U.S. Intervention in British Guiana

In the first published account of the massive U.S. covert intervention in British Guiana between 1953 and 1969, Stephen G. Rabe uncovers a Cold War story of imperialism, gender bias, and rascism. When the South American colony now known as Guyana was due to gain independence from Britain in the 1960s, U.S. officials in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations feared it would become a communist nation under the leadership of Cheddi Jagan, a Marxist who was very popular among the Sputh Asian (mostly Indian) majority. Although to this day the CIA refuses to confirm or deny involvement, Rabe presents evidence that CIA funding, through a program run by the AFL-CIO, helped forment labor unrest, race riots, and general chaos that led to Jagan's replacement in 1964. The political leader prefered by the United States, Forbes Burnham, went on to lead a twenty-year dictatorship in which he persecutred the majority Indian population.