Book Description

BITTER FRUIT is about the means & methods the USA, thru the CIA & its ambassador, used to overthrow Guatemala's democratically elected government in '54. Guatemalan president Jacobo Arbenz was leading an administration working to enact land reform. It was hoped that these efforts, among others, would stem the tide of poverty in a country still bound to a labor system that forced poor people to work a certain number of days on large farms or face prison time. Shaking off the vestiges of a dictatorship that was defeated by popular elections in the '40s, Guatemala sought such reforms to enfranchise more citizens. The "fruit" of the title is that of the United Fruit Company, an American concern with large land, labor & capital holdings in Guatemala & the Caribbean. UFC also had much influence in government, particularly with Eisenhower's Republican administration. When Arbenz's government took the rights to UFC land (much of it was left uncultivated, held as an "in case" the company said) & paid it the value the company had listed on its Guatemalan tax returns, influence was peddled in Washington, the word "communism" was thrown around & Eisenhower gave the go-ahead to covert operations to overthrow Arbenz & replace him with an American supported military junta. Ironically, the Guatemalan move to democracy in the '40s was inspired by FDR & the country's belief in rights for all humans, whatever the economic level. (Truman wouldn't approve such operations, so UFC had to wait for Eisenhower to effect the outcome it wanted.) The book is a model historical work, heavily footnoted, clearly written, factually presented & overwhelmingly upsetting. It has a chapter on Freud's nephew Edward Bernays, an early PR practioner, hired by United Fruit to advance its goals in the USA. Bernays did powerful work & was probably instrumental in the coup taking place by building public sentiment against the Arbenz government. The greatest & most painful irony was that not long after the coup, which was instigated, basically on behalf of United Fruit, the US government, concerned that it would seem a little "too convenient" to have overthrown a popularly elected president on behalf of a banana company, decided to bring an anti-trust suit against UFC, hobbling the company. One has to ask at that point, "What the heck was it all for, then?" The final chapter answers that: An April 1998 report found that 150,000 people had been killed & 50,000 had disappeared in the time since the coup in '54, with 80% of the casualties caused by government forces. What this book reports is sad & disgusting, but the book is well written & fascinating, a model historical account of a pivotal incident in the history of both Guatemala & the USA.--Stacey M. Jones (edited)