Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala (David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies): The Story of the American Coup in ... Expanded (Series on Latin American Studies) Paperback – Illustrated, 23 Dec. 2005

Great book with s lot if facts and information on this less than known chapter of the Americas!

A brilliant account of just one of the crimes committed by the US government in the world, this book was so compelling that I couldn't put it down. The book reveals how the US paranoia against the alleged communist threat led to their push to rid the Western Hemisphere of anything that vaguely resembled a left wing movement, and installing the usual Latin American style, U.S. sponsored despotic dictatorship (see also Nicaragua, Chile, El Salvador, Honduras, etc etc). When Arbenz reasoned about the Communists in his government ("it is better to have them visible then to have them underground"), no one took notice. According to one set of research figures published in the book, the years which followed Arbenz's downfall have seen the death or disappearance of up to 200,000 people. The authors have done a fantastic job of revealing this part of American history in a very clear and concise manner, and all I can say is that it's a shame that Allen Dulles, the CIA director at the time, never got to be tried in court for the atrocities him and his stoolies were responsible for committing.