Preserving Bitter Fruit‪.‬

Abstract: On June 18, 1954, a mercenary force of US-backed Guatemalan exiles invaded Guatemala from a base in Honduras. After Guatemala City was bombed for days by CIA planes manned by US pilots, the populist government of democratically elected President Jacobo Arbenz capitulated. CIA favorite Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas was installed as president on July 8. Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala, by Stephen Schlesinger and Stephen Kinzer, was first published in 1982 and became a seminal work in the studies of modern Latin America and US Cold War policy. An edited transcript of a panel discussion held on May 13, 1999 to commemorate Bitter Fruit, is presented.