You don't find that level of moral and ethical discussion in your standard embassy cable. Visiting Guatemala on Wednesday during a tour of the region, President Clinton expressed his regret over the U.S. role in the conflict. In a report issued in Guatemala last month, an independent commission that grew out of the U.N.-sponsored peace process blamed security forces backed by Washington for the vast majority of the abuses committed in the war, including the burning of entire Indian villages, torture, kidnapping and murder. For years, U.S. officials said they had no direct knowledge of the state-sanctioned brutality. But the newly released documents, including Vaky's cable, show that was not true.
Interrogations are brutal, torture is used, and bodies are mutilated.
Vaky expressed the view that the image of the United States in Latin America was being tarnished by its support for repressive governments in the region. We have been so obsessed with the fear of insurgency that we have rationalized away our qualms and uneasiness. . . . Murder, torture and mutilation are alright if our side is doing it and the victims are Communists. Somewhat to his surprise, Vaky, now 73, was not reproached for his candor and went on to have a distinguished career, serving on Henry Kissinger's staff in the early 1970s before being appointed ambassador to Costa Rica, Colombia and Venezuela. He acknowledged, however, that any sympathy for his views within the State Department evaporated five months later, when the guerrillas assassinated U.S. Ambassador John Gordon Mein in Guatemala City.