Donald Trump’s threats to Greenland have led many in Europe to question whether the US is a reliable ally. Repeatedly, critics allege that his administration has been heavy-handed and self-serving, putting singular US interests above productive collaboration and long-term global interests.
That friction, though, is not new. Even in the mid-1950s, the US government pressured its European allies to turn a blind eye as US-sponsored forces overthrew Guatemala’s democratically-elected government.
The US State Department and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) demanded that their British counterparts help cover up the US role in the coup, according to declassified files from the UK National Archives in Kew, alongside sources in US- and French-based collections.
The Foreign Office not only helped hide US involvement but also assisted the new regime that took power in Guatemala, as noted in my book, Caribbean Blood Pacts: Guatemala and the Cold War Struggle for Freedom.
After the 1944 ouster of their dictator, Guatemalans experienced a ten-year democratic revolution. Subsequent reforms drew the ire of the region’s dictators as well as the United Fruit Company, an American multinational corporation.
For the better part of a decade, these counterrevolutionary forces launched border invasions, air-bombing raids, and more that radicalised Guatemalan politics. As previously described, the British Foreign Office covertly bolstered this wide-ranging reactionary conspiracy.
When Dwight Eisenhower took office in 1953, the US government authorised the CIA’s Operation PBSUCCESS. The CIA’s overarching campaign of psychological warfare weakened the Guatemalan military’s morale and compelled its officers to oust their own government.
The CIA then demanded the installation of a regime under Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas, a long-time recipient of the dictators’ and CIA’s largesse.
International attention immediately blamed the US government for the coup and resulting mass murders and tortures of democratic activists throughout Guatemala. Latin American newspapers denounced the atrocities as United Fruit’s bidding, and students took to the streets in Honduras, Venezuela, and Cuba.
Europe, too, saw a wave of anti-US protests as French, Swedish, Swiss, and West German outlets warned that the US government’s actions undermined global respect for the United States.
This resonated at the United Nations. Before the coup, Guatemala’s government requested the UN Security Council’s intervention.
British and French representatives initially endorsed the move, only for the Eisenhower Administration to warn that any effort to halt the coup would result in similar motions regarding “areas vital to Great Britain such as Egypt or to the French such as Tunisia.”
The Foreign Office understood that the US government’s threat put them in a “delicate position”. Whitehall relied upon the US government’s support and the UN’s conservative approach when dealing with anti-colonial movements across the British Empire.
As a result, British officials agreed to remove the entire matter from the UN’s purview, and prime minister Winston Churchill assured the US government of his “sympathy” for the Eisenhower administration’s actions.
In the end, the British vote at the Security Council pushed the matter from the UN to the Organisation of American States (OAS). Before any investigation, though, the Guatemalan military ousted its government, and the new regime retracted the request for international mediation.
Much of the world saw through these diplomatic manoeuvres. This time, it was not merely Latin American and European newspapers which called out the UN’s seeming apathy. Russian outlets chimed in as Soviet officials alleged that the US government was the true authoritarian power.
Meanwhile, the British government continued facing domestic backlash. In Liverpool, a mass protest demanded answers as to why their leaders tolerated the US government’s action in Guatemala.
Petitions and questions poured in from the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and the National Peace Council. One member of the House of Commons wondered why the UN intervened against “Russia and China” during the Korean War yet tolerated the coup in Guatemala.
The Foreign Office suggested putting together a comprehensive report on recent events. This white paper would build off British officials’ files and lay out the Foreign Office’s views of Guatemalan affairs.
The US State Department and CIA again warned the British government that any public acknowledgement of the US government’s role in the coup would jeopardise US-British cooperation.
In its own words, the Foreign Office walked a “tightrope” thanks to Richard Allen, the new British Minister in Guatemala City. Immediately upon stepping foot in Guatemala, Allen had criticised the country’s democratic government as a Soviet puppet and defended anti-government opposition.
Allen’s reports were the perfect resource for the Foreign Office’s white paper. British officials selected sympathetic writings that characterised the ousted government as a “Communist-dominated regime.”
Allen insisted that “opportunists” drained the country of its wealth and resources to fund Soviet machinations throughout the world.
Importantly, Allen ignored any claims that dictators, United Fruit, or the US government intervened in Guatemala.
Despite all proof to the contrary, his reports claimed “some Guatemalans of considerable wealth” funded the coup. “The movement of Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas was a popular one, welcome to the majority of the people here,” he said.
At just 120 pages, without any revelatory information on the coup, the white paper delighted the US government. The State Department and the CIA appreciated how the Foreign Office cast doubt upon any external role in the coup.
After weeks of warnings and threats, US officials sent “a word of appreciation” to their British counterparts.
The British government’s role in covering up the coup did not end there. It lifted a years-long embargo of military armaments and provided information on newly-exiled Guatemalans.
In light of previous British-Guatemalan diplomatic tensions, this newfound support for the regime was unsurprising.
What was surprising was a new publication from the regime’s Secretaría de Propaganda y Divulgación (Department of Propaganda). Unlike the Secretaría’s other writings, this one came from outside Guatemala.
It was a bilingual booklet with one of Allen’s sympathetic writings. Somehow, the Secretaría obtained one of the Foreign Office’s confidential files and published the report in Spanish as El Ministro de su Majestad en Guatemala al Secretario de Estado en el Despacho de R.R.E.E. de la Gran Bretaña (His Majesty’s Ministry in Guatemala to the Secretary of the Foreign Office of Great Britain).
On its cover was a smiling picture of Allen himself.
European and Latin American observers were taken aback. No one understood how the regime obtained and published a British government document that defended the coup.
When asked by the French Minister in Guatemala City about what happened, Allen confessed that the Foreign Office handed over the file. Still, the international community did not understand why such cooperation happened.
The truth is that the British government was still covering up the coup in Guatemala. And just as the Foreign Office helped the US government, British officials helped the new regime.
Even as its own citizens questioned the barbarities taking place in Guatemala, the British government offered its resources and authority to the US and Guatemalan forces behind the coup.