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Was Cheddi Jagan a Latin American? Competing Anglo-American Perceptions of British Guiana

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Britain and the Growth of US Hegemony in Twentieth-Century Latin America

Part of the book series: Britain and the World ((BAW))

Abstract

A bitter and significant Anglo-American confrontation took place between 1957 and 1964 over British Guiana. The United States charged that the Indo-Guyanese leader, Cheddi Jagan, would turn the British colony into a Communist state. The Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson administrations insisted that London postpone independence for British Guiana and remove Prime Minister Jagan from office. When British leaders resisted, the United States resorted to dispatching CIA agents to the colony to foment strikes and demonstrations and incite racial violence between Indo-Guyanese and Afro-Guyanese. President Kennedy also issued a virtual ultimatum to Prime Minister Macmillan. British leaders acceded to US demands and devised an electoral scheme designed to deprive Jagan of power and lead to the election of Forbes Burnham, an Afro-Guyanese politician of dubious merit.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    ‘Tale of Two Books’, Nation, 4 June 1990, 763–4.

  2. 2.

    Stephen G. Rabe, U.S. Intervention in British Guiana: A Cold War Story. Chapel Hill NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2005, 169–73.

  3. 3.

    Oral History of Ambassador George F. Jones, The U.S. Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection. CD-ROM. Arlington VA: Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, 2000.

  4. 4.

    Quoted in memorandum prepared for the 303 Committee, ‘Support to Anti-Jagan Political Parties in Guyana’, 17 March 1967, US Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968 (hereafter FRUS), 32: Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Guyana. Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 2005, 930.

  5. 5.

    Kennedy, quoted in Stephen G. Rabe, The Most Dangerous Area in the World: John F. Kennedy Confronts Communist Revolution in Latin America. Chapel Hill NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1999, 19.

  6. 6.

    Excellent studies of British Guiana’s history include Alan H. Adamson, Sugar without Slaves: The Political Economy of British Guiana, 1838–1904. New Haven CT: Yale University Press, 1972; Brian L. Moore, Race, Power and Social Segmentation in Colonial Society: Guyana after Slavery, 1838–1891. New York: Gordon & Breach, 1987; Chaitram Singh, Guyana: Politics in a Plantation Society. New York: Praeger, 1988; Raymond T. Smith, British Guiana. Westport CT: Greenwood Press, 1980; and Thomas J. Spinner, Jr., A Political and Social History of Guyana, 1945–1983. Boulder CO: Westview Press, 1984.

  7. 7.

    Smith, British Guiana, 134–44, 198–206; Moore, Race, Power and Social Segmentation, 93–135, 213–23.

  8. 8.

    Percy C. Hintzen, The Costs of Regime Survival: Racial Mobilization, Elite Domination, and Control of the State in Guyana and Trinidad. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989, 33–4; Singh, Guyana, 19; Paul B. Rich, Race and Empire in British Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986, 155–60; Spinner, Political and Social History of Guyana, 28–9.

  9. 9.

    Hintzen, Costs of Regime Survival, 33–4; Rich, Race and Empire in British Politics, 155–60; Spinner, Political and Social History of Guyana, 28–9; Cheddi Jagan, The West on Trial: The Fight for Guyana’s Freedom. New York: International Publishers, 1972, 11–23, 43–56.

  10. 10.

    Everett Melby (US consul in Georgetown) to State Department on Jagan’s testimony, 8 July 1962, Department of State Records (henceforth DS) 741D.00/7-862, National Archives and Records Administration (henceforth NARA), College Park, MD; Patrick Renison (governor-general in Georgetown) to Colonial Office on talks between Renison, John Profumo (under-secretary of state at the Colonial Office), and Jagan, 4 May 1958, Colonial Office (CO) 1031/2412, UK National Archives (UKNA); transcript of Jagan interview on Meet the Press, 15 October 1961, folder 9/63 to 11/22/63, box 15A, National Security File: Country File (NSFCO), John F. Kennedy Library (JFKL), Boston, MA; Spinner, Political and Social History of Guyana, 17–22.

  11. 11.

    Colin A. Palmer, Cheddi Jagan and the Politics of Power. Chapel Hill NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2010, 13–61; Rabe, U.S. Intervention in British Guiana, 38–46.

  12. 12.

    Forbes Burnham, A Destiny to Mould: Selected Discourses by the Prime Minister of Guyana, compiled by C. A. Nascimiento and R. A. Burrowes. London: Longman, 1970, 3–8; Leo A. Despres, Cultural Pluralism and Nationalist Politics in British Guiana. Chicago IL: Rand McNally, 1967, 210–16; Spinner, Political and Social History of Guyana, 61–4; Michael Swan, British Guiana: The Land of Six Peoples. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1957, 133–4.

  13. 13.

    For informative studies on decolonisation in the British West Indies, see Judith M. Brown and William Roger Louis (eds.), The Oxford History of the British Empire, Vol. IV: The Twentieth Century. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1999; Cary Fraser, Ambivalent Anti-Colonialism: The United States and the Genesis of West Indian Independence, 1940–1964. Westport CT: Greenwood Press, 1994; Gerald Horne, Cold War in a Hot Zone: The United States Confronts Labor and Independence Struggles in the British West Indies. Philadelphia PA: Temple University Press, 2007; Selwyn Ryan, Race and Nationalism in Trinidad and Tobago: A Study of Decolonization in a Multiracial Society. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1972.

  14. 14.

    On the PPP and Jagan, see Iain Macleod (colonial secretary) to Macmillan, 7 March 1960, Prime Minister’s Office Records (PREM) 11/3666, UKNA; Spinner, Political and Social History of Guyana, 75–8.

  15. 15.

    John Hay Whitney (ambassador in London) to State Department, 28 March 1960, DS 741D.00/3-2860, NARA.

  16. 16.

    Harvey R. Neptune, Caliban and the Yankees: Trinidad and the United States Occupation. Chapel Hill NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2007, 78–104, 191–8; Rabe, U.S. Intervention in British Guiana, 22, 33–4.

  17. 17.

    Churchill to Lyttleton and Lyttleton to Churchill, both 5 May 1953, PM Minute 130/53, PREM 11/827, UKNA.

  18. 18.

    Dulles circular to American Republics, 6 October 1953, DS 741D.00/10-653, NARA; Minutes of 165th meeting of the National Security Council, 8 October 1953, 165th meeting folder, box 4, NSC series, Ann Whitman File, Dwight D. Eisenhower Library, Abilene, KS.

  19. 19.

    Rabe, U.S. Intervention in British Guiana, 58–68.

  20. 20.

    See Christopher Hull’s chapter in this volume.

  21. 21.

    Henry Hankey (head of the American Department of the Foreign Office), ‘Memorandum on Relations with the United States and Cuba’, 7 March 1960, FO 371/148180/AK1015/18, UKNA; Hankey to Macmillan, 10 June 1960, FO 371/148181/AK1015/38, UKNA; for the quotation from Macmillan, see Nigel J. Ashton, Kennedy, Macmillan, and the Cold War: The Irony of Interdependence. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002, 71.

  22. 22.

    Macmillan (writing from the White House) to Secretary of State, 22 October 1962, document 365, FRUS, 1961–1963, 10–12: American Republics and Cuba: Microfiche Supplement. Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1998.

  23. 23.

    Renata Keller, ‘A Foreign Policy for Domestic Consumption: Mexico’s Lukewarm Defense of Castro, 1959–1969’, Latin American Research Review, 47: 2 (2012), 113–17.

  24. 24.

    Rabe, U.S. Intervention in British Guiana, 70–3.

  25. 25.

    Rabe, Most Dangerous Area, 9–33.

  26. 26.

    Memorandum of Conversation between Kennedy and Jagan, 23 October 1961, FRUS, 1961–1963, 12: American Republics. Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1997, 536–8; Ralph Grey (governor-general in Georgetown) to Reginald Maudling (colonial secretary), 6 November 1961, FO 371/155725/A10110/103, UKNA.

  27. 27.

    Grey to Ambler Thomas (assistant under-secretary for West Indies, Colonial Office), 26 September 1961, FO 371/155723/A10110/63, UKNA.

  28. 28.

    Transcript of Meet the Press interview, 15 October 1961, Jagan Briefing Book folder, box 15, NSFCO: British Guiana, JFKL.

  29. 29.

    J.D. Hennings (Colonial Office attaché in Washington) to Grey, 19 October 1961, FO 371/155724/A10110/95, UKNA.

  30. 30.

    Rusk to Home, 19 February 1962, FRUS, 1961–1963, 12: 544–5.

  31. 31.

    Home to Rusk, 26 February 1962, ibid., 546–8; Ashton, Kennedy, Macmillan and the Cold War, 69.

  32. 32.

    Memorandum of conversation at Birch Grove, 30 June 1963, FRUS, 1961–1963, 12: 607–9.

  33. 33.

    Memorandum prepared for the 303 Committee, ‘Support to Anti-Jagan Political Parties in Guyana’, 17 March 1967, FRUS, 1964–1968, 32: 930–5; Rabe, U.S. Intervention in British Guiana, 91–6, 99–101, 109–16; Palmer, Cheddi Jagan, 191–240.

  34. 34.

    On CIA spending in Guyana, see editorial note, FRUS, 1964–1968, 32: 851–2; Stephen G. Rabe, The Killing Zone: The United States Wages Cold War in Latin America. Second edition, New York: Oxford University Press, 2016, 36–58, 105–9, 131–42.

  35. 35.

    National Intelligence Estimate, ‘The Situation and Prospects in British Guiana’, 11 April 1962, 87.2 British Guiana folder, box 9, NSF: Intelligence Estimates, Lyndon Baines Johnson Library (LBJL), Austin TX.

  36. 36.

    Memorandum of conversation between Jai Narine Singh and William B. Cobb of State Department, 26 June 1964, DS, POL 19 BR GU, NARA; Minute of Colonial Office meeting with Duncan Sandys on new political parties in British Guiana, 25 February 1964, CO 1031/4411, UKNA.

  37. 37.

    The normal British electoral system, which it generally imposed on its colonies as they negotiated independence, was to divide the country into single-member constituencies with one round of elections to determine the winner in each.

  38. 38.

    Nicholas Huijsman (principal private secretary to Sandys), Minute of meeting, 2 July 1963, CO 1031/4402, UKNA; Macmillan to Kennedy, 18 July 1963, contained in Kennedy to Macmillan, 10 September 1963, CO 1031/4402, UKNA.

  39. 39.

    Wilson’s remarks on proportional representation, 17 June 1964, CO 1031/4406. UKNA.

  40. 40.

    Backchannel Message from State Department to embassy in United Kingdom, 14 October 1964, FRUS, 1964–1968, 32: 882–3; Memorandum of Conversation between Rusk and Gordon Walker, 27 October 1964, FRUS, 1964–1968, 32: 888–9; Memorandum of Conversation between Johnson and Wilson, 7 December 1964, FRUS, 1964–1968, 32: 891–2.

  41. 41.

    Burnham , quoted in memorandum for 303 Committee, ‘Support to Anti-Jagan Political Parties in Guyana’, 17 March 1967, FRUS, 1964–1968, 32: 931, footnote 2; Memorandum from Covey Oliver (assistant secretary of state for Latin America in Washington) to Charles E. Bohlen (undersecretary of state), ‘Electoral Assistance to Guyanan Prime Minister Burnham—Progress Report’, 13 February 1968, FRUS, 1964–1968, 32: 948–9.

  42. 42.

    Oral History of US Foreign Service Officer, Paul Kattenberg, The U.S. Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection; Carlson (ambassador in Georgetown) to State Department, June 1967, FRUS, 1964–1968, 32: 935–6.

  43. 43.

    Editorial note, document 364a, FRUS, 1969–1976, E-10: Documents on American Republics, 1969–1972. Washington DC, Government Printing Office, 2009; Memorandum from the Deputy Director of Current Intelligence, Richard Lehman, to the Deputy Director for Intelligence, Robert E. Cushman, Jr., 17 June 1969, document 366, FRUS, 1969–1976, E-10: Documents on American Republics, 1969–1972.

  44. 44.

    Krebs (ambassador in Georgetown) to State Department, ‘Country Analysis and Strategy Paper’, 20 February 1975, document 372, FRUS, 1969–1976, vol. E-11, Part 1: Documents on Mexico; Central America; and the Caribbean, 1973–1976. Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 2015, 967.

  45. 45.

    Memorandum of conversation between Secretary Kissinger and Foreign Minister Willis, 12 February 1976, document 382, FRUS, 1969–1976, Vol. E-11, Part 1: Documents on Mexico; Central America; and the Caribbean, 1973–1976, 989.

  46. 46.

    Richard H. Immerman, The CIA in Guatemala, The Foreign Policy of Intervention. Austin TX: University of Texas Press, 1982, 102.

  47. 47.

    Memorandum of conversation between Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (presidential aide) and Iain Macleod (leader of the House of Commons) and Reginald Maudling (colonial secretary) in London, 27 February 1962, FRUS, 1961–1963, 12: 549; Grey to Huijsman, 31 March 1962, CO 1031/3647, UKNA. Maudling had succeeded Macleod as colonial secretary in October 1961.

  48. 48.

    Memorandum of conversation between Alec Douglas Home (British foreign secretary) and Golda Meir (prime minister of Israel), 28 September 1962, FO 371/162016/A1109/36, UKNA; Melby (US consul in Georgetown) to State Department on conversation with the Israeli ambassador, Arie Oron, 6 September 1962, DS 841D.0084A/8-2962, NARA; Rabe, U.S. Intervention in British Guiana, 101–02, 132–33.

  49. 49.

    Jagan to Kennedy, 16 April 1963, FRUS, 1961–1963, 12: 595–603.

  50. 50.

    Rusk to consulate in Georgetown on visit of a Canadian minister, Paul Martin, 5 December 1963, Cables, 12/63-7/64, folder, box 55, NSFCO: British Guiana, LBJL.

  51. 51.

    Special National Intelligence Estimate, ‘Prospects for British Guiana’, 21 March 1961, FRUS, 1961–1963, 12: 514–7.

  52. 52.

    Rusk to US embassies, 11 July 1963, DS, POL 1 BR GU, NARA.

  53. 53.

    Edwin O. Guthman and Jeffrey Shulman (eds.), Robert Kennedy in His Own Words. New York: Bantam Books, 1988, 294.

  54. 54.

    Memorandum of conversation between Bundy and Ball, 2 March 1964, box 1, Telephone Notes File, George W. Ball Papers, LBJL.

  55. 55.

    Smith, British Guiana, 205.

  56. 56.

    Memorandum of conversation between Rusk and Argentine diplomats, 18 January 1962, FRUS, 1961–1963, 12: 292–4.

  57. 57.

    US embassy in Jamaica to State Department at meeting of Caribbean heads of state, 22 January 1964, DS, POL 19 BR GU, NARA; Memorandum of conversation between Thomas Mann (assistant secretary of state for Latin America) and Ellis Clarke (Ambassador of Trinidad and Tobago in Washington), 29 June 1964, DS, POL 19 BR GU, NARA.

  58. 58.

    Richard Olney (Secretary of State) to Thomas F. Bayard (US ambassador to Great Britain), 20 July 1895, FRUS, 1895. Part 1: Washington DC, Government Printing Office, 1895, 558.

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  1. University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, USA

    Stephen G. Rabe

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  1. Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK

    Thomas C. Mills

  2. University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

    Rory M. Miller

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Rabe, S.G. (2020). Was Cheddi Jagan a Latin American? Competing Anglo-American Perceptions of British Guiana. In: Mills, T.C., Miller, R.M. (eds) Britain and the Growth of US Hegemony in Twentieth-Century Latin America. Britain and the World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48321-0_12

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