THE SHARK AND THE SARDINES

by Juan Jose Arevalo ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

It appears to be a truism today that anything touching upon US-Latin American policy is bound to end either in histrionics or hysteria, whether of the Left or Right. And former president of Guatemala, Juan Jose Arevalo's The Shark and the Sardines is no exception. Free flowing, full of rhetoric at once both surly and suave, astream with shockers, statistics and stilettos, it promulgates what the blurbs dubb a ""poetically tragic fable"", depicting in iridescent black and white the tortured heart beating south of our border, wherein Uncle Sam emerges as the Shark and the mestiza have-nots, the poor Sardines. Page after page ""demonstrates"" that the Yankees became great while progress in Latin America halted under a multi-faceted exploitation financed by the Machiavellian coalition of the White House with Wall Street, culminating in the ""international scandal"" when Dulles, Eisenhower and the CIA backed counter-revolutionaries who ousted Dr. pro-Communist government. It is the latter's contention that the philosophy of the ""cadaverous Rockefellers"" equals Al Capone's; that imperialism is embodied in the United Fruit Company, the rape of Chilean copper, the dastardly treaties with Nicaragua, Uruguay and Brazil, the Pan-American looking of minerals, the NAM, the nefarious Marshall Plan, the ""secret revelations"" of General Motors' pro-Nazi entanglements, the camouflaging of Russia as the common enemy, and that ""brink of war"" is either capitalism's pathologic phase or the jugglings of New York's Carthaginian circus. And to top it off he drags in the ""confession"" of a Marine general who was reputedly offered 3 million by Stock Exchange ""agents"" to deliver the US into their hands. This attempted coup, according to Dr. Arevalo, was never made public in any manner, shape or form anywhere in America, but apparently Dr. Arevalo's own agents found out (at the movies). The Shark and the Sardines is not a book but a tract, a Party line announcement that peace is bad for business and that campaigns like Korea result. The author, a self-styled proponent of romantic socialism, is also a post-graduate of ""ye olde fervor"" school. The book is required reading in Cuba; it should be read by all responsible Americans more importantly, it should be answered.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: 0548388202

Page Count: -

Publisher: Lyle Stuart

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1961

Categories: NONFICTION