Caribbean blood pacts Guatemala and the Cold War struggle for freedom Aaron Coy Moulton

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• Moulton, Aaron Coy, 1985- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• Subversive activities--Guatemala--History--20th century.
• Cold War.
• Guatemala--Politics and government--1945-1985.
• Guatemala--History--1945-1985.
• Guatemala--History--October Revolution, 1944.
• Guatemala--History--Revolution, 1954.
• Caribbean Area--Politics and government--1945-.
• Caribbean Area--Foreign relations--1945-.
• Caribbean Area--Relations--United States.
• United States--Relations--Caribbean Area.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Production:

Ithaca Cornell University Press 2025

Summary:

"In Caribbean Blood Pacts, Aaron Coy Moulton argues that the CIA's Operations PBFORTUNE and PBSUCCESS derived from the longstanding efforts of dictators, reactionaries, the United Fruit Company, and British intelligence to silence calls for antifascism and anticolonialism springing from the Guatemalan Revolution. In 1952, a coalition of dictators and reactionaries in the Caribbean Basin convinced the Truman administration to support a conspiracy that became the CIA's Operation PBFORTUNE, the first US government-backed plot against Guatemala's government. As Moulton demonstrates, this operation failed because US officials did not understand the network of forces involved. In 1953, the Eisenhower administration approved Operation PBSUCCESS. This time, the CIA better understood Caribbean dynamics. The resulting destruction of Guatemalan democracy was the product of the US government applying its resources and the efforts of myriad reactionary forces. Caribbean Blood Pacts shows how the transnational counterrevolution against the Guatemalan Revolution became a lesson for those who spent the next decades fighting the region's dictatorships in the shadow of the Cold War, from the Cuban Revolution to the Sandinista movement in Nicaragua"-- De Gruyter Brill

Contents:

• Where the war did not end : The Caribbean Basin’s antifascist struggle
• The transnational postwar conjuncture : The Guatemalan Revolution, 1944–1947
• Counterrevolutionary signatories : Guatemalan reactionaries and Caribbean Basin dictators, 1944–1947
• Drawing up pacts : Cayo Confites and Costa Rica, 1947–1948
• Building a transnational counterrevolution : An anticommunist intelligence-sharing network, Guatemalan politics, and bananas, 1948–1950
• Waiting for the colossus : British intelligence, Guatemalan anticommunists, and the US Congress, 1950–1952
• Uncle Sam signs on : Operation PBFORTUNE, 1952
• Realizing the counterrevolution : Operation PBSUCCESS, 1953–1954
• Conclusion : Dictators, exiles, and the Caribbean Basin’s Cold War
• Epilogue : Fictitious historias

Notes:

• Includes bibliographical references and index
• Online resource; title from PDF title page (De Gruyter Brill, viewed January 26, 2026)

Other Format:

Print version Moulton, Aaron Coy, 1985- Caribbean blood pacts

ISBN:

• 9781501784828
• 150178482X
• 9781501784835
• 1501784838

OCLC:

1560009475

Publisher Number:

10.1515/9781501784828

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license