Additional Materials

Discussion Questions

How would the opening of the The United Fruit Company’s corporate archives change what historians currently know about UFC’s information control strategies?
The CIA’s own 1952 intelligence report concluded that Árbenz was not a communist, yet the U.S. government chose to act on UFC’s narrative instead. What does this say about the relationship between corporate power and government decision making?
How can corporations be regulated so that they don’t reach similar levels of influence?
Edward Bernays is often called the father of public relations. To what extent are the techniques he pioneered for UFC are still being used by corporations today?
What did the Guatemalan people think about the removal of President Jacobo Árbenz and did they retaliate in anyway?
Are there examples of huge corporations utilizing propaganda at the same level as the United Fruit Company was in other places in the world? What do they have in common?
Árbenz’s resignation speech directly named the United Fruit Company as responsible for the coup. Why do you think this accusation was largely ignored by the American press and public at the time?
Glasius argues that UFC used information control against its own workers for over a century. Do you think this internal suppression of information was as politically powerful as the external propaganda campaign against Árbenz?
Were those involved in the United Fruit Company’s cruelty and manipulations ever persecuted?
If the CIA’s disinformation techniques used against Árbenz were later replicated across Latin America, what does this reveal about the long term consequences of allowing corporate interests to shape U.S. government intelligence and foreign policy?

Digital Resources

U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, Guatemala. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1952-54Guat.

The State Department’s official digital archive of declassified U.S. diplomatic documents related to the 1954 Guatemalan coup. This includes primary sources used directly in this project.

Central Intelligence Agency Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/.

This is the CIA’s official public archive of declassified intelligence documents. This includes reports on Árbenz, Operation PBSUCCESS, and the United Fruit Company’s position in Central America.

Internet Archive. CIA Guatemala Coup Report. https://archive.org/details/CIA-Guatemala-Coup-Report.

This source is a digitized copy of the CIA’s own internal history of Operation PBSUCCESS, which was written by historian Nicholas Cullather with full access to classified records.

Library of Congress Geography and Map Division. United Fruit Company Map Collection. https://www.loc.gov/maps/.

This source is the Library of Congress’s digital map collection. This includes the 1909 United Fruit Company map used as a primary source in this project demonstrating the UFC’s use of cartography as corporate image management.

National Security Archive, George Washington University. CIA Covert Operations: Guatemala 1952–1954. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB4/.

A collection of declassified documents related to Operation PBSUCCESS compiled by the National Security Archive.