11. Editorial Note
According to the recollections of several U.S. officials, Nicaraguan President Somoza approached Colonel Neil Mara, Assistant Military Aide to President Truman, in early July 1952 with a plan to overthrow Arbenz. Mara’s report convinced Truman, who immediately authorized CIA action without informing the Department of State. See Gleijeses, Shattered Hope, pages 239–240, and Richard H. Immerman, The CIA in Guatemala: The Foreign Policy of Intervention, pages 120 ff. See also Foreign Relations, 1952–1954, volume IV, pages 1041–1043.
Little documentation on the beginning of the operation was found. See Documents 13, 21, and 22.