This passage discusses Guatemala’s land reforms, which dictated that land would be taken from large landholders and given to the peasant class.Guatemala has become an increasing threat to the stability of Honduras and El Salvador. Its agrarian reform is a powerful propaganda weapon; its broad social program of aiding the workers and peasants in a victorious struggle against the upper classes and large foreign enterprises has a strong appeal to the populations of Central American neighbors where similar conditions prevail.—US State Department Official,1953Why does the US State Department see Guatemala’s reforms as a threat?The reforms were anticapitalist and might encourage other nations to take similar action.The upper class could overpower the lower class and allow communism to spread.The lower classes were gaining control, and therefore democracy was growing in popularity.The reforms were procapitalist and would result in increased poverty in the region.

The United States' main goal during the Cold War was to support NON-communist nations and help non-aligned nations fight off the influence of communism and communist rebellions. The US WAS supporting Guatemala until the new Guatemalan president stepped in and began to nationalize land ownership. Government ownership of land is in line with communism and so the US saw Guatemala's new reforms as a threat and eventually established a coup d'etat to overthrow the Guatemalan president and establish a dictator.