in Guatemala which needed to be removed. The CIA also used psychological warfare by sending leading communists death notice cards” for thirty days after April 15,1953. This was not as successful as planned, which led the CIA to create PBSuccess. It “combined psychological warfare, economic, diplomatic and paramilitary action” in order to forcefully “remove covertly and without bloodshed, if possible, the possible present Communist controlled government of Guatemala.” The CIA, through this document, is proven to be directing the government of Guatemala against the will of the citizens of the country. Although Arbenz was supported by the people of Gutemala, the United States felt threatened due to the political climate surrounding the Red Scare to the point of intervention. 

https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/2022-10/soviet-fkr-cruise-missile-deployed-in-cuba.jpg

Throughout the Cold War, tensions grew between the US and the Soviet Union as both had the world’s biggest militaries but were also on different sides on politics. The main goal for the US was to prevent communism from spreading in Latin America. The biggest issue was that Fidel Castro, Cuba’s dictator, had a relationship with the leader of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev and was willing to allow Soviet Missiles positioned in Cuba aiming at cities in the US. Although the US has missiles aiming at Russia as well from Turkey, this was another issue that was faced, because the goal was also to prevent this tension from starting another world war since nuclear weapons were being held and aimed at each other. If one were to attack first it would have easily started another nuclear war which would be far worse than any previous wars.

In this picture above you see soldiers loading a Soviet FKR cruise missile onto a launcher that was deployed in Cuba. Since Cuba was in Latin America and the Soviet Union was too far from the US, they planted their missiles in Cuba aiming and ready to fire at the US at any time in case anything were to happen. The Cuban Missile Crisis happened after the US tried to overthrow Castro. Castro started a revolution and took all the power to himself and turn the country into a socialist nation. Castro strategically created an image of himself that he is Cuba’s savior to the people. On January 8th, 1959 he gave a speech at Camp Colombia. The speech was “full of exhortations to unity, promises of real change, and vague threats to his enemies. At some point during the speech, doves were released in the crowd (rumors had them descending from the sky). They flew through the air and settled on the podium. One even sat on Castro’s shoulder. Critics claim the fix was in, that Castro had seed for the birds or that the spotlight trained on Castro attracted them to him. It did not matter. The doves, read popularity as a sign of peace and diverse approval of Castro’s role as El Comandante, sealed an unspoken deal. Castro, as the Revolution, would save the Cuban people.” (Dawson 209). This goes to show how Castro became a symbol for the country and represented a new time for the people to put their faith and support into him. It also led to a famous photo of a dove being on Castro’s photo symbolizing the change and leader he will be for Cuba. However the US was not on the same side as him, as they tried to overthrow him at the Bay of Pigs in 1961. 

So although the US was keeping control and preventing communism from spreading in Latin America, they still faced a problem in Cuba. And after they unsuccessfully attempted to overthrow Castro in 1961, it got worse as later on he began to have stronger and closer relations with the Soviet Union. It was beneficial for both parties as they were both under communist rule. Which ultimately led to Castro having Soviet missiles ready to fire in the US at any moment to start a nuclear deadly war like shown in the image above. This moment in the Cold War is very important to history since it was the closest the world ever got to nuclear war. And the world would’ve been completely different as we know it, had the US or USSR shoot a missile at one another. Overall, this ended with bot sides reaching an agreement to remove the missiles aiming at each other. 

We briefly covered this past week the election of 1970 in Chile and President Salvador Allende’s victory that year. Allende was elected president of the country although he didn’t receive more than half of the votes (50%) but he did get more votes than his opponents, which was around 38%. He was a representative of popular unity or a mash of democratic and communist. He thought socialism made the most sense to adopt but he promised to do it democratically and that was very misleading. The U.S. did its best to try and overthrow Allende by first trying to mess up the ratification of his election victory since he didn’t get the majority votes but that plan failed. This daily briefing presented to President Richard Nixon is still censored today and the reason for the censorship is unknown. Peter Kornbluh describes this move by the CIA as a failed attempt to hide the US ties to the military coup of 1973 when he says, “The CIA is trying – but failing – to hold history hostage.” It makes no sense anymore that the CIA is still entirely censoring the document because the agency had already admitted to watching closely the development of the matter and aiding the coup plotters at some point. The US denied the validity of Allende’s victory in 1970 and sought to overthrow him and didn’t even bother to discourage this military takeover because they were probably supporting it. Everything else in the daily briefing relating to North Vietnam, USSR, Cambodia, and even Indochina have been declassified but one thing only and that’s the situation in Chile. Why would the US keep this evidence hidden? Is it for its own sake or the sake of another major player that might receive backlash for their involvement? Is that major player one of the US allies and it wants to protect it? 

What makes things even more interesting is that when the plan to overthrow Allende failed, the US then moved to plan b and plotted the assassination of the Chilean chief of staff of the military and that angered the soldiers very much and solidified Allende as other groups that were against him before realized the danger their country is in. They had to unite with Allende as countrymen against this outside influence and for a while they worked together until 1973. During that year, Allende’s government was under huge pressure from all the strikes and coupes that were happening. The military men who were loyal to Allende were forced to resign and he discovers this and calls for a referendum. These documents must be declassified at least in order to understand the full scope and reasoning behind this referendum. What did Chile get out of it as well as the US? Was this the beginning of the end of outside influence in Chile? Is this an instance of a-political claims serving as justification in order to depoliticize the country and bring back order? It is unclear but might seem like these a-political claims were misleading as the whole issue was a battle between groups who thirsted for power. Although they did unite together for the interests of the state and to combat foreign influence, at the end when that influence faded, those groups only became concerned about the interests of the state only if they were in power (Wood, 284-287).

On December 1971, President Richard Nixon and Brazilian President Emilio Garrastazú Médici discussed Brazil’s role in efforts to overthrow the elected government of Salvador Allende in Chile. According to a declassified conversation, Nixon asked Médici whether the Chilean military was capable of overthrowing Allende. “He felt that they were…,” Médici replied, he made it clear that Brazil was working toward this end. Nixon offered his approval and support for Brazil’s intervention in Chile. The President would go on to say that it was very important that Brazil and the United States work closely in this field. They would cooperate closely as there were many things that Brazil as a South American country could do that the U.S. could not. They would also talk about the scourge which is Fidel Castro and how they “must try and prevent new Allendes and Castros and try where possible to reverse these trends.” Further in this interaction not only do they talk about further ways to keep this line of dialogue open outside of regular channels but if they needed any help to make it happen they could “let him know. If money were required or other discreet aid, we might be able to make it available. This should be held in the greatest confidence.”

Work Cited:

https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB282/Document%20143%2012.9.71.pdf

https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB282/Document%20144.pdf

https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB282/Document%20145%2012.29.71.pdf

https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB282/Document%20146%201.13.72.pdf

During the Cold War with two major world powers, the U.S and the Soviet Union, tensions grew as they were on the brink of nuclear war. The Soviets had strong ties with Fidel Castro and were allies; since Cuba was in Latin America, Soviet missiles and nuclear warheads were transported to Cuba. Dawson states as Fidel Castro transformed Cuban society, he “asserted his authority and implemented a radical egalitarian transformation… announced land reforms, the nationalization of foreign property, and built closer ties to the Soviet Union” (Dawson 209). Castro had transformed Cuba into a socialist nation and exiled those who opposed him. As ties with the Soviets grew, the U.S used reconnaissance spy planes flying over Cuba to monitor the neighboring communist nation. This image is a photo a U.S spy plane took flying over San Diego De Los Banos, Cuba. It is of a Cuban missile site, likely containing soviet missiles.

Furthermore, this image was taken on October 15th, 1962, and is titled “MRBM LAUNCH SITE”, a launch site in Cuba for medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBM). The image has been edited to highlight the key points of what is at the site. There are 8 missile trailers (presumably containing missiles), 4 pieces of launch equipment for the missiles, other various equipment, tent areas (for the soldiers), and construction happening near the bottom right of the image. Cuba is very tropical as it is in the Caribbean so the construction is likely to be clearing space for more equipment or tents. It was taken during a period of time known as “The Cuban Missile Crisis” which marks the closest point to nuclear war between two world powers, the U.S and Soviet Union with Cuba in the middle.

Moreover, with the U.S, its fight against communism was the main concern at the time and they had to fight it without igniting a world war with the U.S and Soviet Union as the face of the war. After the failed attempt to overthrow Castro by the Cubans he exiled, who were financed by the U.S, “U.S. policy makers had to contend with a Cuban government that moved closer and closer to Moscow, triggering the famous Missile Crisis of 1962” (Wood 247). With the Soviet Union and Cuba both under communist rule, it was advantageous to become allies against the U.S, especially With Cuba being a smaller nation but offering a strategic advantage for the USSR. This image shows the severity of the tension as the communists are ready to strike for their politics and nations. The Cuban Missile Crisis is one of the most important parts of the Cold War as the Soviets were preparing and planning to launch missiles at the U.S from Cuba, leading to high tensions and nuclear war being very plausible. This image best represents this as it shows a missile launch site in Cuba, with presumably Soviet missiles. The crisis only came to an end when the Soviets removed their missiles from Cuba after a deal with the U.S was made to remove missiles from Turkey.

Works Cited

Wood, James A. and Anna Rose Alexander, editors. Problems in Modern Latin American History: Sources and Interpretations. 5^th ed. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019.

Dawson, Alexander S. Latin America since Independence: A History with Primary Sources. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2022.

https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/document/29153-oct-14-first-u-2-photographs-soviet-missiles-cuba-1962

https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile/2020-09-15/extreme-option-overthrow-allende

As communism began to spread across Latin America, the U.S. attempted many ways to contain the spread of communism. One country in particular, is Chile. In Chile, there was the 1964 election in which Democrat Eduardo Frei went up against Socialist Salvador Allende. Allende gained a lot of support which led to there being a campaign called the scare campaign whose purpose was to convince Chileans that voting for Allende meant voting for a dictatorship while voting for Frei meant that democracy would continue in Chile. The U.S. had made attempts to stop communism in Latin America.

As the 1964 election in Chile was progressing, the threat of communism reaching Chile became a huge concern for the U.S.. Throughout the campaign the CIA became involved in the campaign against Allende. This campaign included “anticommunist propaganda filled the airwaves and newspapers of Chile”(Problems 247). This campaign led to Chile becoming a state of hysteria in which many viewed the election as “a showdown between Frei, the valiant hero fighting to preserve Chile’s democratic traditions, and Allende, the nefarious representative of the international Marxist conspiracy. (Problems 248). To many Chileans it was a battle between good and evil. It is interesting to note that the involvement from the U.S. was so heavy that the CIA funded propaganda group produced “24 daily newscasts in Santiago and the provinces, 26 weekly ‘commentary’ programs, and distributed 3,000 posters daily.”(Problems 248). One of the most powerful works of propaganda were the ones that targeted gender. For men they were targeted through fear of the husband losing his job along with “family as his descendants would be distressed by the suggestion that his children would be taken from him if Allende won.”(Problems 250) and for women it was the fear of having her children taken away as “so much of a Chilean woman’s life centered on her children, the emotional thrust of the ads equated an Allende presidency with the destruction of the family had a particularly strong and negative impact on women.(Problems 250). The propaganda was so successful that it led to Frei winning the 1964 election. 

After Frei was elected president of Chile, the threat of Allende was still lingering. In the photo above we can see the support that the U.S. feared.  In the 1970 election, Allende was able to win. This result led to Allende becoming the “first committed socialist to be democratically elected in Latin America”(Dawson 236). In response to Allende winning the election, “middle-class and elite Chileans, the military, and the U.S. government united to destabilize the regime.”(Dawson 236). Their attempts to destabilize the regime were unsuccessful which led to military action being taken. The U.S. backed up general Augusto Pinochet who overthrew the government in 1973. With Augusto in charge this led to him banning all political activity and being a dictator. For the U.S. this was better than having Allende in charge as for them it was better to “stay with loyal friends than experiment with change and new people in a dangerous world.(Problems 247). The fear of communism spreading led to the U.S. taking drastic actions across Latin America.

Works Cited:

Dawson, Alexander. Latin America since Independence a History with Primary Sources. 3rd ed., ROUTLEDGE, 2022.

Wood, James A. and Anna Rose Alexander, editors. Problems in Modern Latin American History: Sources and Interpretations. 5^th ed. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019.      

The United States had continually altered the interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine since its creation in the early 19th century. By the time the Cold War had begun, it was again rewritten, and had become the Truman Doctrine. The underlying idea can still be seen in much of US propaganda in modern wars, the liberation of the people, help to achieve democracy and liberties. It is clearly stated that the United States sees it as their duty to aid each nation in becoming what it desires, and to fend off any powers which aim to impose their own ideologies as the Germans and Japanese had done in World War 2. It is already clear to see that by doing this, the United States had already committed to impose their own ideals on other nations, a hypocritical act in itself. This attempt at swaying other nations often came in the form of military and economic measures. This intent can clearly be seen in the document, “Memorandum for General Taylor” from 1962. The document comes from the earlier stages of the United States diplomatic crisis with Cuba. It is clear that intervention to some degree was the obvious next step to the writer. This document also provides insight into the readiness of the United States Army to engage in military activity in order to remove a Communist government from their doorstep. Such military preparedness seems the standard mode of operation. 

There is a clear indication that the United States saw itself more than capable of dealing with this threat quickly and decisively. The Document mentions a coup de main, a fast blow that can defeat the enemy in a single attack. This doctrine of military intervention however is not entirely in line with the Truman doctrine: “I believe that our help should be primarily through economic and financial aid which is essential to economic stability and orderly political processes.” (Problems in Modern Latin American History, p.242) Nevertheless, it seems likely that the subversive arms of the US government, such as the CIA, had standardized such means of violating the national sovereignty of foreign states.