The U.S. Catholic Press On Central America traces the remarkable transformation in reporting on Central America by popular Catholic periodicals in the second half of the twentieth century. In the 1950s writers for these periodicals vigorously opposed the Arbenz government in Guatemala. Influenced by McCarthyism, secular media coverage, and reports from the archdiocese of Guatemala City, they called on the U.S. government to overthrow the Arbenz regime before its communism infected the Americas. Just fifteen years later, these same writers were lamenting the collapse of the reformist Arbenz...

The U.S. Catholic Press On Central America traces the remarkable transformation in reporting on Central America by popular Catholic periodicals in the second half of the twentieth century. In the 1950s writers for these periodicals vigorously opposed the Arbenz government in Guatemala. Influenced by McCarthyism, secular media coverage, and reports from the archdiocese of Guatemala City, they called on the U.S. government to overthrow the Arbenz regime before its communism infected the Americas. Just fifteen years later, these same writers were lamenting the collapse of the reformist Arbenz...