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Union Busting as Development: Transnationalism, Empire and Kennedy's Secret Labour Programme for Bolivia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 September 2019

Thomas C. Field Jr*
Affiliation:
Associate Professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott, Arizona.
*
*Corresponding author. Email: thomas.field@erau.edu.

Abstract

Drawing on archives from the US labour movement, personal papers of transnational labour organisers, Bolivian oral histories and press reports, and government records from four countries, this article explores a web of Cold War relationships forged between Bolivian workers and US government and labour officials. Uncovering a panoply of parallel and sometimes conflicting state-supported trade union development programmes, the article reveals governments’ inability to fully control the exuberance of ideologically-motivated labour activists. Rather than succeed in shoring up a civilian government as intended, US President John F. Kennedy's union-busting programme aggravated fissures in Bolivia's non-Communist Left, ultimately frustrating its attempt to steer a non-aligned posture in Latin America's Cold War. Employing transnational methods to bridge gaps between labour, development and diplomatic history, this article points toward a new imperial studies approach to the multi-sited conflicts that shaped the post-war trajectory of labour movements in Bolivia and throughout the Third World.

Spanish abstract

Spanish abstract

A partir de archivos del movimiento de trabajadores estadounidense, documentos personales de organizadores sindicales internacionales, historias orales bolivianas e informes de prensa, y registros gubernamentales de cuatro países, este artículo explora la red de relaciones de la Guerra Fría forjada entre trabajadores bolivianos y el gobierno y funcionarios sindicales estadounidenses. Destapando una paralela y a veces conflictiva serie de programas de desarrollo sindical apoyados por el estado, el artículo revela la incapacidad gubernamental para controlar la exuberancia de los activistas sindicales motivados ideológicamente. En vez de tener éxito en apuntalar un gobierno civil como se intentó, el programa para la degradación sindical del presidente estadounidense John F. Kennedy agravó las fisuras en la izquierda no comunista boliviana, frustrando como resultado sus intentos de conducir una postura no alineada en la Guerra Fría en América Latina. Empleando métodos transnacionales para conectar vacíos en la literatura sobre el sindicalismo, el desarrollo y la historia diplomática, este artículo propone un nuevo enfoque apoyado en los estudios imperiales para estudiar los conflictos multisituados que dieron forma a la trayectoria de los movimientos sindicales en Bolivia y a lo largo del Tercer Mundo en la postguerra.

Portuguese abstract

Portuguese abstract

A partir de arquivos do movimento trabalhista estadunidense, documentos pessoais de organizadores de movimentos trabalhistas transnacionais, histórias orais e reportagens da imprensa boliviana e registros governamentais de quatro países, este artigo explora a teia de relações forjadas durante a Guerra Fria entre trabalhadores bolivianos e o governo e funcionários trabalhistas dos Estados Unidos. O artigo revela, ao descortinar uma panóplia de programas de desenvolvimento sindical apoiados pelo estado, que agia de forma paralela e por vezes conflitante, a incapacidade dos governos de controlar a emergência de ativistas trabalhistas ideologicamente motivados. Em vez de dar apoio a um governo civil, como previsto, o programa de supressão dos sindicatos engendrado pelo presidente estadunidense John F. Kennedy acabou por agravar as fissuras presentes na esquerda boliviana não-comunista, frustrando a tentativa de reverter uma postura não-alinhada da América Latina durante a Guerra Fria. Empregando métodos transnacionais para colmatar lacunas entre trabalho, desenvolvimento e história diplomática, o artigo aponta uma nova abordagem enfocada nos estudos imperiais para estudar os conflitos multi-localizados que marcaram a trajetória pós-guerra dos movimentos trabalhistas na Bolívia e no Terceiro Mundo.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

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References

1 Regarding the crisis, see Field, Thomas C. Jr, From Development to Dictatorship: Bolivia and the Alliance for Progress in the Kennedy Era (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2014), pp. 109–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 ‘Internal Defense Plan for Bolivia’, 10 May 1963, John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, MA (hereafter JFKL), Schlesinger Papers (hereafter SP), box WH-25.

3 [Ambassador Ben] Stephansky to [Secretary of State Dean] Rusk, 24 Aug. 1963, JFKL, National Security Files – Countries (hereafter NSF-CO), box 11, folder ‘Bolivia, 8/63–1/64’; and 5412/2 Special Group [on covert action] Minutes, 8 Aug. 1963, cited in 10 March 1964 memorandum, in US State Department, Foreign Relations of the United States (hereafter FRUS), 1964–1968, vol. 31: South and Central America; Mexico (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 2004), document 148Google Scholar.

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10 Regarding Africa and Asia, see Richards, Yevette, Maida Springer: Pan-Africanist and International Labor Leader (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2000), pp. 222–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Wehrle, Edmund F., Between a River and a Mountain: The AFL-CIO and the Vietnam War (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2005), pp. 142–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11 US Department of Labor, ‘Bolivia: Guide to Program Officers’, 25 Sept. 1963, George Meany Memorial AFL-CIO Archives, University of Maryland (hereafter GMMA), RG18-001 (International Affairs Department. Country Files, 1945–1971), folder 015-10, ‘Bolivia, 1963’ (emphasis in the original).

12 Memorandum to the Special Group (CI [Counterinsurgency]), ‘Progress Report’, tab c, n.d. [1964], US National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD (hereafter NARA), RG59, State Department Lot Files (hereafter SDLF), box 5, folder ‘Records of the Special Group (CI)’.

13 Dockery, Robert H., US General Accounting Office and US Congress, US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Survey of the Alliance for Progress; Labor Policies and Programs (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1968), pp. 21, 36Google Scholar.

14 See Cullather, Nick, The Hungry World: America's Cold War Battle against Poverty in Asia (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010)Google Scholar; Latham, Michael E., The Right Kind of Revolution: Modernization, Development, and US Foreign Policy from the Cold War to the Present (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2010)Google Scholar; Field, From Development to Dictatorship; Rakove, Robert B., Kennedy, Johnson, and the Nonaligned World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Muehlenbeck, Philip E., Betting on the Africans: John F. Kennedy's Courting of African Nationalist Leaders (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 Exceptions include Iber, ‘Who Will Impose Democracy?’; and Field, ‘Transnationalism Meets Empire’.

16 For more on ILGWU internationalism, see Parmet, Robert D., The Master of Seventh Avenue: David Dubinsky and the American Labor Movement (New York: New York University Press, 2005)Google Scholar; Morgan, Ted, A Covert Life: Jay Lovestone: Communist, Anti-Communist, and Spymaster (New York: Random House, 1999)Google Scholar; and Romualdi, Serafino, Presidents and Peons: Recollections of a Labor Ambassador in Latin America (New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1967)Google Scholar.

17 See Whitehead, Laurence, ‘Bolivia’, in Bethell, Leslie and Roxborough, Ian (eds.), Latin America between the Second World War and the Cold War, 1944–1948 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), p. 132Google Scholar; Patel, Kiran Klaus, The New Deal: A Global History (Princeton, NY: Princeton University Press, 2016), pp. 276–7Google Scholar; and Beal to State, 4 Feb. 1943, published in FRUS, 1943, vol. 5: The American Republics (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1965), document 552Google Scholar.

18 Field, ‘Transnationalism Meets Empire’; and Magaly Rodríguez García, ‘The AFL-CIO and ORIT in Latin America's Andean Region, from the 1950s to the 1960s’, in Waters and van Goethem (eds), American Labor's Global Ambassadors, pp. 137–63. Regarding the CIA's role with ORIT, see Smith, Joseph Burkholder, Portrait of a Cold Warrior (New York: Putnam, 1976)Google Scholar; and Agee, Inside the Company, p. 611. For Lovestone's collaboration in Europe with those he called the ‘Fizz Kids’ of the CIA, see Wilford, The Mighty Wurlitzer, pp. 51–69; and Carew, Anthony, ‘The American Labor Movement in Fizzland: The Free Trade Union Committee and the CIA’, Labor History, 39: 1 (1998), pp. 2542CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

19 García, Magaly Rodríguez, ‘De Organización Regional Interamericana de Trabajadores in Bolivia in de jaren’60’, Brood en Rozen: Tijdschrift voor de Geschiedenis van Sociale Bewegingen, 7: 3 (2002), pp. 733Google Scholar; Lora, Guillermo, Historia del movimiento obrero boliviano (La Paz: Masas, 1979), pp. 179–86Google Scholar.

20 Klein, Herbert S., A Concise History of Bolivia, 2nd edn (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), pp. 200–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Dunkerley, James, Rebellion in the Veins: Political Struggle in Bolivia, 1952–1982 (London: Verso, 1984), pp. 137Google Scholar.

21 N.a. [Alexander to George Meany], ‘Report on Bolivia’, 17 Aug. 1952, GMMA, RG1-027 (Office of the President. President's Files, George Meany, 1947–1960), folder 55/14. Despite being unsigned, author and recipient are clear from the remainder of the folder contents.

22 Romualdi to Lovestone, 25 March 1953; and Romualdi to José Figueres, 6 Nov. 1952, Kheel Center Archives, Cornell University, Serafino Romualdi Papers (hereafter KCA, SRP), collection 5459, box 9, folder 2.

23 Lechín, ‘El ministro destaca el apoyo de la AFL’, 25 Sept. 1952, GMMA, RG1-027, folder 55/14.

24 Romualdi to Andrade, 25 Aug. 1953, Archivo y Biblioteca Nacionales de Bolivia, Sucre (hereafter ABNB), Walter Guevara Arze Papers, correspondencia 12; Romualdi to Meany, 3 Aug. 1954, GMMA, RG1-027, folder 55/14; and Romualdi to Meany, 4 May 1956, KCA, SRP, collection 5459, box 9, folder 2.

25 Romualdi to Andrade, 8 Jan. 1953; and Andrade to Romualdi, 13 Jan. 1953, both in KCA, SRP, collection 5459, box 2, folder 2. See also James F. Siekmeier, The Bolivian Revolution and the United States, 1952 to the Present (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2011), pp. 55–72.

26 Cumulative US aid to Latin America in 1954–8 was US$770 million, with half going to three countries: development-oriented Brazil (US$178 million), revolutionary Bolivia (US$120 million) and post-coup Guatemala (US$80 million). See USAID, ‘US Overseas Loans and Grants’ (the ‘Greenbook’), available at https://eads.usaid.gov/gbk/. On Guatemala, see Gleijeses, Piero, Shattered Hope: The Guatemalan Revolution and the United States, 1944–1954 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992)Google Scholar.

27 Busch, Gary K., The Political Role of International Trade Unions (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 1983), p. 34Google Scholar.

28 Young, Kevin, ‘Purging the Forces of Darkness: The United States, Monetary Stabilization, and the Containment of the Bolivian Revolution’, Diplomatic History, 37: 3 (2013), pp. 509–37CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

29 See Field, From Development to Dictatorship, pp. 12, 50.

30 McLellan to Bury, 1 June 1958, KCA, SRP, collection 5459, box 10A, folder 8.

31 CIA, ‘The Outlook for Bolivia’, 7 Jan. 1958, FRUS, 1958–1960, vol. 5, Microfiche Supplement (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1991), document 1.

32 McLellan to Bury, 1 June 1958; and Communication Workers of America (CWA), ‘A Confidential Report to the Sponsors’, June 1959, Tamiment Library, New York University, CWA Records (hereafter TL, CWA), box 328, folder ‘Latin American Affairs’.

33 See Field, From Development to Dictatorship, p. 6.

34 Romualdi to Meany, 15 Dec. 1960, GMMA, RG1-027, folder 55/14; and Oquendo, Juan Lechín, El pueblo al poder, 2nd edn (La Paz: La Razón, 2005), pp. 123–7Google Scholar.

35 In 1961, the Kennedy administration increased annual aid from US$17 million to US$30.7 million. See USAID, ‘Greenbook’.

36 Kennedy Memorandum, 3 May 1961, NARA, RG174, Goldberg Records, box 46, folder ‘Latin American Labor’; Kennedy Memorandum, 14 Sept. 1961, NARA, RG174, Werts Records, box 1, folder ‘Appropriations ILAB’.

37 US government to [Joseph] Beirne, n.d. [1962], TL, CWA, box 319, folder ‘AIFLD – Financial’; AIFLD, ‘Statement of Income’, 31 Dec. 1962, TL, CWA, box 319, folder ‘AIFLD – Financial Statement’; and Beirne to Hamilton, 26 April 1962, NARA, RG174, Goldberg Records, box 163, folder ‘Labor Advisory Committee’. See also Welch, ‘Labor Internationalism’, pp. 82–3.

38 Regarding modernisation rhetoric and overall numbers, see Field, ‘Transnationalism Meets Empire’, pp. 326–7. For country-by-country numbers, see ‘The AIFLD Report’, June 1965, KCA, SRP, collection 5459, box 10, folder 1; and AIFLD, ‘Statement of Revenue and Expenses’, attached to Jefferson to Scrivner, 12 May 1964, and Creel to Rockefeller, 14 July 1965, Rockefeller Archives Center, NY, Rockefeller Brothers Fund Records, series 3, box 80, folder 540 (hereafter RBF).

39 Field, From Development to Dictatorship, pp. 10–38.

40 US State Department, ‘Guidelines for Policy and Operations’, March 1963, JFKL, NSF-Dungan, box 389A, folder ‘Bolivia, 2/63–6/63’; and Stephansky Oral History, JFKL, pp. 33–4.

41 Embassy to State, ‘Annual Politico-Economic Assessment’, 8 March 1962, NARA, RG59, State Department Central Files (hereafter SDCF), box 2387, folder 824.00/1-2362; Stephansky to State, 17 March 1962, SDCF, box 1524, folder 724.5411/3-161; State Department, ‘Operational Program for Bolivia’, n.d. [mid-1962], SDLF, box 7, folder ‘Bolivia, 1961’. See also Battle to Smith, 20 March 1962; and Embassy to State, 8 May 1962, JFKL, NSF-CO, folder ‘Bolivia, General, 1/62–7/62’.

42 Belcher to Martin and Goodwin, 26 April 1962, SDLF, lot 64D518, box 2, folder ‘Memoranda, 1962’.

43 AFL-CIO (Chicago), 6 Feb. 1962; and AIFLD Report, attached to Doherty to Beirne, 13 June 1962, TL, CWA, box 319, folder ‘AIFLD – Grants; Applications; Contributors ($) – Financial – 1962’.

44 Boggs to Romualdi, 6 April 1962, in ibid.

45 Doherty to AIFLD Board, 9 May 1962; and Doherty to Beirne, 13 June 1962, in ibid.

46 Boggs to McLellan, 31 July 1962; McLellan to Boggs, 6 Aug. 1962, GMMA, RG18-001, file 015/09.

47 Dillon to Kennedy, 16 Aug. 1961, published in FRUS, 1961–1963, vol. 12: American Republics (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1996), document 30Google Scholar.

48 Czechoslovak Embassy (La Paz) to Prague, 24 July 1962, Czech National Archives, Prague, Office of the First Secretary of the Central Committee of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia Antonín Novotny, box 74, inventory 92 (hereafter Novotny Records).

49 Stephansky to Rusk, 22 and 29 Sept. 1962, JFKL, NSF-CO, box 10, folder ‘Bolivia, General, 8/62–12/62’.

50 Kennedy, National Security Action Memorandum 184, 4 Sept. 1962, JFKL, NSF Meetings and Memoranda, folder ‘National Security Action Memoranda’.

51 Goodwin to Martin, 2 Nov. 1962; SDLF, lots 62D418 and 64D15, box 4, folder ‘Bolivia, 1962’; Belcher to Martin, 29 Nov. 1962, in the same folder; Stephansky to Rusk, 8 April 1963, JFKL, NSF-CO, box 10A, folder ‘Bolivia, General, 1/63–4/63’.

52 Boggs to McLellan, 28 Dec. 1962; and McLellan to Boggs, 11 Jan. 1963, GMMA, RG18-001, file 015/09.

53 UAW relied on reporting by Ben Segal, Latin America representative for the International Union of Electrical Workers. Boggs to Victor Reuther, ‘Crisis in the Bolivian Labor Movement’, 14 Feb. 1963; Segal to Reuther, 18 Feb. 1963; and Boggs/Stephansky to Reuther, 18 Feb. 1963, Walter P. Reuther Library, Detroit, UAW Records, International Department Files, box 48, folder 12. (Labour historian Michael Murphy assisted in interpreting these documents, which were provided by diplomatic historian Robert Waters.)

54 Boggs to Romualdi, 18 Feb. 1963, GMMA, RG18-001, file 015/10, folder ‘Bolivia, 1963’.

55 McLellan to Boggs, 28 Feb. 1963; Boggs to McLellan, 6 March 1963; and McLellan to Stephansky, 15 March 1963, GMMA, RG18-001, file 015/01, folder ‘Bolivia, 1963’. Stephansky's 5 March letter is missing, but it is referenced in McLellan's 15 March response.

56 Cottrell to Special Group (CI), 10 May 1963, JFKL, SP, box WH-25, folder ‘Bolivia, 3/61–10/63’; Minutes of Special Group (CI) meeting, 16 May 1963, NARA, United States Information Agency (RG306), entry P296, container 8, folder ‘CI-Special Group Minutes’; and Martin to White House Special Group (CI), 5 June 1963, SDLF, box 1, folder ‘Special Group (CI), 3/2/63–6/13/63’.

57 Memorandum of Conversation, 22 Oct. 1963, JFKL, NSF-CO, box 11, folder ‘Bolivia, Subjects, Paz Visit, 10/63, MEMCONS’, Part III, pp. 2 and 3.

58 Beirne, ‘Address to the 36th Annual Conference of the Catholic Association for International Peace’, 26 Sept. 1963, TL, CWA, box 71, folder ‘JAB (Speeches)’.

59 State Department, ‘Contingency Plan for Meeting Possible COMIBOL Crisis’, 5 July 1963, JFKL, NSF-Dungan, box 389A, folder ‘Bolivia, 7/63–5/64’, p. 7; and Stephansky to Rusk, 17 and 20 July 1963, JFKL, NSF-CO, box 10A, folder ‘Bolivia, General, 4/63–7/63’.

60 Field, From Development to Dictatorship, pp. 93–5.

61 5412/2 Special Group Minutes, 8 Aug. 1963.

62 AIFLD Executive Committee Minutes, 25 April 1963; Romualdi to Schnitzler, 31 May 1963; and ‘Notes for Mr. Schnitzler’, 23 July 1963, GMMA, RG1-038 (Office of the President. George Meany Files, 1940–1980), folder 57/6.

63 Angelo Verdu, ‘Bolivian Report’, 11 July 1963; Doherty to Beirne, 17 July 1963, GMMA, RG18-001, file 015/10, folder ‘Bolivia, 1963’.

64 AIFLD Executive Committee Minutes, 8 Aug. 1963; AIFLD, Graduation Luncheon Report, 8 Aug. 1963; GMMA, RG1-038, folder 57/6; and Romualdi to Creel, 8 Nov. 1963, RBF.

65 Wasson to McLellan, 12 Aug. 1963, GMMA, RG18-001, file 015/10, folder ‘Bolivia, 1963’.

66 Verdu/Bermúdez to Doherty, 28 Oct. 1963, GMMA, RG18-001, file 015/10, folder ‘Bolivia, 1963’.

67 Consulate (Cochabamba) to Embassy, 27 Nov. 1963, SDCF, box 3828, folder ‘POL 12 BOL’; and report attached to Embassy to State, A-94, 28 Aug. 1964, box 1281, folder ‘LAB 3-2 BOL 1/1/64’.

68 ‘La voz honesta de los ferroviarios en medio de la confusión extremista’, La Nación, 26 Nov. 1963; ‘Principales fuerzas sindicales de Cochabamba explican creación de nueva central departamental’, La Nación, 30 Nov. 1963; and ‘La nueva COB se pronuncia por la democratización sindical’, La Nación, 5 Dec. 1963. These declarations contain several eccentricities of syntax that suggest a non-Bolivian author: (1) many accent marks are missing; (2) a Bolivian would not include ‘la’ in ‘Países de la América Latina … ’; (3) a native speaker would not write: ‘Luchar permanentemente porque [sic – para que] los trabajadores del estado sean … ’ (4) ‘Congreso’ is mis-spelled ‘Conggreso [sic]’; and (5) ‘Khrushchev’ is spelled as is typical in English rather than the Hispanicised ‘Kruschev’, ‘Kruschov’, or ‘Jrushchov’.

69 Henderson to Rusk, Embtel [Embassy telegram] 848, 12 Dec. 1963, Lyndon B. Johnson Library, Austin, TX (hereafter LBJL), NSF-CO, box 8, folder ‘Bolivia, US Hostages’.

70 Confederación de Trabajadores de Comercio to AIFLD/Bolivia, 12 Dec. 1963, GMMA, RG18-001, file 015/10, folder ‘Bolivia, 1963’.

71 Cited in Lechín, El pueblo al poder, pp. 141–2; Enríquez, Arturo Crespo, El rostro minero de Bolivia: Los mineros … mártires y héroes (La Paz: Sygnus, 2009), p. 342Google Scholar; Embassy to Rusk, 6 Dec. 1963, SDCF, box 3540, folder ‘INCO BOL’; and ‘Dramático rompimiento de Lechín con el Presidente Paz Estenssoro’, El Diario, 6 Dec. 1963.

72 Soroka, Lora (ed.), Fond 89: Communist Party of the Soviet Union on Trial: Archives of the Communist Party and Soviet State (Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 2001), p. 371Google Scholar; and Czechoslovak Foreign Ministry, Memorandum of Conversation, 7 March 1963, Novotny Records.

73 State to Henderson, 20 Dec. 1963, NARA, RG59, SDCF, box 3831, folder ‘POL BOL-CHILE’; and Cuban Foreign Ministry report, 12 Dec. 1963, Archivo General del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba, Havana, folder ‘Bolivia, 1963, ORD’.

74 Transcript of interview with Bernard Rifkin, USAID labour development officer and hostage, 23 March 1965, Chicago Historical Society, Sidney Lens Papers, box 128, file 128-6, folder 6; document courtesy of Robert Waters. Other quotes from Field, From Development to Dictatorship, p. 129.

75 See Field, From Development to Dictatorship, p. 110.

76 White House Press Release, 8 Dec. 1963, JFKL, NSF-Bundy, box 1, folder ‘Chronological File, December 1963’; and Joint Chiefs to Southcom [Southern Command], 13 Dec. 1963, JFKL, NSF-CO, box 8, folder ‘Bolivia, US Hostages’.

77 Escóbar/Pimentel to Siglo XX branch, 14 Dec. 1963, published in Lagos, María L. (ed.), Nos hemos forjado así: Al rojo vivo y a puro golpe: Historias del Comité de Amas de Casa de Siglo XX (La Paz: Plural, 2006), pp. 95–6Google Scholar; and ‘Pimentel y Escóbar piden que se libere a rehenes’, El Diario, 14 Dec. 1963.

78 ‘Power Struggle in the Bolivian Andes Likely to Have Great Effect on Labor’, Free Trade Union News, Jan. 1964, in KCA, SRP, collection 5459, box 2, folder 4.

79 Osborn to State, A-637, 9 March 1964, SDCF, box 1281, folder ‘LAB 3-2 BOL 1/1/64’.

80 Embassy to State, A-626, 5 March 1964; and Embassy to State, A-94, 28 Aug. 1964; and Field, From Development to Dictatorship, pp. 140–58.

81 See San Román to COBUR, 27 Aug. 1964, ABNB, Collection Presidencia de la República (hereafter PR), PR1676.

82 Embassy to State, 16 Aug. 1963, SDCF, box 3829, folder ‘POL BOL 1963’; and Henderson to Rusk, 10 Aug. 1964, SDCF, box 1190, folder ‘INCO BOL’.

83 Author interviews with Paz Estenssoro's private secretary, Carlos Serrate, and Aguilar's son, Anibal Aguilar Jr, 5 and 7 Oct. 2016. For COBUR on Cuba, see ‘COBUR respalda la política internacional del gobierno’, La Nación, 30 Aug. 1964.

84 Osborn to State, A-637, 9 March 1964; Henderson to State, 20 June 1964, LBJL, NSF-CO, box 7, folder ‘Bolivia, Cables, Volume I, 12/63–7/64’; and Burgoon to State, A-63, 6 Aug. 1964, SDCF, box 1281, folder ‘LAB 3-2 BOL 1/1/64’.

85 ‘Universitarios y obreros asisten al 1er Seminario de Altos Estudios Sindicales’, Última Hora, 19 May 1964.

86 ‘La COBUR exigirá al Ministro de Trabajo aclare una declaración’, Presencia, 13 June 1964.

87 ‘Ministro de Trabajo denunció intromisión de funcionario americano en asuntos sindicales’, Presencia, 18 June 1964; Henderson to State, 20 June 1964, and Burgoon to State, A-63, 6 Aug. 1964.

88 Ibid.; and Embassy to State, A-94, 28 Aug. 1964.

89 Author interviews with Serrate and Aguilar Jr, 5 and 7 Oct. 2016.

90 San Román to COBUR, 27 Aug. 1964; ‘Aguilar acatará decisión de su sector si le pide que renuncie’, Presencia, 2 July 1964.

91 Memorandum of conversation, 23 Sept. 1964; and Embassy to State, A-168, 23 Oct. 1964, SDCF, box 1281, folder ‘LAB 3-2 BOL 1/1/64’.

92 Cabinet Minutes, 13 Aug. 1964, ABNB, PR1800, pp. 3–5; and cabinet member Gutiérrez, Guillermo Bedregal, De búhos, políticas, y exilios: Mis memorias (La Paz: Instituto Carlos Montenegro, 2009), p. 366Google Scholar.

93 Author interview with Serrate, 19 July 2012.

94 Henderson to Rusk, 3 Nov. 1964, LBJL, NSF-CO, box 7, folder ‘Bolivia, Cables, Volume II, 7/64–11/64’. See also Field, From Development to Dictatorship, pp. 152, 176 and 182–9.

95 William Greider, ‘Unions Turn to [US]AID after CIA Pullout’, Washington Post, 21 April 1969.

96 Hurwitch to Dentzer, 28 Oct. 1964; Hurwitch to Mann, 29 Oct. 1964; and Hurwitch to Firfer, 30 Oct. 1964, SDLF, ARA-Bolivia, box 3, folder ‘LAB 1 1965’.

97 Weaver to Goldberg, 28 Aug. 1962, NARA, RG174, Goldberg Records, box 118, folder ‘A American – H American – R, 1962’.