Operation PBFORTUNE Guatemalan Revolution

although administration of harry truman had become convinced guatemalan government had been penetrated communists, relied on purely diplomatic , economic means try , reduce communist influence, @ least until end of term. united states had refused sell arms guatemalan government after 1944; in 1951 began block weapons purchases guatemala other countries. in 1952 truman became sufficiently convinced of threat posed Árbenz start planning covert overthrow, titled operation pbfortune. plan had been suggested supported dictator of nicaragua, anastasio somoza garcía, said if given weapons, overthrow guatemalan government. truman gave cia permission go ahead plan, without informing state department. cia placed shipment of weapons on vessel owned united fruit company, , operation paid rafael trujillo , marcos pérez jiménez, right-wing anti-communist dictators of dominican republic , venezuela, respectively. operation led carlos castillo armas. however, state department discovered conspiracy, , secretary of state dean acheson persuaded truman abort plan.