The Kennedys and Guyana

Aug 28, 2009 Editorial

The death of Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy, the last brother of the US political dynasty that begun with the Presidency of John F. Kennedy in 1961 has, in a sense, brought to a close a fateful era in Guyana’s history. In the almost five decades that have elapsed, much water has flowed under the bridge of history, but unfortunately the ripples from the intervention by the older Kennedy – which is almost forgotten by the present generation – still reverberate strong enough to disturb our body politic in the present.
At the time of JFK’s accession to the Presidency of the US in January 1961, Guyana was slowly inching its way to independence from Britain. Elections had been scheduled for later that year in August and Britain had promised that the party that won would lead the country to independence in their new term of office. In April however, an operation by the CIA to use Cuban exiles to invade Cuba and topple the Castro regime that had been planned by the preceding Eisenhower administration was approved and launched by JFK. He was attempting to disprove his detractors’ claim during the recent elections – that he was “soft” on communists.
The ignominious defeat of the “Bay of Pigs” invasion had a lasting impact on the Kennedy administration. Many historians have noted that the commitment to make ‘amends” contributed to the November 1961 decision to establish “Operation Mongoose”—a plan to sabotage and destabilize the Cuban government and economy, including the possible assassination of Castro himself. But very few remember that Guyana was also caught in the undertow of JFK’s ringing pledge not to “permit another Cuba in the western hemisphere”.
When Jagan won the Guyanese general elections in August, the old bogeyman of his alleged communist proclivities immediately surfaced at the highest levels in the sensitive JFK administration. Jagan’s visit to the US to seek aid in October 1961 gave the US an opportunity to vet Jagan up close and personal. JFK watched Jagan on the popular program “Meet the Press” and concluded that Jagan not only refused to criticise the Soviet Union but waffled on his ideology. In the subsequent personal meeting Jagan failed to assuage JFK’s doubts, yet the latter publicly announced: “National independence. This is the basic thing. As long as you do that, we don’t care whether you are socialist, capitalist, pragmatist or whatever. We regard ourselves as pragmatists.”
According to the New York Times, however, (confirmed later by declassified files and the historian Arthur Schlesinger, who was a key JFK aide) following Jagan’s departure, the US President met in secret with his top national security officers and issued a direct order to remove Dr. Jagan from power. Burnham was felt to be a safer bet. The NYT continued, “Though many Presidents have ordered the CIA to undermine foreign leaders…the Jagan papers are a rare smoking gun: a clear written record, without veiled words or plausible denials, of a President’s command to depose a Prime Minister.”
And the rest, as they say, is history. The CIA works through the local labour movement to foment the great fire and riots of Black Friday February 16th 1962 and Burnham is persuaded (direct and indirect payments to the PNC for the rest of the decade helped, as new declassified documents reveal) to hold out for new elections to precede independence. The British are persuaded (JFK actually met British PM Macmillan for this purpose) to “fiddle” with the local electoral arrangements and “PR” delivers Guyana to the PNC/UF coalition – and the subsequent dictatorship.
By 1989, the Cold War is over – Schlesinger apologises to Jagan – and Senator Ted Kennedy is approached by many Guyanese expatriate groups to help convince the administration that Jagan is no longer a threat and “free and fair elections” are long overdue. He is very sympathetic and even meets Dr Jagan. Perhaps he too wanted to erase a blot from his brother’s legacy. May his soul rest in peace.

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The Kennedys and Guyana

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