Aaron Coy Moulton is an associate professor of Latin American history at Stephen F. Austin State University and a visiting scholar at the Center for Right-Wing Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of Caribbean Blood Pacts: Guatemala and the Cold War Struggle for Freedom.

03.22.2026

• Aaron Coy Moulton

The CIA Manipulated Americans Into an Anti-Communist Boycott

In 1954, the CIA enlisted a right-wing radio host and a US senator in a plot to spread propaganda convincing Americans to boycott Guatemalan coffee — all to destabilize a democratically elected government the US would soon help overthrow.