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U.S./INTERNATIONAL Relations U.S. Intervention in British Guiana: A Cold War Story. By Stephen G. Rabe. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005. Pp. 240. Illustrations. Map. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $45.00 cloth; $19.95 paper.
In 1948, George Kennan advised the United States to abandon "unrealistic" objectives about human rights, raising the standard of living and democratization to prevent places like Guyana falling to communist subversion. Order based on security predominated within a framework in which the decline of imperialism and the construction of hegemony were parts of a single process. Rabe develops his argument cogently and parsimoniously, integrating literature on gender, ethnic studies, sociology, diplomatic history, and political science to produce a compassionate account of Guyana's travails, from the period from 1953 to 1969, by which time Cheddi Jagan and the People's Progressive Party (PPP) had been removed from power and Forbes Burnham's dictatorship under the People's National Congress (PNC) had taken hold under Anglo-American auspices. Analyzing an impressive array of archival material from the British National Archives and U.S. sources, Rabe seeks to illuminate Guyana's experience with...