by Rich Cohen
“The President stated”: Kinzer, Overthrow.
The ship, a Swedish vessel: Original documents regarding the affair and the surrounding drama in Guatemala can be found on the website of the State Department’s Office of the Historian, http://history.state.gov. These events were covered in several of the above-mentioned books, including Bitter Fruit and Shattered Hope. See also “Swedish Freighter Anchors off Key West”; “Reaction in Other Capitals”; Gruson, “Guatemala Says U.S. Tried to Make Her Defenseless”; Waggoner, “U.S. White Paper Alerts Americas to Aims of Reds.”
He described it as the place: Anderson, Che Guevara.
“Our crime is having”: For Arbenz, see Pellecer, Arbenz y yo; Simon, Guatemala; Hunt, Undercover; Schlesinger and Kinzer, Bitter Fruit; Chapman, Bananas; Anderson, Che Guevara; Lewis, “Ambassador Extraordinary”; Kennedy, “Arbenz Blames U.S. for His Fall.”
“For fifteen days a cruel war”: See Hunt, Undercover; Schlesinger and Kinzer, Bitter Fruit; Gleijeses, Shattered Hope.
He lived in Montevideo: Arbenz’s wanderings were chronicled by the newspapers of the day. See, for example, “Arbenz Would Be Swiss”; Gruson, “Arbenz to Make Home in Prague.” Pictures of Arabella Arbenz can be found on a website dedicated to Jaime Bravo, http://matadorjaimebravo.com.
On January 27, 1971: For recent developments, see Malkin, “Guatemala to Restore Legacy of President U.S. Helped Depose.”
Within a generation: Standard Fruit, a privately owned company based in New Orleans, was purchased by Castle & Cooke between 1964 and 1968, then renamed Dole. See Karnes, Tropical Enterprise.
19: Backlash
U.F. was increasingly considered an embarrassment: For this section, see Ambrose, Eisenhower; Tye, The Father of Spin; Hunt, Undercover; Schlesinger and Kinzer, Bitter Fruit; Taylor and Scharlin, Smart Alliance; McCann, An American Company. McCann is especially good on the twilight years, as he was then working with top management at the company. See also “United Fruit Yields in Suit.”
20: What Remains
He had the melancholy: Frank Brogan and Thomas Lemann were helpful on Zemurray’s last days.
21: Bay of Pigs
Kennedy refused: Many conspiracy theories regarding the assassination of JFK center around this episode—Kennedy’s decision to withhold air power, which meant the death of exiles on the beach at the Bay of Pigs. In several scenarios, the CIA retaliates by recruiting Lee Harvey Oswald, a former employee of United Fruit and a figure in a New Orleans netherworld where Zemurray had been a power. Often mentioned is the fact that in the guest book at the Russian embassy Oswald visited in Mexico City, the assassin’s name appears beside the name William Gaudet, suggesting the men came together. William Gaudet, probably a CIA agent, had been publisher of the Latin American Report, a propaganda sheet bankrolled, in part, by United Fruit. “When Oswald visited the American Embassy in Mexico City shortly before he assassinated John F. Kennedy, the signature appearing immediately next to Oswald’s own on the Embassy visitors’ register is that of William Gaudet,” wrote Thomas McCann in An American Company. “As of this writing [1976], the coincidence has not been explained.” If I am not delving into this too deeply, it’s because I do not want to chase my tail around the ceiba tree.
It was the company’s last attempt: On the Bay of Pigs, see Kornbluh, Bay of Pigs Declassified; Rasenberger, The Brilliant Disaster; McCann, An American Company; Schlesinger and Kinzer, Bitter Fruit; Anderson, Che Guevara; Kinzer, Overthrow; Dulles, The Craft of Intelligence; Hunt, Undercover.
U.F. sold 37,440 acres: “Gringo Company.”
22: The Earth Eats the Fish That Ate the Whale
William Claiborne, the first governor of Louisiana: Information comes from my trip to the burial ground, as well as Gandolfo, Metairie Cemetery. Also, Findagrave.com.
23: Fastest Way to the Street
In November 1969: “They Bombed in New York.”
“He was monumental”: After leaving United Fruit, McCann worked as a movie producer. In 1975, he made The Watergate Cover-up Trial, a film about Richard Nixon, using the Watergate tapes as a script. (McCann told me this story.) When he needed a desk for Nixon, he used the furniture from Pier 3. In the film, you can see Zemurray’s desk appearing as Nixon’s desk, which seems both right and wrong.
Members pledged to tax: UPEB fell apart when Ecuador, then the largest banana producer in the world, refused to join.
“the head had been split”: Black’s suicide was said to be the model for the first scene of The Hudsucker Proxy, the Coen Brothers movie.
“It’s a hell of a thing to do”: This quote, as well as details regarding the suicide of Eli Black, come from Thomas McCann, our conversation and his book. Sources on Eli Black include Langley and Schoonover, The Banana Men; Chapman, Bananas; Koeppel, Banana; Jenkins, Bananas; Kinzer, Overthrow; Kilborn, “Suicide of Big Executive.”
More than five hundred people: “Eli Black’s Rites Attended by 500.”
The mystery was resolved: See “Complaint Names United Brands Company,” which summarizes the charges against the company. Also Cole, “S.E.C. Suit Links a Honduras Bribe to United Brands.”
Ice-cream men: I tried to interview someone from Chiquita for this book. My request led to e-mail exchanges with Andrew Ciafardini, manager of investment relations and corporate communications at Chiquita Brands International in Cincinnati, Ohio. In the end, my request was not granted.
More recently, Chiquita was accused: See Gentile, “Families Sue Chiquita in Deaths of Five Men.”
Bibliography
Adams, Frederick Upham. Conquest of the Tropics: The Story of the Creative Enterprises Conducted by the United Fruit Company. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1914.
Ambrose, Stephen. Eisenhower: Soldier and President. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990.
American Banana Co. v. United Fruit Co., 213 U.S. 347, 357–58 (1909).
The American Economist, Vol. 51. American Protective Tariff League, 1913.
“Americans Abroad.” New York Times, February 19, 1911.
Ancestry.com.
Anderson, Jon Lee. Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life. New York: Grove Press, 1997.
____. “The Power of García Márquez.” New Yorker, September 27, 1999.
“Arbenz Would Be Swiss.” New York Times, January 6, 1955.
Asbury, Herbert. The French Quarter: An Informal History of the New Orleans Underworld. New York: Knopf, 1936.
Asturias, Miguel Angel. The Green Pope. New York: Delacorte, 1971.
Baker, John Newton. “Your Public Relations Are Showing.” Rotarian Magazine, June 1949.
“Banana Split.” Time, February 17, 1958.
“Bananas Are Back!” Time, March 18, 1946.
Barry, John M. Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997.
Barton, Bruce. “A Big, Human Fellow Named Cutter.” American Magazine, August 1925.
Basso, Hamilton. “Encounter in Puerto Cortés.” New Yorker, October 12, 1957.
“Battle on Near Ceiba.” New York Times, August 5, 1910.
Bernays, Edward L. Crystallizing Public Opinion. New York: Boni and Liveright, 1923.
____. Propaganda. New York: Horace Liveright, 1928.
____. Public Relations. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1952.
____. Biography of an Idea: Memoirs of Public Relations Counsel Edward L. Bernays. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1965.
____. The Engineering of Consent. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1969 [1947].
Biuso, Emily. “Banana Kings.” Nation, February 28, 2008.
“Bonilla Gone with Hornet.” New York Times, December 24, 1910.
“Bonilla Indicted for Hornet Affair.” New York Times, February 19, 1911.
“Bonilla Sails for Belize.” New York Times, May 24, 1907.
“Bonilla to Agree to an Armistice.” New York Times, February 5, 1911.
“Bonilla to Lead Revolt.” New York Times, Novemb
er 15, 1910.
Brown, Francis. “Looking at Industrial Leaders from the Right and Left.” New York Times, June 21, 1936.
Brunhouse, Robert Levere. Pursuit of the Ancient Maya. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1975.
Bruno, Stephanie. “The President’s Residence.” Times-Picayune, November 2, 2007.
Bucheli, Marcelo. “Good Dictator, Bad Dictator: United Fruit Company and Economic Nationalism in Central America in the Twentieth Century.” Working Paper 06-0115. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, College of Business, 2006.
Cable, George Washington. Old Creole Days. New York: Pelican Books, 1991 [1897].
Calpouzos, L. “Studies on the Sigatoka Disease of Bananas and Its Fungus Pathogen.” Soledad-Cienfuegos, Cuba: Atkins Garden and Research Laboratory, 1955.
Cannon, Carl L. “Lee Christmas, Soldier of Fortune.” New York Times, March 15, 1931.
Carter, Hodding, ed. The Past as Prelude: New Orleans 1718–1968. New Orleans: Pelican Publishing, 1968.
Castañeda, Jorge G. Compañero: The Life and Death of Che Guevara. New York: Knopf, 1997.
Castilla, Alfredo Trejo. El Señor Don Samuel Zemurray y la soberanía de Honduras. Tegucigalpa, 1926.
“Castro-Zelaya Scare.” New York Times, February 25, 1913.
Chambers, Glenn Anthony. Race, Nation, and West Indian Immigration to Honduras, 1890–1940. Baton Rouge: Louisiana University Press, 2010.
Chapman, Peter. Bananas: How the United Fruit Company Shaped the World. New York: Canongate, 2007.
Chernow, Ron. The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance. New York: Grove Press, 1990.
Cole, Robert J. “S.E.C. Suit Links a Honduras Bribe to United Brands.” New York Times, April 10, 1975.
“College Boxers Ready for Tourney.” New York Times, April 8, 1932. Sam Zemurray Jr. appears in this story.
“A Colony of Defaulters.” New York Times, September 16, 2003.
“Complaint Names United Brands Company.” SEC News Digest, April 10, 1975.
“The Cork Bobs Back.” Life, April 11, 1960.
Cortés, Hernando. Five Letters of Cortés to the Emperor. Translated by J. Bayard Morris. New York: W. W. Norton, 1969.
Crowther, Samuel. The Romance and Rise of the American Tropics. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1929.
“Cuba: Confiscation!” Time, June 1, 1959.
Cullather, Nick. Secret History: The CIA’s Classified Account of Its Operations in Guatemala 1952–1954. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1999.
“Cuyamel Accepts United Fruit Offer.” New York Times, November 26, 1929.
“Cuyamel Fruit Co.” Wall Street Journal, August 11, 1924.
Dando-Collins, Stephen. Tycoon’s War: How Cornelius Vanderbilt Invaded a Country to Overthrow America’s Most Famous Military Adventurer. Philadelphia: Da Capo, 2008.
Davies, Peter N. Fyffes and the Banana: Musa Sapientum: A Centenary of History, 1888–1988. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Athlone Press, 1990.
“Davila Suspected of Plan to Decamp.” New York Times, January 29, 1911.
“Davila’s Sincerity Doubted.” New York Times, February, 14, 1911.
Davis, Edwin Adams. The Story of Louisiana. Vols. 1 and 2. New Orleans: J. F. Hyer, 1960.
Davis, William C. The Pirates Laffite: The Treacherous World of the Corsairs of the Gulf. Orlando, FL: Harcourt, 2005.
Deras, Ismael Mejía, Ricardo D. Alduvín, and Rafael Heliodoro Valle. Policarpo Bonilla: Algunos apuntes biográficos. Mexico City: Imprenta Mundial, 1936.
Deutsch, Hermann B. The Incredible Yanqui: The Career of Lee Christmas. New York: Longmans, Green, 1931.
____. The Huey Long Murder Case. New York: Doubleday, 1963.
Díaz, Bernal. The Conquest of New Spain. Translated by J. M. Cohen. New York: Penguin Books, 1963.
Didion, Joan. Salvador. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1983.
Dodd, Thomas J. Tiburcio Carías: Portrait of a Honduran Political Leader. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005.
“Doris Zemurray Stone Dies.” Union College Magazine, January 1, 1995.
Dos Passos, John. USA: The Trilogy. New York: Library of America, 1996 [1930–1933].
Dosal, Paul J. Doing Business with the Dictators: A Political History of United Fruit in Guatemala, 1899–1944. Wilmington, DE: SR Books, 1993. See Chapters 5, “United Fruit, Cuyamel and the Battle for Motagua, Part One,” and Chapter 8, “Battle for Motagua, Part 2.”
Dulles, Allen W. The Craft of Intelligence: America’s Legendary Spymaster on the Fundamentals of Intelligence Gathering for a Free World. New York: Harper and Row, 1963.
Eggenberger, David, ed. Encyclopedia of World Biography: 20th Century Supplement. Vol. 1. Palatine, IL: J. Heraty, 1987.
“Eli Black’s Rites Attended by 500.” New York Times, February 6, 1975.
Elliott, Vicky. “Costa Rica’s Jungle Train.” New York Times, July 28, 1985.
Epstein, Edward Jay. “Garrison.” New Yorker, July 13, 1968.
Euraque, Darío A. Reinterpreting the Banana Republic: Region and State in Honduras, 1870–1972. Durham: University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
“Executive Changes at United Fruit Company.” New York Times, April 24, 1951.
“Farming: The Fruit King.” Time, March 11, 1946.
Federal Reporter. Circuit Courts of Appeals and District Courts of the United States. Vol. 230, April–May 1916. St. Paul: West Publishing, 1916.
Federal Writers’ Project, Works Progress Administration. New Orleans City Guide (1938). Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1938.
Feibelman, Julian B. The Making of a Rabbi. New York: Vantage Press, 1980.
Feldstein, Stanley. The Land That I Show You: Three Centuries of Jewish Life in America. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1978.
Feuer, A. B. The Spanish-American War at Sea: Naval Action in the Atlantic. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1995.
“Fighting in Honduras.” New York Times, August 8, 1910.
Findagrave.com.
Fonseca, Mary. Louisiana Gardens. Gretna, LA: Pelican, 1999.
“Food Trade Heads Aid Farm Revival.” New York Times, July 10, 1933.
Freedman, Max, ed. Roosevelt and Frankfurter: Their Correspondence, 1928–1945. Boston: Little, Brown, 1967.
Gandolfo, Henri A. Metairie Cemetery, An Historical Memoir: Tales of Its Statesmen, Soldiers, and Great Families. New Orleans: Stewart Enterprises, 1981.
García Márquez, Gabriel. One Hundred Years of Solitude. Translated by Gregory Rabassa. New York: Harper, 1970.
____. Living to Tell the Tale. Translated by Edith Grossman. New York: Knopf, 2003.
“Gen. Christmas Captured.” New York Times, August 12, 1910.
“Gen. Lee Christmas, a Dumas Hero in Real Life.” New York Times, January 15, 1911.
Gentile, Carmen. “Families Sue Chiquita in Deaths of Five Men.” New York Times, March 17, 2008.
Gleijeses, Piero. Shattered Hope: The Guatemalan Revolution and the United States, 1944–1954. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991.
____. The Cuban Drumbeat. London: Seagull Books, 2009.
Grandin, Greg. Empire’s Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Rise of the New Imperialism. New York: Henry Holt, 2006.
Greene, Laurence. The Filibuster: The Career of William Walker. New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1937.
“Gringo Company.” Time, April 20, 1962.
Grow, Michael. U.S. Presidents and Latin American Interventions: Pursuing Regime Change in the Cold War. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2008.
Gruson, Sydney. “How Communists Won Control of Guatemala.” New York Times, March 1, 1953.
____. “School Turns out Tropical Farmers.” New York Times, November 24, 1953. About the Zamorano.
____. “Guatemala Says U.S. Tried to Make Her Defenseless.” New York Times, May 22, 1954.
____. “Arbenz to Make Home in Prague.” New York Times, November 27, 1955.
“Guatemala: Bat
tle of the Backyard.” Time, June 28, 1954.
“Guatemala: Machete Blow.” Time, August 31, 1953.
“Guatemala: Unifruit Under Fire.” Time, November 12, 1951.
Guevara, Che. The Complete Bolivian Diaries, and Other Captured Documents. Edited by Daniel James. New York: Stein and Day, 1969.
____. Che: The Diaries of Ernesto Che Guevara. North Melbourne, Australia: Ocean Press, 2009.
Hadari, Ze’ev Venia, and Ze’ev Tsahor. Voyage to Freedom: An Episode in the Illegal Immigration to Palestine. Totowa, NJ: Vallentine Mitchell, 1985.
Hallett, Douglas. “A Low-Level Memoir of the Nixon White House.” New York Times, October 20, 1974.
Hammer, Gottlieb. Good Faith and Credit. New York: Cornwall Books, 1985.
“Hands Across the Gulf.” Time, January 20, 1941.
“Harvard Gets a Woman.” Time, April 26, 1948.
Hearn, Lafcadio. Inventing New Orleans: Writings of Lafcadio Hearn. Edited by Frederick Starr. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2001.
Hellman, Lillian. Pentimento. Boston: Little, Brown, 1973.
Higgins, Trumbull. Perfect Failure: Kennedy, Eisenhower, and the CIA at the Bay of Pigs. New York: W. W. Norton, 1987.
Hill, Gladwin. “Rise of the Banana King.” Hartford Courant, February 13, 1938.
Hochstein, Joseph M., and Murray S. Greenfield. The Jews’ Secret Fleet: The Untold Story of North American Volunteers Who Smashed the British Blockade. New York: Gefen Books, 1988.
“Honduran Factions Agree to Armistice.” New York Times, February 9, 1911.
“Honduran Revolt Starts.” New York Times, December 30, 1910.
“Hondurans Consider Peace.” New York Times, February 6, 1911.
“Honduras: Peace Offering.” Time, December 11, 1944.
Humphrey, Chris. Moon Handbooks: Honduras. Berkeley: Avalon Travel, 2003.
Hunt, E. Howard. Undercover: Memoirs of an American Secret Agent. New York: Berkley, 1974.
____. American Spy: My Secret History in the CIA, Watergate, and Beyond. New York: Wiley, 2007.
Immerman, Richard H. The CIA in Guatemala: The Foreign Policy of Intervention. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1982.
“In Private Equity, the Limit of Apollo’s Power.” New York Times, December 8, 2008.
“Internationalists of New Orleans.” Fortune, June 1952.