Noam Chomsky - Turning the Tide U.S. intervention in

Patterns of Intervention
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
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management had long dominated” and harmed the largest employer
(United Fruit), hesitation about granting concessions to US oil
companies, and other similar crimes. When Arévalo’s term ended in
1951, “the political rift between [the US and Guatemala] was almost
complete.” As he left the presidency, Arévalo, recalling his belief in the
noble words of President Roosevelt, commented sadly that “Roosevelt
lost the war. The real winner was Hitler.” 178
The US soon moved to prove the accuracy of these words. Arévalo’s
successor, Jacobo Arbenz, attempted to carry Arévalo’s reforms forward,
including a successful land reform that led to a rise in exports and a
favorable balance of payments by 1954. The land reform not only
increased productivity, but “also provided campesinos with their own
food, even cash from sales, while involving them in the political system
for the first time in 400 years.” But this was not to be. Arbenz
attempted to expropriate unused lands held by the United Fruit
Company and to hand them over to landless peasants, offering
compensation based on the company’s fraudulent tax valuation. This
and other reform measures enraged the US further. Under-Secretary of
State Walter Bedell Smith, one of Eisenhower’s closest advisers,
reported to the President that “we have repeatedly expressed deep
concern to the Guatemalan Government because it plays the Communist
game,” permitting Communist activists to enjoy civil rights and
disturbing relations with the US “because of the merciless hounding of
American companies there by tax and labor demands, strikes, and, in
the case of the United Fruit Company, inadequately compensated
seizures of land under a Communist-administered Agrarian Reform
Law.” Exploiting the pretext of a Communist takeover, with the US press
loyally playing its part, the CIA engineered a coup in 1954, restoring
military rule and turning the country into a literal hell-on-earth, which
has been maintained by regular US intervention until today. The land