"Shattered Hope"

Paper Summary:

This paper reviews the book, "Shattered Hope: The Guatemalan Revolution and the United States, 1944-1954" written by author Piero Gleijeses. The paper explores the insightful and often painful journey into a world of betrayal, greed, death and ultimately, tragedy. The paper portrays the book as a sad saga of what might have been and states how even the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) can make grave mistakes and miscalculate the outcome of overthrowing a foreign government. The paper contends that Gleijeses presents readers with a thoroughly researched and meticulous look at the sinister forces that actively participated in the overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz in 1954, as well as the impact the invasion had on Guatemalan politics and society.

Outline
Introduction
The Coup
Players in the Coup
United Fruit Company
Carlos Castillo Armas
The American Press
The Historical Legacy of the Coup

From the Paper:

"United Fruit Company, with its platoon of influential lobbyists and talented publicists - including the CIA - was largely responsible for engineering the overthrow of Arbenz in 1954. Dwight Eisenhower was president and he led an administration laden with powerful businessmen and other prominent people. According to author Gleijeses, many of these people were friends of UFC. On page 361, Gleijeses writes: "Foster Dulles had been senior partner in the law firm that had represented UFC. His deputy, Walter Bedell Smith, was toying with the idea of taking a job with UFC (which he indeed did when he retired in 1955)." "The assistant secretary for Latin America was a Cabot, as was the ambassador to the United Nations - and Cabots were major UFC stockholders. Eisenhower's personal secretary, Ann Whitman, was the wife of UFC's director of public relations.""

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