Communist Aggression in Guatemala, 1954

From Ninth Interim Report of Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Latin America of the Select Committee on Communist Aggression House of Representatives, Eighty-Third Congress Second Session. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1954. 114-117, 122.

TESTIMONY OF HON. JOHN E. PEURIFOY, FORMER AMBASSADOR TO GUATEMALA

Ambassador PEURIFOY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Let me say that I am deeply and sincerely pleased at the opportunity to testify before your committee. I believe that the Communist attempt to seize Guatemala, and particularly their reversal last June, is one of the most dramatic episodes that has taken place in a long and tremendously costly ideological struggle that has engulfed us since the end of World War II. As several witnesses commented, Mr. Chairman, we have seen one free people after another disappear behind the Iron Curtain. Last June in Guatemala, for the first time one of them returned. The revolution led by Col. Carlos Castillo Armas demonstrates what a few courageous, determined, and dedicated persons can accomplish even in the face of the organized might and ruthlessness of a police state.

Before beginning my testimony, Mr. Chairman, I would like to take this opportunity to explode a popular and flattering myth regarding the part that I personally played in the revolution led by Colonel Castillo. My role in Guatemala prior to the revolution was strictly that of a diplomatic observer; to inform my Government regarding events there, and when requested to do so, to advise the responsible officials in the Department of State on policy matters concerning Guatemala. The first and only active role that I played in the events last June was to lend my good offices to assist in negotiating the truce between the forces of Colonel Castillo and the military junta that was established in Guatemala after President Arbenz resigned. And even this role, Mr. Chairman, was undertaken only at the request of the junta. The revolution that overthrew the Arbenz government was engineered and instigated by those people in Guatemala who rebelled against the policies and ruthless oppression of the Communist-controlled Government.

It is my understanding, Mr. Chairman, that the purpose of your hearings are to determine-
1. Whether or not the government of President Arbenz was controlled and dominated by Communists.
2. Whether or not the Communists who dominated Guatemala were in turn directed from the Kremlin.
3. Whether or not the Communists from Guatemala actively intervened in the internal affairs of neighboring Latin America republics.
4. Whether or not this Communist conspiracy which centered in Guatemala represented a menace to the security of the United States. . . .

The Red conspiracy in Latin America has not been completely crushed. The loss of Guatemala represents a serious setback to the Kremlin, not a final defeat. As President Castillo pointed out, in a statement before your committee, the democratic forces have merely won the first battle in a long war.

Of course it is true, Mr. Chairman, that the seriousness of the threat to our security has been greatly diminished since Colonel Castillo's successful revolution. Nevertheless, as long as this conspiracy is active-and I fear that will be for many years to come-the menace will continue to be a very real one in this hemisphere. . . .

The Communist penetration in Guatemala was the most striking example of the Kremlin's strategy in Latin America. Busy with power expansion into Europe and Asia, the Red rulers of Russia have long pushed their conspiracy in Latin America as a diversionary tactic which, while showing no immediate gain of territory under their domination, would at least weaken and harass our defenses. By creating a beachhead within our own zone of vital security, from which sabotage and subversion could be achieved against us and our neighbors, the Kremlin aimed at promoting anarchy within the Western Hemisphere; they aimed at demoralizing this hemisphere by breaking its unity against Communist aggression and throwing the inter-American system into a state of confusion and dispute. They sought to divert Latin American attention from their depredations and crimes in Europe and Asia by pushing forward Spanish-speaking front men who, in native accents, accused the United States of the aggression and crimes which the Soviet itself was actually performing.

The Communists in Guatemala were working for these Soviet aims under consistent and disciplined Soviet control. . . .

I need hardly refer to the menace of this Soviet attempt to win Central America as aimed at our own vital interests and security; this is self-evident, for geography alone supplies the reason. Central America lies almost at our southern borders, no more than 3 hours' flying time by modern warplanes from the gulf ports, and even nearer to our greatest strategic installation anywhere in the world, the Panama Canal. If any part of this area should fall under Soviet power, it would shake the foundations of our defenses. The Soviets know that. They were willing to pay a very high price in funds, manpower, organization, propaganda and subversive skills to gain a base in Guatemala; and we know that the hardheaded, practical men of the Kremlin dedicate their best efforts or objectives which strike closest to the United States. For if we should weaken and succumb, the road would lie open to their domination of the whole world.

Thus the struggle of the Guatemalan people to throw off the Communist control was as much a struggle for the safety of Guatemala's neighbors and ourselves, as it was to regain their own liberties.

In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, let me state that the menace of communism in Guatemala was courageously fought by the Guatemalan people themselves, always against the superior odds which a police state has over the decent, patriotic citizen. Communist power was broken by the Guatemalans alone, and their deeds of heroic sacrifice deserve and will always receive the admiration and applause of our own people. They fought the battle which is the common battle of all free nations against Communist oppression, and they won the victory themselves.