Papers on 1964 LBJ - CIA Backed Brazil Coup Declassified

Jim referred me to this AP story: Newsday.com - AP World News

The documents show members of Lyndon B. Johnson's administration actively preparing to aid the coup plotters.

In a March 27, 1964, cable to the State Department, [Ambassador] Gordon requested a naval task and deliveries of fuel and arms to the coup plotters "to help avert a major disaster here."

Gordon said in the cable that Brazil could fall under the spell of a communist-style regime led by President Joao Goulart, "which might make Brazil the China of the 1960s." Mainland China turned communist in 1949 under Mao Zedong.

The documents also reveal what some experts say was a major miscalculation by the CIA.

A CIA cable from Brazil, dated March 30, predicted a military coup "within the next few days." It added, "The revolution will not be resolved quickly and will be bloody."

In fact, the coup was put in motion the next day, March 31, and was over by April 4, when Goulart fled to exile in Uruguay. The entire episode was bloodless.

From 1964 to 1985, Brazil was ruled by a string of five colorless military presidents chosen by their fellow officers. The dictatorship ended in 1985 when a democracy movement swept the country.

el - This is kinda everybody knows this was a CIA coup but the extent this was directed by LBJ is revealed. Not that you really get it from the right-wing AP story. As usual, Jim Lobe provides better background.

"I think we ought to take every step that we can, be prepared to do everything that we need to do," [LBJ] tells Ball on Mar. 31, 1964, the day before Brazilian President Joao Goulart fled the country.

"We just can't take this one," he says, apparently referring to Goulart, whose populist rhetoric and alleged association with leaders of the Brazilian Communist Party had fostered fears that South America's largest country could turn into a giant Cuba.

"I'd get right on top of it and stick my neck out a little," adds Johnson, who one year later would send thousands of Marines to intervene in civil unrest in the Dominican Republic.

He then calls for "everybody that had any imagination or ingenuity ... (Central Intelligence Agency Director John) McCone ... (Secretary of Defense Robert) McNamara," to ensure that the coup that was already in play in Brazil was successfully concluded.

Much has already been revealed about US support for a military coup.

In 1976, for example, secret documents uncovered by a graduate student at the University of Texas and later published in the Brazilian press offered some details about CIA operations and also confirmed that Washington had deployed a aircraft carrier task force that included destroyers and oil tankers off the Brazilian coast at the time of the coup, presumably to intervene either covertly or overtly on behalf of the coup forces, if Gordon deemed it necessary.

"These documents reflect the degree to which the Johnson administration, starting with the president himself, was willing to intervene to ensure the success of this coup," said Peter Kornbluh, the chief Latin American researcher at the NSA.

"They shed new details about sending arms and ammunition via submarine and appropriating an Esso tanker to support rebels forces, if needed.

"They make it more clear than ever before that the US was prepared to do a great deal – overtly if necessary – if the coup did not quickly succeed, to ensure that Goulart was indeed overthrown," he added.

While the new releases contribute more to what is known about the coup and the US role in it, the record remains far from complete, according to Kornbluh, who said the CIA has failed to disclose documents relating to its operations in Brazil, in contrast to those concerning its actions with respect to the military regimes in Chile and Argentina.

Is Venezuela next?

Someone once asked Mahatma Gandhi what he thought of Western civilization.

"It would be nice," he replied.

Democracy in Latin America might also prove nice if the United States would allow it to occur. Traditionally, when Latin Americans elect governments that show even vague intentions of redistributing the lopsided national wealth toward the poor, U.S. officials get their knickers in a twist and force new elections: the pro-U.S. candidate then emerges. But Washington’s rhetorically concealed fusion between popular elections and imperial appointments hardly assures Latin American stability.

Indeed, since 1999, seven hemispheric heads of state have left office before finishing their terms. In October, four months before U.S. and French officials dispatched Haiti's elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, pro U.S. President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozado fled Bolivia to Miami. Massive popular protests erupted against his pro-American economic policies. Similarly, Paraguay's Raul Cubas had to quit when faced with heavy opposition, some of it turbulent.

Ecuador's pro free trade president, Jamil Mahuad, also got 86’d. Peruvians sort of elected the fascistic Alberto Fujimori, currently exiled in Japan and facing criminal charges in Peru – and also hoping to return to Peru to grab the presidency again. President Alejandro Toledo, who replaced the disgraced Fujimori, followed U.S. dictates on free trade that has created deep unrest. In December 2001, Argentina's economy collapsed and Fernando De la Rua resigned in the face of popular revolts against neo-liberal policies. Pro-U.S. economic (free trade) policies caused the undoing of these regimes.

"Pro-U.S.," however, hardly describes Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, the current target for covert destabilizing.