Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, Guatemala

52. Memorandum of Conversation¹

Washington, September 15, 1953, 12:15 p.m.

SUBJECT

• PBSUCCESS

A meeting was held in Mr. Wisner’s office at 12:15. Present were Messrs. Wisner, Tofte and King.

1. Mr. Wisner stated that both Gen. Cabell and Mr. Dulles had read the Guatemalan plan for action² and had approved. A meeting is scheduled for discussion of details at 3:00 p.m. in the Director’s office on Friday 18 September.

2. The Director had two suggestions:

a. [3 lines of source text not declassified]

b. The creation of a real or notional society of international character for freeing Guatemala from Communism. This society would have agents and representatives in various Latin American countries who would write letters, put out bulletins, and issue warnings to diplomatic representatives of the Guatemalan Government, and who would threaten them with a day of reckoning if they did not alter their present position of supporting the Guatemalan Government and join with the forces of liberation. They are to be told that a day of reckoning is coming.

3. Mr. Wisner called the Secretary of the PSB to inquire if any written record existed of their authorization to CIA to undertake action against Guatemala. Apparently no record was made of the meeting at which a decision was arrived at to give CIA the green light and with other Agencies and Departments of the Government giving full support. A brief paragraph will be prepared by PSB for the record.³ At the next meeting of PSB their approval will be requested of a budget for the operation so that the Bureau of the Budget may be approached to allocate the necessary amount from the CIA reserve fund.

4. Mr. Wisner said that Col. King could handle directly with Col. Edwards any questions of clearances for special consultants in New York.⁴

5. Project for access to [less than 1 line of source text not declassified] in Managua may be discussed with Mr. Helms.

6. Col. King should mention to Mr. Dulles on Friday the need for [less than 1 line of source text not declassified] if a decision is reached to delay or to deny oil to Guatemala.

J.C. King

Chief, WHD

1. Source: Central Intelligence Agency, Job 79–01025A, Box 76, Folder 2. Secret. Drafted by King.
2. Document 51.
3. Possibly Document 40.
4. Possibly a reference to a group of individuals who met with King the previous day in New York City. According to a September 15 memorandum by King, he had approached a group of executives the previous day, and “explained that we were in need of the best business brains of the country for planning purposes and possibly subsequent action against Guatemala in the economic field; that we wished to explore all possible covert means of embarrassing the present Government by economic pressures.” Several executives were willing to help, but said that King would need to get the approval of their Boards of Directors. (Central Intelligence Agency, Job 79–01025A, Box 76, Folder 2)