United States’ Role in Terrorism by Guatemalan Government

Two headlines (April 14), closely juxtaposed on the front page of The Times, suggest a painful comparison to American readers. The first reads, “Gorbachev Documents Soviet Guilt at Katyn.” In the story that follows, we see the Soviet president delivering to Poland the incriminating evidence which proves that his country did indeed carry out a horrible massacre near Smolensk back in 1940.

We will know the Cold War is ending when the United States government and press become equally able with the Soviets to acknowledge the brutality and terror for which we are responsible. One place where such candor is long overdue concerns U.S. responsibility for the current savage situation in Guatemala.

In 1954 our country took the lead in the plot to destroy the democratic Arbenz government of Guatemala. Since then a succession of governments armed, sponsored and paid for by the United States have conducted a reign of terror against their own people, your story reports. However, if we could just bring ourselves to be as up front about our part in this butchery as Gorbachev is about the Soviet role in the Katyn forest, that second headline on front page would not read, “Killing Fields in Guatemala Persist Despite U.S. Effort.” The terrorism in Guatemala has gone on not despite but because of U.S. efforts. It’s high time we admit this.

WILLIAM DOYLE

Los Angeles