In 1964 the CIA helped install Forbes Burnham as PM of Guyana, to...
Jim Garrison Keillor@books_rum
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Apr 05, 2024
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In 1964 the CIA helped install Forbes Burnham as PM of Guyana, to get rid of the Marxist-Leninist Cheddi Jagan who was perceived as too close to Moscow. The CIA supported Burnham for years, and he welcomed Jonestown in 1974. nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/…
Jim Garrison Keillor@books_rum
How would Jonestown serve as a research experiment into mind control and drug use? One way is the FCC's heavy monitoring of the PT's short wave radio broadcasts, and their repeated threats to revoke their licenses. Another is the embassy's close relationship with Jones.
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CIA assistance continued until 1971 guyanachronicle.com/2023/04/03/jag…
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In 1974, just after the Peoples Temple negotiated their lease in Guyana, the New Yorker revealed the 1964 coup aadl.org/node/197933
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It’s crazy how much support Jones got from American politicians and the Guyanese government
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Walter Mondale had served on the Church committee and was vice President when he inquired about Jones’s well being! If like some people, you consider the Church Committee to be an elaborate limited hangout, Mondale’s concern for Jones is very interesting
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US aid to Guyana resumed under Carter, and relations thawed as Jonestown became established. countrystudies.us/guyana/86.htm
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Someone in Jonestown wrote this 1978 letter to Carter complaining of the harassment they were receiving from the IRS, FCC, Customs Department and Social Security, all initiated by Tim Stoen. Unclear if Carter saw this letter. jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=13145
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Why did anyone at Jonestown think the President would give two shits about this communist compound in Guyana?
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The letter was signed by Laura Johnston who survived Jonestown and denies writing it. She then joined Synanon for ten years, which owes its existence to MKULTRA
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She’s written a book and many articles at the SDSU website jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=17044
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The FCC collected a sizable number of recordings of Jones's HAM radio communications. Here Jones's wife assures him of the support of the US Embassy and Burnham, who was unfortunately out of the country. Jones really exhausted and paranoid here jonestown.sdsu.edu/peoples-temple…
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All of this federal harassment Jones complains about couldn't have been a figment of his imagination, right? For the feds, Jonestown served to protect Guyana against Venezuela which had nationalized its oil industry, and non-aligned jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27595
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But the US knew he was crazy and he could also serve a useful warning against utopian socialism. So they allowed Burnham to support him, all the while provoking him until he lost it. They knew it would implode somehow, and his whole socialist experiment would fail
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There was an incentive to prop up Forbes Burnham, as detailed above, but also an incentive to protect Guyana against Venezuela
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Above excerpt is from this interesting short article on Venezuela armyupress.army.mil/Portals/7/Hot%…
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So I think the US's need to both support Jones and provoke him into creating a disaster to discredit his movement leads to a narrative that makes sense. Is there anything I'm missing?
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More context for Burnham’s eagerness to welcome Jonestown and ensure US protection against Venezuela. The US-Guyana relationship was a fraught one. web.stanford.edu/group/tomzgrou…
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I will try to expand on the context for the US isolating and harassing Jonestown, which fits a pattern in the federal need to discredit the left (or encourage it to discredit itself). Of course they do this to the far right as well.
