Telegram
from PBSUCCESS headquarters in Florida
to C.I.A. headquarters, Jan. 30, 1954 :
White Paper [issued by the Guatemalan government] has effectively exposed certain
aspects of PBSUCCESS . . . If possible, fabricate big human interest story, like
flying saucers, birth sextuplets in remote area to take play away.
(Emphasis added. –P.McC.)
NY Times
Word for Word/Coup Control; The C.I.A.'s Cover Has Been
Blown? Just Make Up
Something About U.F.O.'s
By Stephen Kinzer
Published: July 06,
2003
THE State Department recently issued a collection of
previously classified documents that shed new light on the Central Intelligence
Agency's role in the June 1954 coup in Guatemala
that ousted the president, Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán. Mr. Arbenz had clashed with
the United Fruit Company, which for many years exercised decisive influence in Guatemala ,
and the Eisenhower administration feared that he was leading his country toward
Communism. The coup brought Col. Carlos Castillo Armas to power and set off
more than three decades of civil conflict and in which hundreds of thousands of
Guatemalans were killed.
Here are excerpts from documents related to the coup plot,
which was code-named
PBSUCCESS. STEPHEN KINZER
Telegram from C.I.A. headquarters to a C.I.A. station, whose
location remains classified, Jan. 26,
1952 :
Hq. desires firm list top flight Communists whom new
government would desire to eliminate mmediately in event of successful
anti-Communist coup.
Memorandum for the record, Sept. 18, 1953 :
At 1500, 18 September
1953 , a meeting was held at the office of [Allen W. Dulles, the
Director of Central Intelligence] to discuss the present status of PBSUCCESS
and to consider future plans for this operation. . . . Cabell [Gen. Charles P.
Cabell, the agency's deputy director] stated that he concurred in approval of
the general plan but felt that the budget estimate should be increased to
$3,000,000 to provide more adequately for contingencies. Mr. Dulles agreed.
Memorandum from Col. J. C. King, chief of the Western
Hemisphere division, C.I.A.
Directorate of Operations, Sept. 25, 1953 :
Tasks for Chief of Station , Guatemala
a. Controlled penetration of the Communist Party.
b. Controlled penetrations of the major labor unions.
c. Controlled penetrations in the major anti-Communist
organizations.
d. Controlled penetrations in the armed forces, or
controlled agents with access to current
planning both in senior and junior officer groups.
e. Controlled agents with access to high-level Guatemalan
Government political propaganda planning. . . .
The station will prepare a list of the 25 most dangerous
Communists and pro-Communists and attempt to gather data re these targets which
could be used for character assassination. . . . More pictures of comparisons
of living conditions of the top Commies and the peons will be of special value.
Memorandum for the record, Oct. 29, 1953 :
Station Guatemala
has been directed to take the following actions:
1. Transmit all rumors re Arbenz officials, the Guatemalan
Army, revolutionary activities and Communist activities.
2. Prepare a weekly ''psychological barometer'' report on
local conditions.
3. Make a continuing study of morale factors among students,
laborers, army officers, enlisted men, government officials, farm owners, and
business and professional men. . . .
Paramilitary Action: An initial shipment of approximately 15
tons of arms and ammunition is now ready for shipment from [DELETED] and
subsequent transshipment to [Colonel Castillo Armas in] Nicaragua .
. . . This material is intended for use by [Colonel Castillo Armas] in his Nicaraguan
training center and to test facilities for clandestine introduction of arms
into Guatemala .
Memorandum from C.I.A. headquarters, Nov. 5, 1953 :
Station was instructed to mail ''mourning cards'' for 30 successive
days to Arbenz and top
Communist leaders. Cards were to mourn the purge or
execution of various Communists in the world and to hint forthcoming doom to
recipients.
Telegram from PBSUCCESS headquarters in Florida
to C.I.A. headquarters, Jan. 30, 1954 :
White Paper [issued by the Guatemalan government] has
effectively exposed certain aspects of PBSUCCESS . . . If possible, fabricate big human interest story, like
flying saucers, birth sextuplets in remote area to take play away.
(Emphasis added. – P.McC.)
Memorandum for the record, March 2, 1954 , from Colonel King:
At 1910 on 28 February, I picked [Pseudonym] up in my car at
the corner of Massachusetts and Wisconsin .
We drove for about an hour out River Road
and I am certain were not observed.
[Pseudonym] expressed his regrets for the compromise of the
five paraphrased cables, and in a manner which appeared to be entirely sincere.
I asked him how it was possible, with all of the security indoctrination which
he had had, plus the great emphasis on secrecy based on all phases of
PBSUCCESS, to have done such an unpardonable thing as to leave sensitive papers
in a hotel room. He replied that he had no explanation, that it was a stupid,
unpardonable thing to do, but that it was an act of thoughtlessness and
carelessness. . . . It was agreed that for the next month
[Pseudonym] will remain in Chicago .
We discussed two general areas where he could bury himself after that date -- Alaska
and the Pacific Northwest . . . He has never been in the
Northwest and suggested as a possibility that he get a job until fall as a fire
watcher on a mountain top where he would meet very few people.
Memorandum from PBSUCCESS headquarters to C.I.A. station in Guatemala ,
Apr. 28, 1954 :
Consider it highly important to mobilize anti-Communist
activities of the Catholic Church dignitaries and of Catholic lay
organizations. . . . This could be done, for instance, by describing graphically
how the local church would be turned into a meeting hall for the ''Fighting
Godless,'' how the reader's children would have to spend their time with the
''Red Pioneers,'' how the pictures of Lenin, Stalin and Malenkov would replace
the pictures of the Saints in every home, and the like.
Dispatch from PBSUCCESS headquarters to all PBSUCCESS
stations, June 13, 1954 :
Rumors, combining fact and fiction, which ought to be
circulated, may include the
following (Emphasis added. –P.McC.) (not every rumor is
applicable to every group of people and to every situation; select from the
following suggestions whatever is suitable for given moment and audience):
A group of Soviet commissars, officers and political
advisers, led by a member of the Moscow Politbureau, have landed. . . . The
government has issued an order devaluating the quetzal at the rate of 1:10 . Use your money immediately to buy food
and durable goods. . . . In addition to military conscription, the Communists
will introduce labor conscription. A decree is already being printed. All boys
and girls 16 years old will be called for one year of labor duty in special camps,
mainly for political indoctrination and to break the influence of family and
church on the young people. . . . Food rationing is about to be introduced. . .
. Arbenz has already left the country. His announcements from the National
Palace are actually made by a
double, provided by Soviet intelligence. . . . An educational reform is being
prepared. There will be no longer any instruction at state expense, but on the
contrary lessons in atheism, Soviet style.
Add rumors of your own, following the day-by-day changes in
the situation.
Telegram from C.I.A. headquarters to PBSUCCESS headquarters,
June 24, 1954 :
We now prepared authorize bombing specific targets in [Guatemala
City ] area since you and [John E. Puerifoy, the
American ambassador to Guatemala ]
feel this now the most effective to achieve success. Targets should be selected
with a view to having desired effect on army and regime morale with minimum
political cost to [the United States ].
Telegram from C.I.A. headquarters to PBSUCCESS headquarters,
June 30, 1954 :
Heartiest congratulations upon outcome developments past
forty-eight hours. A great victory has been won.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/06/weekinreview/word-for-word-coup-control-cia-s-coverhas-been-blown-just-make-up-something.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm
No comments:
Post a Comment