Book Description There is a newer edition of this book. 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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From the Publisher With an introduction by Harrison Salisbury and a new foreword for the 1990 edition， the authors have written a history which reads like a thriller， detailing the dirty tricks， the manipulation of public opinion， and the corrupt foreign policy which characterized U.S. involvement in Guatemala. They show that this covert action became a blueprint for later incursions by the U.S. into Central America. See all Editorial Reviews