Secret History: The CIA's Classified Account of Its Operations in Guatemala, 1952-1954 [Paperback]

Nick Cullather (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1999

In 1992, the Central Intelligence Agency hired the young historian Nick Cullather to write a history (classified “secret” and for internal distribution only) of the Agency’s Operation PBSUCCESS, which overthrew the lawful government of Guatemala in 1954. Given full access to the Agency’s archives, he produced a vivid insider’s account, intended as a training manual for covert operators, detailing how the C.I.A. chose targets, planned strategies, and organized the mechanics of waging a secret war. In 1997, during a brief period of open disclosure, the C.I.A. declassified the history with remarkably few substantive deletions. The New York Times called it “an astonishingly frank account . . . which may be a high-water mark in the agency’s openness.” Here is that account, with new notes by the author which clarify points in the history and add newly available information.

In the Cold War atmosphere of 1954, the U.S. State Department (under John Foster Dulles) and the C.I.A. (under his brother Allen Dulles) regarded Guatemala’s democratically elected leftist government as a Soviet beachhead in the Western Hemisphere. At the C.I.A.’s direction, the government was overthrown and replaced by a military dictatorship installed by the Agency. This book tells, for the first time, how a disaster-prone operation—marked by bad planning, poor security, and incompetent execution—was raised to legendary status by its almost accidental triumph.

This early C.I.A. covert operation delighted both President Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Dulles brothers, and Allen Dulles concluded that the apparent success in Guatemala, despite a long series of blunders, made the venture a sound model for future operations. This book reveals how the legend of PBSUCCESS grew, and why attempts to imitate it failed so disastrously at the Bay of Pigs in 1961 and in the Contra war in the 1980’s. The Afterword traces the effects of the coup of 1954 on the subsequent unstable politics and often violent history of Guatemala.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Cullather provides a realistic and nuanced view of an otherwise well-covered operation, seen through the eyes of the agency that led PBSUCCESS ....By providing the insider's view of the operations Cullather has offered invaluable detail and insight previously unavailable. For students of Latin America and U.S. national security policymaking in the region, Cullather has done a great service."—Mark Montesclaros, H-Net Reviews

From the Inside Flap

In 1992, the Central Intelligence Agency hired the young historian Nick Cullather to write a history (classified “secret” and for internal distribution only) of the Agency’s Operation PBSUCCESS, which overthrew the lawful government of Guatemala in 1954. Given full access to the Agency’s archives, he produced a vivid insider’s account, intended as a training manual for covert operators, detailing how the C.I.A. chose targets, planned strategies, and organized the mechanics of waging a secret war. In 1997, during a brief period of open disclosure, the C.I.A. declassified the history with remarkably few substantive deletions. The New York Times called it “an astonishingly frank account . . . which may be a high-water mark in the agency’s openness.” Here is that account, with new notes by the author which clarify points in the history and add newly available information.
In the Cold War atmosphere of 1954, the U.S. State Department (under John Foster Dulles) and the C.I.A. (under his brother Allen Dulles) regarded Guatemala’s democratically elected leftist government as a Soviet beachhead in the Western Hemisphere. At the C.I.A.’s direction, the government was overthrown and replaced by a military dictatorship installed by the Agency. This book tells, for the first time, how a disaster-prone operation—marked by bad planning, poor security, and incompetent execution—was raised to legendary status by its almost accidental triumph.
This early C.I.A. covert operation delighted both President Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Dulles brothers, and Allen Dulles concluded that the apparent success in Guatemala, despite a long series of blunders, made the venture a sound model for future operations. This book reveals how the legend of PBSUCCESS grew, and why attempts to imitate it failed so disastrously at the Bay of Pigs in 1961 and in the Contra war in the 1980’s. The Afterword traces the effects of the coup of 1954 on the subsequent unstable politics and often violent history of Guatemala.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Stanford University Press; 1St Edition edition (April 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804733112
• ISBN-13: 978-0804733113
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #361,875 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #36 in Books > History > Americas > Central America > Guatemala

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An illuminating inside account of a CIA covert operation, September 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Secret History: The CIA's Classified Account of Its Operations in Guatemala, 1952-1954 (Paperback)

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

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars illuminating look into the secretive world of the CIA, August 20, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (n brunswick, New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Secret History: The CIA's Classified Account of Its Operations in Guatemala, 1952-1954 (Paperback)

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.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Regime Change the Old-Fashioned Way, May 19, 2006

By 

Reader (Arlington, Virginia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Secret History: The CIA's Classified Account of Its Operations in Guatemala, 1952-1954 (Paperback)

This is a great book about one of the great follies of the Cold War: the CIA's overthrow of a leftist government in Guatemala in 1954. The author, Nick Cullather, wrote the book while employed as a CIA historian. He had full access to surviving files on the Guatemala operation, and intended his monograph to serve as a case-study for CIA staff. It was ultimately released as part of a brief "openness" campaign at the CIA. Parts were heavily (and clumsily) redacted by CIA censors before declassification, but the remaining text still fascinates and appalls. Cullather is wise in the ways of government, and understands the role of hubris and error in human affairs. His book is very smart.

Today the story is well known. In the early 1950s, the CIA plotted to rub out a reformist Guatemalan government that had redistributed land to peasants and curbed the influence of the United Fruit company. The agency funded anti-regime activists, blocked arms shipments, established a clandestine radio station, and assembled a rag-tag army of rebels based in Nicaragua and Honduras. Notwithstanding the David-and-Goliath nature of the contest, the covert action almost failed. Intelligence was bad, the operation was poorly planned and riddled with security lapses, and most CIA assets within Guatemala were rolled up before the invasion began. Worst of all, the invaders were laughably incompetent and on the verge of collapse after a few days of border fighting.

Fortunately for the bunglers at the CIA, the Guatemalan Army became gripped by fear that Eisenhower might send in the Marines: to avoid a showdown with the U.S., the generals removed the reformers from power. Under the ensuing dictatorship, land reform was cancelled, two-thirds of the population was disenfranchised, political parties were banned, and Guatemala became dependent on massive U.S. aid. The operation entered CIA lore as a big success, and led to the fiasco at the Bay of Pigs.

Although Americans didn't learn this secret history for decades, no one in Europe or Latin America was deceived. The world knew that we had raped a small country, and the damage to our reputation was immense. Ironically, the "Sovet threat" that prompted the covert action turned out to be a figment of the Dulles brothers' imaginations: after the coup, captured documents revealed that the handful of communists in Guatemala's government never had significant links to Moscow. The whole sordid mess was much ado about nothing -- just like Iraq's WMDs.

Cullather's "Secret History" should be required reading in classes on 20th century American history, for it is a timely reminder of how badly America can stumble when it meddles in the internal affairs of other countries. George Bush may not understand it, but there's a reason why people all over the world distrust the United States. Whether Iranian, Guatemalan, Cuban, Brazilian, Vietnamese, Laotian, Chilean, Congolese, Angolan, Nicaraguan, or Iraqi, they know our history better than we do.