The Nation. - Department of Government at Cornell University

794 The Nation. June 5.1995You should be subscribing to ourmagazine, too.Because week In and week outThe Natlon brings you the likes ofGore Vldal, Katha Pollltt and DanielSinger In every issue.They’re not only some of the bestwriters around-they do their best workfor us.The N&on.YES I WANT TO SUBSCRIBE TO YOUR MAGAZINE, TOOSend me 24 Issues of The Natlon for $1395 and save $46 offI the newsstand prlce (Offer good for new subscnbers only)II ‘ITYI My payment IS enclosed0 Please blll me laterI For new subscribers onlySTAT EI Forelgn Surface postage add 59/24 Issues Air Mall Add $2750124 IssuesSubscrlptlons payable In US fundsTHE NATION, P.O. BOX 10791, DES MOINES, IA 50340-0791 5,“rn”IIIIIFour years after the book was published, Senator Lodge denouncedArevalo’s popularly elected successor, Arbenz, as acommunist because, in June 1952, Arevalo had ordered theexpropriation of some of United Fruit’s unused land, whichhe gave to 100,OOO Guatemalan families. Arevalo paid thecompany what he thought was a fair price, their own evaluationof the land for tax purposes. The American Empire wentinto action, and through the C.I.A., it put together an armyand bombed Guatemala City. US. Ambassador John Peurifoybehaved rather like Mr. Green in the novel. Arbenz resigned.Peurifoy wanted the Guatemalan Army’s chief of staff tobecome president, and gave him a list of “communists” tobe shot. The chief of staff declined: “It would be better,” hesaid, “that you actually slt on the presidential chair and thatthe Stars and Stripes fly over the palace.”Peurifoy picked another military man to represent the interestsof company and empire. Since then, Guatemala hasbeen a slaughterground, very bright red indeed against thedarkest Imperial green. Later, it was discovered that Arbenzhad no communist connections, but the “dlsinformation”had been so thorough that few Americans knew to what extentthey had been lied to by a government that had now putitself above law and, rather worse, beyond reason.Incidentally, I note that the disinformation still goes on.In the April New 9 York Tmes (a “recovering” newspaper inrecent years), one Clifford Krauss airily says that Guatemala’sIndians have been regularly screwed for 400 years so what elseis new? He gives a tendentious history of the country-purestLangley boilerplate, circa 1955-but omits the crucial 1931-44dictatorship of Jorge Ubico.1 must say I find it dlsconcertmg to read in 1995 that “bysurrounding himself with Communist Party advisers, acceptingarms from Czechoslovakia and building a port to competewith United Fruit’s faclllties, Arbenz challenged the UnitedStates at the height of the cold war.” God, to think that suchevil ever walked the Central American night! “President Eisenhower’sC.I.A. organized a Guatemalan [SIC] invasion forceand bombed Guatemala City in 1954.” This is worthy of theSultan of Brunei’s perjurer.Dark Green, Brlght Red was just reissued in England. Reviewingit in the Evenrng Standard, the Journalist Patrick SkeneCatling writes, “I wish I had read this prophetic work of flctionbefore my first visit to Guatemala In 1954. Gore Vidalwould have helped me to understand how John Peurifoy . . .was able to take me up to the roof of his embassy towatch . . . the air raids without anxiety, because he and theCIA knew exactly where the bombs were going to fall.”A final note-of bemusement, I suppose. I was at schoolwith Nathaniel Davis, who was our Ambassador in Chile atthe time of Allende’s overthrow. A couple of years later Daviswas Ambassador to Switzerland and we had lunch at theBerne embassy. I expressed outrage at our country’s role inthe matter of Chile. Davis “explained” hrs role. Then heasked, “Do you take the line that the United States shouldnever intervene in the affairs of another country?” I said thatunless an Invasion was belng mounted against us In Mexico,no, we should never Intervene. Davis, a thoughtful man,thought; then he said, “Well, It would be nice in diplomacy,