Intervening in Revolution: The US Exercise of Power in Guatemala, 1954 by Jose Luis Valdes-Ugalde Department of International Relations The London School of Economics and Political Science Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) University of London April, 1999 1 UMI Number: U61543B All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U615433 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 TW-£S£2> F 75 81 ABSTRACT This thesis attempts to develop an understanding of US policy in Latin America. This effort is carried out in light of the examination of the political and cultural roots that have shaped the character of the United States as a nation and thus US strength in world affairs. These characteristics have been reflected in the geopolitical approach adopted when the US has drawn up (and constructed) its foreign policy priorities. This is particularly the case when a response to revolution and socio-political change is required to guarantee US national security. Hence the importance of exploring both the need to impose US power in the region and the rationale for it. The thesis analyses US foreign policy towards Latin America in the context of the Guatemalan revolution of 1944-1954. It does so from the point of view of the revolution itself and the events of the early Cold War years. These are important years since it was at this time that President Eisenhower and Secretary of State, J.F. Dulles, under the rationale of the defence of US interests, developed a militant anticommunism. The result of this policy was the US-supported intervention in Guatemala which became the first of the US’s cold war laboratories in Latin America. This intervention crystallised in 1954 in US support for a coup against President Jacobo Arbenz, which dissolved the democratic order in Guatemala. The subject is approached by taking the following into consideration: a) the immediate background of the domestic political culture - which is most clearly reflected in insularity - as an important element in understanding the US stand on revolution and foreign policy, that is the domestic dimension, b) the geopolitical axioms about supremacy that were behind the US formal position of a defense of national security, which brought about the need to carry out a construction of a continental reality meant to match strategic principles, c) an interpretation of socio-political change in Central America as the key to an understanding of the roots of US interventionist ardour and, d) the problematic association between socio-political change, intervention and authoritarianism, as well as the implications that such an association, especially in the context of US-Latin American relations, has had for democracy in general. 2 To my parents Maria Luisa and Francisco and their grandchildren, Natalia, Carlos Patricio, Diego Antonio and Maria Fernanda, old and new generation of Americans in Mexican land, with love and gratitude. To the Kosovan victims of the atrocities of the state. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to give my thanks to the following institutions for their financial support which made possible the accomplishment of this thesis: Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (CONACYT), Centro de Investigation y Docencia Economicas (CIDE), The British Council, the Department of International Relations of The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and that magnificent institution that is the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM), my work place. I am also grateful to Kate Doyle and Peter Kombluh at the National Security Archives in Washington DC whose kind assistance was extremely important in my archival research. My recognition goes also to the late Professor John Vincent whose encouragement as Convenor of the IR Department at the LSE was an important incentive. I wish to express my very special thanks to Prof. Christopher Hill, my supervisor, whose trust and support have been vital during the writing of this thesis. Chris is one of those rare people that combines intellectual scholarship with the human qualities of kindness, generosity and depth of soul. The energy and motivation of this extraordinary academic companion provided an ideal environment in which to carry out the intellectually trying and emotionally difficult task of writing a doctoral thesis. For all these reasons I will always be grateful to him. I would also like to express my gratitude to the following persons: Phil Bevis, Rib Davis, Pilar Domingo, Michael Drolet, Malory Greene, John Kraniauskas, Allan Neil, Ian Roxborough and Hazel Smith, who read all or parts of this thesis. I wish to thank their kindness in critically reviewing my work, and amending my (tropical) use of the English language. Without their skilful and valuable support this thesis would not have been what it is today. It goes without saying that the mistakes which remain are of course my own. The emotional and practical support of my brother Francisco, and sisters Luisa Fernanda and Marisa was crucial during my stay in London. My brother Federico, and sisters Cecilia, Claudia and Margui, each one of them in their own loving way and sometimes without noticing, were of enormous support. My parents were always present whenever I needed them and I am deeply grateful for that. A special thanks also to my nieces Natalia and Maria Fernanda, and nephews Carlos Patricio and Diego Antonio, whose refreshing happiness was always a joyful travelling companion during my long months in London. It is to these two generations of Americans, the old and the new, that this work is dedicated with my love and gratitude. I am grateful to those friends and colleagues that have supported and encouraged me during this endeavour. It is impossible to list them all, but I am sure they will recognise that these thoughts and words are dedicated to them. 4 A PERSONAL NOTE One personal note that stems from the experience of being, like Auden, a citizen and pilgrim, experiencing simultaneously the condition of the temporary visitor and the native returning to the fatherland. My travel experience has provided a constant parable for my thinking about Guatemala. Todos los Santos is a small town in the mountains. When I went there for the first and last time, I did so as a lonely Latin American traveller; for I did not find, during my marching and searching in that part of the country a single Latin American compatriot in that adventure - as was the case with European and North American travellers. This was my first important impression. After having spent some time in the community of Todos los Santos I learned from the press, once back in Guatemala City, that the same town and region where I had so much enjoyed myself, had been raided by a military command unit, and all its inhabitants, including women and children, were practically placed under martial law under the charge of Communist-guerrilla conspiracy. This happened in 1979. The final destiny of that town and its people I don’t know. What I cannot refrain from thinking is - and this is perhaps one of the mysterious reasons behind my permanent interest on my country’s neighbour - that the times of my travels happened to be also the times of the second period of the long-lasting authoritarian terror that had started precisely in that June of 1954 when Jacobo Arbenz was overthrown by the US-sponsored coup. If one notes the particular details of the Guatemalan ethnocide of the last four decades, one cannot but realise, and not without terror, that this was taking place while my travels (my pilgrimage) was actually in process. Death was also a component of the daily reckoning of this traveller, and of this I was involuntarily a (blind) witness, which proves, among other things, that sometimes State terrorism can also take place in silence. Hence, silence as an accomplice of terror: from being the natural and wise host of memory while in the act of waiting, silence is kidnapped by men in the name of “reasons of state” and turned into an ignominious and a desolated orphan territory. National orphanity marks, thus, the limits of historic reason. For this reason, if only for this, perhaps George Santayana must be right when he told us that, “those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it,” and Gabriel Garcia Marquez did not make a mistake when referring, in his acceptance of the Nobel Prize, to this situation, among many others in the Latin American life, as the “measure of our solitude.” 5 A NOTE ON FOOTNOTES AND QUOTATIONS The Harvard system for footnotes is used throughout this work as well as in the bibliography. Archival material, official publications, and newspapers, are quoted in full and when the reference is reproduced, I use the usual “op. cit.” & “ibid.,” system. The Harvard system is used when a particular author in a newspaper article is referred to. Quotations from US authors are reproduced in US original English. All texts in Spanish are my translation, including