The CIA and Guatemala

Rating: Null/10 (13 April 2007)

The CIA's coup - in overthrowing the Guatemalan President Arbenz in 1954 was inaccurately portrayed. In reality, the CIA set up a clandestine radio operation, broadcasting bogus news reports of a rebel invasion and in two and a half months President Arbenz, none the wiser, stepped down and fled to Mexico, living in exile.
This was the first big success of psychological warfare, which inspired the CIA to continue in the operation of mind control that culminated in Operation Chaos during the 1960-70's to quell America's anti-war protesting restless youth with LSD-25. (Ref: US Korean War POW's brainwashing by Chinese captors) Which leads to who really tipped off Fidel Castro about the Bay of Pigs invasion. It was Che Guevara, who having lived in Guatemala City during the CIA's "Big Lie" operation in 1954, knew that when bogus radio reports started being received in Cuba, originating from Swan Island, a covert CIA radio base in the Caribbean, he told Castro that the US government was repeating the same tactic it used in Guatemala.
The CIA never recovered from this black eye in regard to its psyops strategy and in 1980's turned to drug and arms dealing as a conduit for funding clandestine operations for its own political advancement on Capitol Hill - thus putting the FBI on notice as to who carried a bigger club.
The film impressed me as the reality of having to "hold your mud" as an operative agent, and I enjoyed the more subtle acting strength - which mirrored the social milieu - stifling and oppressive which is why there was such a social outcry in the 1960's against this suffocating social norm and government spying on its own citizens.
The one line I think speaks reams of a reality check in the film is when De Niro tells Damon, "I want the CIA to be the eyes and ears, not the heart and soul."