COMMUNISM IN GUATEMALA

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27425, 11 August 1954, Page 6

COMMUNISM IN GUATEMALA

U.S. White Paper On Tactics

/N.Z. Press Association—Copyright/ 9 . WASHINGTON, August 8. The State Department today made public what it calls the full story of communism’s “bold attempt” to win control of the Central American Republic of Guatemala. A White Paper says that the facts constitute a meaningful demonstration of the methods used by the international Communist movement, directed by the Kremlin, to subvert an. American Government. “They also constitute a warning to all governments which desire to maintain their independence,” the paper adds. The document says that a few hardened, Moscow-trained Communists in 10 years had tbuilt up an organisation that infiltrated key agencies of the Guatemalan Government and established a network of interlocking political and labour organisations controlling the political activity of large masses of people. It says that the now-overthrown administration of President Jacobo Arbenz did the bidding of the Communists, identified the country’s foreign policy with that of the Soviet Union, and accepted armsfrom the Soviets to further Communist aims in the Western Hemisphere. The White Paper concludes: —“It is clear that the present strategy of the Kremlin, with respect to Latin America, is that of diverting the attention of the Western Hemisphere from Communist manoeuvres elsewhere—in Europe and Asia—of promoting anarchy within and among the American republics, of weakening their defences by sabotage and the development of increased possibilities for sabotage, and finally of demoralising the inter-American system and throwing the organisation of its common defence into confusion.

“By creating anarchy in this hemisphere, where the American peoples have built order, the Kremlin would find itself with a freer hand to carry on its aggressive imperialism elsewhere.