HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Loading...

Bitter Fruit: The Untold Story of the American Coup in Guatemala

by Stephen C. Schlesinger, Stephen Kinzer

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
1442189,357 (4.23)2
"Bitter Fruit" recounts in telling detail the CIA operation to overthrow the democratically elected government of Jacobo Arbenz of Guatemala in 1954. The 1982 book has become a classic, a textbook case study of Cold War meddling that succeeded only to condemn Guatemala to decades of military dictatorship. The authors make extensive use of U.S. government publications and documents, as well as interviews with former CIA and other officials. The Harvard edition includes a powerful new introduction by historian John Coatsworth, Director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies; an insightful prologue by Richard Nuccio, former State Department official who revealed recent evidence of CIA misconduct in Guatemala to Congress; and a compelling afterword by coauthor Stephen Kinzer, now Istanbul bureau chief for the "New York Times", summarizing developments that led from the 1954 coup to the peace accords that ended Guatemala's civil strife forty years later.… (more)
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 2 mentions

Showing 2 of 2
The history of the United States’ involvement in Central American politics is not a happy one, as anyone with a passing knowledge of the area will tell you. This record of the CIA operation to overthrow the democratically-elected government of Jabobo Arbenz in 1954 is an incredibly well-told account of what is, sadly, just another tawdry chapter in the story of US abuses in this part of the world.

Schlesinger’s particular brilliance is to make the history seem, not bigger, but smaller. The key protagonists don’t feel like they’re just actors of some impersonal “grand history”, but real people who made stupid real-people mistakes, and did horrible real-people things.

In 2017, Guatemala has an ex-comedian as a President who previously posed in blackface and keeps provoking neighbouring Belize with a decades-old territorial dispute. But, good to be reminded that things have been worse.
  sometimeunderwater | Feb 19, 2018 |
Fruta Amarga es la soprendente historia del afan aventurero de la CIA. Nos relata la Operacion Exito que, con la aprobacion del presidente Eisenhower, el secretario de Estado John Foster Dulles y su hermano Allen; director de la CIA, concibieron y orquestaron para llevar al poder a un gobierno compatible con la United Fruit, derrocando al legitimo gobierno de Guatemala. El plan incluia un embajador empistolado, una campaña de propaganda mkontada en la prensa norteamericana, un andrajoso ejercito nacionalista pagado por la CIA, una campaña de desinformacion a traves de estaciones de radio clandestinas, asi como pilotos norteamericnos mercenarios que bombarearon la cidudad de Guatemala.

Es una dramatica version de una traicion cuidadosametne planeada y que puede ser el episodio mas importante en la historia tanto en la CIA como en la actual Centroamerica.
  ckepfer | Aug 14, 2017 |
Showing 2 of 2
no reviews | add a review

» Add other authors (7 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Stephen C. Schlesingerprimary authorall editionscalculated
Kinzer, Stephenmain authorall editionsconfirmed
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
To the people of Guatemala
First words
As dawn broke over Guatemala City, a C-47 transport plane lumbered low in the sky, flying from the south over nearby mountains.
Quotations
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (6)

"Bitter Fruit" recounts in telling detail the CIA operation to overthrow the democratically elected government of Jacobo Arbenz of Guatemala in 1954. The 1982 book has become a classic, a textbook case study of Cold War meddling that succeeded only to condemn Guatemala to decades of military dictatorship. The authors make extensive use of U.S. government publications and documents, as well as interviews with former CIA and other officials. The Harvard edition includes a powerful new introduction by historian John Coatsworth, Director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies; an insightful prologue by Richard Nuccio, former State Department official who revealed recent evidence of CIA misconduct in Guatemala to Congress; and a compelling afterword by coauthor Stephen Kinzer, now Istanbul bureau chief for the "New York Times", summarizing developments that led from the 1954 coup to the peace accords that ended Guatemala's civil strife forty years later.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (4.23)
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3 2
3.5
4 5
4.5 2
5 4

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 204,413,925 books! | Top bar: Always visible