How much reform is too much reform? Jacobo Arbenz rose to power in Guatemala with promises of a better life for his otherwise impoverished Banana Republic. His communist leanings become his undoing as even his most modest policies become scrutinized by the red-fearing CIA of the 1950s. The story of Arbenz never ceases to stir controversy.

Gleijeses, Piero (1991). Shattered Hope: The Guatemalan Revolution and the United States, 1944-1954. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN: 0-691-07817-3.

Schlesinger, Stephen and Stephen Kinzer (1982). Bitter Fruit: The Untold Story of the American Coup in Guatemala. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc. ISBN: 0-385-14861-5.

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