ABSTRACT
In June 1954 the elected Guatemalan government of President Jacobo Arbenz was overthrown, ushering in forty years of dictatorial and pseudodemocratic government. Both internal and external forces were involved in the overthrow, although different authors attribute more influence to one factor than the other. Authors like Jim Handy attribute the golpe mostly to internal factors.1 Conversely, U.S. diplomatic historians have tended to emphasize the United States’ role in organizing an invasion under Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas as the driving force behind Arbenz’s fall. Stephen Schlesinger and Stephen Kinzer, authors of the expose Bitter Fruit, stress that the primary motivation behind Operation PBSUCCESS (the Central Intelligence codename for the operation to overthrow Arbenz) was the desire to protect United Fruit Company (UFCO) investments in Guatemala.2 Piero Gleijeses, author of Shattered Hope, argues that there was not one “convenient villain” that caused the overthrow of Arbenz. Although the United States was the dominant player, there was also “a complex interplay of imperial hubris, security concerns, and economic interests” that ultimately led to Arbenz’s undoing.3
