🚀 go-pugleaf

			The "Communist Threat"


Signs of successful development simply magnify the dangers of 
independence and, even worse, popular organization: the "virus" 
might spread and the "rotten apple" might "infect" the barrel as 
others are tempted to pursue the same path -- the "domino theory" 
of public rhetoric.  As Washington moved to overthrow the first 
(and last) democratic government in Guatemala in 1953, State 
Department officials warned that Guatemala "has become an 
increasing threat to the stability of Honduras and El Salvador. 
Its agrarian reform is a powerful propaganda weapon; its broad 
social program of aiding the workers and peasants in a victorious 
struggle against the upper classes and large foreign enterprises 
has a strong appeal to the populations of Central American 
neighbors where similar conditions prevail." {note: Quoted by 
Piero Gleijeses, _Shattered Hope_ (Princeton, 1991), 365.} 

[Noam Chomsky, _Aftermath: Voices from Below_, Z, October 1991]


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