In 1982 two influential books dispelled any lingering doubts about the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) involvement in the coup that deposed Guatemalan president Jacobo Arbenz. Richard Immerman’s The CIA in Guatemala provided the scholarly analysis of the agency’s operations. Stephen Schlesinger and Stephen Kinzer’s Bitter Fruit: The Untold Story of the American Coup in Guatemala, gave professors a less analytical but more engaging narrative that appealed to students. Both books, based on the first declassified documents of the government’s operations, criticized the United States for launching a covert operation against a popular and democratic government.
In the past 18 years, researchers have gathered and analyzed new evidence, refining the interpretations of the Guatemalan revolution. Piero Gleijeses uncovered Guatemalan documents and interviewed prominent actors, most notably María de Arbenz, the widow of the deposed president. His book, Shattered Hope: The United States and the Guatemalan Revolution, 1944–1954, focused on...
