In 1984, Philip Roettinger, a former CIA case officer and Marine Corps colonel who was involved in the 1954 coup, wrote a penitent op-ed piece for the Los Angeles Times. “I now consider my involvement in the overthrow of Arbenz a terrible mistake,” Roettinger wrote. “When I authorized Castillo Armas, then in a Tegucigalpa safehouse, to return to Guatemala and assume the presidency that we had prepared for him, I had no idea of the consequences of the CIA’s meddling. Our ‘success’ led to 31 years of repressive military rule and the deaths of more than 100,000 Guatemalans. Furthermore, the overthrow of the Arbenz government destroyed vital social and economic reforms, including land distribution, social security and trade-union rights.

Nicholson Baker, Baseless- My Search for Sec…, loc. 367