But was it such a great victory? Arbenz was no Soviet puppet but a leftist, reform-minded politician who had the bad fortune to face off against powerful foreign interests at the height of the cold war. His country posed no threat to the United States, or other Central American nations. His ouster brought down international condemnation on the coup, which was widely assumed to have been supported from Washington, and fomented anti-Americanism throughout Latin America. And Castillo Armas quickly turned into a pliant, if needy foot soldier for the United States, dependent on handouts of economic
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