Operation PBSUCCESS

Operation PBSUCCESS was a CIA-organized covert operation that overthrew the democratically-elected President of Guatemala, Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán in 1954. Arbenz's government was sympathetic to a number of causes that the US intelligence community deemed to be Communist in nature, and was subsequently viewed as potentially leading towards the establishment of a "Soviet beachhead in the western hemisphere"1 by the CIA and the Eisenhower administration -- a concern that found no shortage of believers given the intense anti-Communist McCarthyism prevalent at the time. Arbenz also instigated sweeping land reform acts that antagonized the US-based multinational United Fruit Company, which had large stakes in the old order in Guatemala and lobbied furiously for action against Arbenz. Contrary to popular belief, though, the responsibility of the United Fruit Company for the instigation of the coup d'etat was relatively small. 3

Related Topics:
CIA - Covert operation - President - Guatemala - Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán - 1954 - US - Communist - Soviet - Western hemisphere - 1 - Eisenhower - McCarthyism - United Fruit Company - Coup d'etat - 3

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The operation, which was put into motion early in 1952 and concluded in 1954, planned to arm and train an ad-hoc "Liberation Army" of about 400 fighters in Honduras under the command of an exiled Guatemalan army officer, Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas, and have them used in conjunction with complex diplomatic, economic, and propaganda campaign that would lead to the unseating of Arbenz. Following closely on the heels of the successful CIA-orchestrated coup which installed the Shah as ruler of Iran in 1953 (see Operation Ajax), it employed ideas and methods that were relatively new at the time and, due to the success of the operation, became the de facto model for the overthrow or destabilization of a unfavourable government. The operation would come to be used as a veritable template for many of the CIA's coups and attempted coups that would follow in the coming years, including the abortive coup in Cuba in the early 1960's and Chile in 1970.

Related Topics:
1952 - 1954 - Honduras - Carlos Castillo Armas - Propaganda - Shah - Iran - 1953 - Operation Ajax - De facto - Cuba in the early 1960 - Chile in 1970

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The operation was preceded by a separate contingency plan of invasion, Operation PBFORTUNE, and succeeded by an operation which intended to gather and analyze documents from the Arbenz government in Guatemala after the overthrow that would help incriminate Arbenz as a Communist, known as Operation PBHISTORY. 2

Related Topics:
Operation PBFORTUNE - Operation PBHISTORY - 2

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