The American's strongest ally inside Guatemala is the Catholic Church.
The CIA contacts Cardinal Spellman in New York to take part in their psychological
war against Arbenz.
The Cardinal uses his authority to enlist the full cooperation of the head of the
Guatemalan Church, Archbishop Arellano.
Cardinal Spellman convinced his counterpart in Guatemala to issue a
pastoral letter several months before the coup, in which the Cardinal basically
spelled out his message to the flock that they should rise up against the communists
in Guatemala and overthrow them.
And then the CIA took that pastoral letter and airlifted it around Guatemala.
I didn't author the letter myself, but I think the propaganda shop turned it
out.
We had gotten the okay from Cardinal Spellman to go ahead with this.
And I wouldn't presume to trace the lines of authority within the Catholic Church,
how they get their information, but they do.
We've always said, in an admiring way, that the Jesuits form the greatest
intelligence service in the world.