How the CIA Took Down Guyana’s First Leader
Cheddi Jagan was the first Indian-origin person to run a government outside South Asia. Then, the U.S. came knocking.
On October 25, 1961, two suited men were conversing in the Oval Office at the White House. U.S. President John F. Kennedy was perched on a rocking chair, while British Guiana Prime Minister Cheddi Jagan sat on a couch. Jagan was laying out the vision for his nation, still under colonial rule. He was a socialist, yes, but of the British variety, by no means a communist. What Jagan didn’t know at the time was that this one meeting would determine the fate of his nation.
The U.S. president walked away unconvinced, believing that letting Jagan’s rule continue would be politically devastating. Fresh off the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba, Kennedy directed the CIA to begin a quiet operation to destabilize Jagan’s government, one the U.S. wouldn’t admit to until over 30 years later.