Reddit reviews Secret History: The CIA’s Classified Account of Its Operations in Guatemala, 1952-1954

They usually have access to materials that aren't available to anyone else, so often they produce excellent work (that's then not declassified for 30 years, in some cases). Mostly these folks serve different purposes than writing objective history for academic consumption, though. They're intended to serve as a sort of institutional memory for the unit, as well as produce material to sell the work of the agency to the current administration. They may also produce 'official history' type manuscripts, but that's often not a primary job responsibility. There are plenty of these histories that are pretty high quality, in any event. Examples:

http://www.amazon.com/Secret-History-Classified-Operations-Guatemala/dp/0804733112
http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/Summary_History.pdf

Relevant article: http://www.eenews.net/greenwire/stories/1059997283/print

There's probably some bias imposed by the circumstances, but then again everyone works from some perspective or another. I can't imagine an official agency historian being anything but upfront about that.

A bigger problem with military agencies' historians is probably that military history is currently something of an inbred field that's more than a little influenced by disconnect from the rest of the discipline through institutional issues like many of the positions being at service academies and other military-sponsored sites where there isn't necessarily the broader intellectual community. That's not 100% the case, obviously, but I'd suspect it imposes more bias on the questions that get asked, type of approaches to answering them, and quality of research than happens to official agency historians.

I can't tell if you're pulling my leg or really just didn't realize you sent a magazine article...

• The company had powerful friends in the Eisenhower administration, including Assistant Secretary of State for Latin American Affairs John M. Cabot, whose brother Tom briefly was United’s president. It also hired Washington lobbyist Thomas G. “Tommy the Cork” Corcoran, one of President Franklin Roosevelt’s brain trusters, and two other public relations experts, John Clements, a powerful conservative, and Spruille Braden, Truman’s Assistant Secretary of State for Latin American Affairs
  
  The Assistant Secretary of State for LA brother's was United's President. For a single year.
  
  Then the company hired lobbyists, 2 of which have no bearing on United and 1 who was the Assistant Secret of State for LA who would be one of the few people in Washington deeply knowledge to have the qualifications for that job..
  
  People being paid by a company to lobby the government on its behalf. Well thats damning evidence for sure.
  
  
• But most analysts agree that United Fruit was the most important force in toppling Árbenz, and Bernays was the company’s most effective propagandist
  
  This is the most topical sentence in the article. And yet. Which analysts is he referring to?
  
  Thats as bad as Fox News saying "Some would say.." Its bad journalism without providing any sources so that it protects itself from being refuted
  
  If pasting editorialized generalizations is what you think is proving your point, It's not.
  
  I'm not even sure why you linked the article? To show that United was involved in lobbying the government and a public relations fight with Guatemala to protect their business interests?
  
  Yeah thats a good point. Maybe I should have included something in my original post about United Fruit being an element to it.
  
  Maybe something like
  
  >United Fruit added sticks to the fire for sure
  
  or
  
  >Now the business interests (not only United Fruit) being affected in Guatemala was definitely a factor
  
  So instead of a source. You provided a 2nd hand account that barely has any sources in it other than unnamed analysts.
  
  Heres a source. 1953 Declassified history of CIA actions in Guatemala
  
  
• Point 4 from the excerpt.
  
  >In November 1951 the first of many meetings was held between Agency officials to discuss Guatemala
  
  >In early 1952, after a careful survey of anti-communist Guatemalan revolutionary leaders, it was decided that RUFUS ( Carlos Castillo Armas) was the only one with sufficient prestige, character, and ability to organize and lead a successful revolution.
  
  
  Declassified Telegram from CIA January 1952
  
  >. It is requested that JULEP locate but not contact CARLOS CASTILLO ARMAS if in Salvador or Honduras. If located, headquarters should be continually advised of major movements. Reference gives reported permanent [less than 1 line of source text not declassified] address in Honduras.
  
  The United States and Guatemala 1952 - 1954. Declassified internal document
  
  > In 1952 State department officials welcomed Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza to Washington on his first state visit...[he] told state department officials that, if they provided arms, he and Castillo Armas would take care of Arbenz.
  
  >Truman instructed DCI Smith to follow up. Smith dispatched [redacted] a spanish speaking engineer who joined the Agency in 1951, to make contact with Castillo Armas and other dissidents in Honduras and Guatemala. [Redacted] arrived in Guatemala city on June 16th, the day before Arbenz enacted the agrarian reform.
  
  >The administration's concern about the Arbenz regime had increased
  in mid-1951, and there is evidence that the Truman administration en-
  couraoed the company to take a hard line. United Fruit's vast holdings and
  monopolies on communications and transit in Central America attracted the
  attention of lawyers in the Justice Department's antitrust division as early
  as 1919 In May 1951, they were preparing for court action to force United
  Fruit to divest itself of railroads and utilities in Guatemala when the State
  Department intervened. In a National Security Council session. Department
  representatives argued that a legal attack on United Fruit's Guatemalan
  holdings would have "serious foreign policy implications," weakening the
  company at a time when the United States needed it. The action was sus-
  pended until the situation in Guatemala had improved. It is often asserted
  that the United States acted at the company's behest in Guatemala, but this
  incident suggests the opposite may have been true: the administration
  wanted to use United Fruit to contain Communism in the hemisphere
  
  United Fruits lobbied the government for support after having their land appropriated by Guatemala by Decree 900 in June 1952
  
  8 months before Decree 900 was passed, the CIA was conducting meetings on actions to take in Guatemala. 6 months before the law was passed they already had Castillo Armas picked as the best candidate to replace Armenz. (and he did)
  
  Somewhere in your head you seem to think United Fruit time traveled and caused the coup when it was already starting months before they ever lost their land, and it wasn't until they lost their land that the propaganda campaign of Edward Bernays really took off.
  
  You really don't know what you're talking about. You should stop. The link you gave is literally the first result listed if you google "United Fruit propaganda". You're not even putting any effort into your point. You just wanted to spew your corporations are evil nonsense and get upvotes.