Secret History: The Cia's Classified Account of Its Operations in Guatemala, 1952-1954

Rating:
Summary: An illuminating inside account of a CIA covert operation
Review: Nick Cullather's account of the CIA operation PBSuccess is quite interesting in that it relies primarily on CIA documents. These documents were unavailable to those previously writing about the overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz in 1954. He provides insight into the processes rather than into the personalities involved. The only negative about this account, pointed out by Cullather himself, is that the CIA uses retired agents to screen material before publication. The screeners' deletions can be quite extensive in certain areas despite the CIA promise to be more open. As one reads this book it becomes annoying when many names, sentences and paragraphs are sanitized by the retired CIA agents. Nonetheless the book is informative, well written and a very enjoyable read. This book is a must for anyone interested in the covert world of the CIA. The book also would be of interest to anyone studying the nature of U.S. involvement in the national affairs of our Latin American neighbors.

Rating:
Summary: illuminating look into the secretive world of the CIA
Review: Nick Cullather's account of the CIA operation PBSuccess is quite interesting in that it relies primarily on CIA documents. These documents were unavailable to those previously writing about the overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz in 1954. He provides insight into the processes rather than into the personalities involved. The only negative about this account, pointed out by Cullather himself, is that the CIA uses retired agents to screen material before publication. The screeners' deletions can be quite extensive in certain areas despite the CIA promise to be more open. As one reads this book it becomes annoying when many names, sentences and paragraphs are sanitized by the retired CIA agents. Nonetheless the book is informative, well written and a very enjoyable read. This book is a must for anyone interested in the covert world of the CIA. The book also would be of interest to anyone studying the nature of U.S. involvement in the national affairs of our Latin American neighbors.

Rating:
Summary: An illuminating inside account of a CIA covert operation
Review: This is a frank account of the CIA's operations in Guatemala to overthrow the democratically elected centre-left government of Jacobo Arbenz. It was written in 1994 by an historian of the CIA's History Staff, classified as "secret", and disclosed to the general public in 1997 with some minor deletions. Although dealing only cursorily with the Guatemala history and politics of the period, it is rather detailed with respect to the CIA's role in them, and it is a very useful book if one wants to get a clear view of the political climate of the era and of the role of the US in Latin American politics. With the tragic example of the CIA's sucess in the overthrown of the Arbenz government as a vivid and recent event, is it all that strange that, four years later, cuban reformists and revolutionaries would move with a much tougher determination in the path of social and economic reforms, just before the US government could try to repeat the operation? which incidentally they did at the Bay of Pigs... The Afterword to the book, written by Piero Gleijeses, on the consequences of the CIA's coup to Guatemala up to the present day, is chilling and revolting