by Gerard Colby
Trans-Andean Highway, 120, 246
Trans-Andean pipeline, 692, 754, 756
Trans-Chaco Highway, 680
Translation magazine, 123, 574, 748
Transoceanic AOFC, Ltd., 862n17
Transoceanic Development Corporation, Ltd., 862n17
Treaty of Rio de Janeiro, 233
Tremblay, Dr. Robert, 859n36
Tribal languages: Cakchiquel, 44–46; Huao, 604; Montagnard, 387; Quechua, 80, 153, 203, 250, 483; Tagalog, 208, 236; in Yucatán, 126
Tribal studies, Vietnam, 558
Tricontinental Conference, 529
Trilateral Commission, 645, 715, 768, 853n20
Trotman, Dawson, 123, 132, 202, 290
Troyer, Les, 571
True, Clara, 29
Truett, Rev. George W., 324
Trujillo, Rafael, 218, 312, 393, 739
Truman, Harry S.: assassination attempt, 223–25; becomes president, 173, 175, 177; and Berle, 185, 190; and Cam, 288; criticizes Standard Oil, 155; and Latin American policy, 177, 189, 209; and Nelson Rockefeller, 178–79, 220, 230; as vice-presidential candidate, 163
Truth About Mexico’s Oil, The, 98, 101
Tsalickis, Mike, 519, 520–23
Tshombe, Moise, 326, 327, 341, 341n
Tucci, Nicolo, 159, 172
Tulane University, 320, 478
Tumi Chucua SIL base, Bolivia, 697, 747
Tungsten, in Far East, 548, 557
Tunney Amendment, 766
Túpac Amaru Front, Peru, 491, 492
Turbay Ayala, Julio, 811
Turner, Glenn, 874n36
Tweedy, Bronson, 327
Ubico, Gen. Jorge, 48–49, 50, 118, 807
Udall, Stewart, 577, 717
Unevangelized Field Mission, 500, 773
União de Bancos Brasileiros, 611, 622
União Democrática Nacional party (UDN), Brazil, 184, 189, 190, 192, 441, 443, 867n17
União refinery. See Refinaria Exploração de Petrólio União, S.A.
Union Carbide, 451, 618
Union of Indian Nations, Brazil, 803
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR): bilingual programs in, 699; collapses, 824; at Geneva, 272–73; in Latin America, 329, 374, 694; at Paris Summit, 328, 331; propaganda of, 425; at U.N., 161, 165, 169; at Yalta, 164, 165, 170–72
Union Oil of California, 24, 245, 514, 561n, 750, 886n27
Union Theological Seminary, 20, 292, 293, 295n, 408, 761
United Fidelity Union Life Insurance Company, 569
United Fruit: agriculture school in Honduras, 285n; CIAA assistance to, 115; in Ecuador, 285, 602; and First National Bank of Boston, 190; in Guatemala, 36, 232, 412, 849n10; and Guatemalan land reform, 238, 240, 244
United Kingdom, 161, 171, 177, 585–86
United Nations: in Africa, 327, 340, 341, 341n; charter of, 176, 177, 399–400; Food and Agriculture Organization, 814; founding of, 5, 156, 165, 169, 170, 173–77; General Assembly, 176; headquarters of, 211, 315, 638; and human rights, 219, 243, 575, 803, 826; Security Council, 175, 243
United Nuclear, 718
U.S. Business Advisory Council for the Alliance for Progress, 539
U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 383
U.S. government:
—administrative departments and agencies: Atomic Energy Commission, 773; cabinet, 263, 337–39; Central Intelligence Agency, see CIA; Civil Rights Commission, 763; Department of Agriculture, 136, 139, 505, 508; Department of Commerce, 108, 383–84; Department of Defense, 199, 255, 333, 378, 477; Department of Health, Education and Welfare, 126, 256, 265, 266; Department of the Interior, 13 (see also Bureau of Indian Affairs); Department of Justice, 155, 188 (see also FBI); Department of the Treasury, 279; Geological Survey, 5, 450; Information Agency (USIA), 256, 275, 381, 435, 556; National Academy of Science, 615; Works Progress Administration, 88, 92
—Congress: House of Representatives, 175, 228, 729; Senate, 155, 192, 310, 327, 332, 543, 579, 745
—embassies abroad: Lima, 200; Rio de Janeiro, 431; Saigon, 581; Teheran, 787
—military: Air Force, 130, 199, 450, 616–17; Army, 122, 287, 445, 447, 557; Joint Chiefs, 327; Marine Corps, 467; missions, 170, 218, 219, 555, 556, 675; National War College, 260; Navy, 122, 130, 192, 215, 447, 522, 561
—State Department: and African nationalism, 326; Bureau of Intelligence Research, 113, 348, 359; Bureau of Latin American Affairs, 159, 172, 375, 601; Foreign Service, 398, 664; International Division, 165, 169, 173; International Information Agency, 256; in Latin America, 98, 157, 189, 241, 313, 314, 381, 648; Nelson Rockefeller’s proposals to, 96, 221, 225, 228; Office of Facts and Figures, 180; Office of Philippines and Southeast Asian Affairs, 560; Office of Policy Coordination (CIA), 207, 208; and Overseas Private Investment Corporation, 548; policies of, 130, 332, 348, 451, 828
U.S. Industrial Mission to Brazil, 138
U.S. Marshal’s Services Special Operations Group, 720
U.S. Rubber Company, 844n30
U.S. Steel: in Bolivia, 692, 696; in Brazil, 296, 298, 302, 442, 618; and J. P. Morgan, 77; price war (1962), 401; in Venezuela, 321, 406, 652, 670; in wartime, 160
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 827
University of Brasília, 319, 433, 436
University of California at Los Angeles, 509, 559
University of Chicago, 20, 21, 44, 68, 100, 330
University of Michigan, 558
University of Oklahoma, 122, 752
Uranium, 325–26, 717, 773
Urban Development Corporation, New York, 724
Uruguay, 158, 243, 449, 641, 743, 889n21
Urrego Bernal, Gen. Armando, 395, 473
U-2 program, 270, 282, 331–32, 374
Vaccaro, Lucca, 864n48
Vaky, Viron, 646, 753
Valcarel, Luis, 200
Valdés, Gabriel, 707
Valencia, León, 472
Valencia Cano, Bishop Gerardo, 691
Valeriano, Napoleon, 312
Vallarino, Simon, 519
Vance, Cyrus, 594, 595
Vandenberg, Arthur, 176, 177
Vandre, Geraldo, 631
Van Dusen, Henry Pitney, 293
Van Fleet, Gen. James A., 433
VangPao, Gen., 565
Varese, Stefano, 686, 754
Vargas, Getúlio: and Amazon development, 133–34, 136, 152; and Brazilian oil,-182, 183; as nationalist symbol, 185; presidential tenures of, 187, 257, 261, 262, 314; and PDS, 214
Vargas Caballero, Adm. Luis, 814
Vaughn, Dr. E. I., 37
Vekemans, Roger, 745
Velasco Alvarado, Gen. Juan, 516, 666, 703, 814
Velasco Ibarra, José María, 250, 277–78, 283, 287, 359
Venezuela, 90, 91, 192, 636–37
Venezuelan Basic Economy Corporation, 218
Venezuelan Production Development Corporation, 218
Venezuelan Steel Company, 406
Ventures Limited, 278
Verdier, Mauricio, 306
Vertrol Aircraft, 372
Veterans of Foreign Wars, 399
Vicos Project, Peru, 476–77, 483, 486, 871n42, 890n43
Vietnam, 347, 542–44, 556–75, 580–84, 585, 586–89. See also Democratic Republic of
Vietnam; Republic of Vietnam; Vietnam War Vietnam War, 542–44, 556–75, 580–84, 585, 586–89, 594, 709. See also Democratic Republic of Vietnam; Republic of Vietnam;
Vietnam Vilafranca, Fr. Marceliano. See Canyes, Bishop Marceliano
Villa Nueva, Victor, 869n17
Villas Boas, Claudio and Orlando, 432, 620, 628, 677, 688
Villeda Morales, Ramón, 312, 412
Vincent, George, 54
Virginia-Carolina Chemical Company, 21
Vision magazine, 496
Vitro Corporation, 372
Volta Redonda steel project, 136
Vo Nguyen Giap, Gen., 529, 573
von Puttkamer, W. Jesco, 698
von Steinbeck, Rafael (Still Georges, José María), 519�
�21
Wagley, Charles, 147
Waldheim, Kurt, 795
Walker, Samuel S., 852n45
Walkowicz, Theodore F., 372
Wallace, George, 569, 761
Wallace, Henry, 96, 102, 108, 135, 163, 400, 893n9
Wallis, Ethel, 239, 485, 489
Walters, Vernon, 204, 272, 424, 442
Walton, William, 690
War Production Board, 559
Ward, Larry, 748, 752
Warne, William E., 207
Warren, Avra, 173
Warren, Earl, 795
Warren, Ray, 664
Washington University, 21
Wasson, R. Gordon, 497, 505
Watergate, 280, 413, 700, 710, 730
Watson, Thomas, Jr., 293n
Webb, James, 225
Webb, Thomas E., 880n6
Weisman, Thomas, 809n
Weiss, Seymour, 863n48
Welles, Sumner, 92, 96, 140, 149, 155, 156, 187, 190
Westinghouse Air Brake, 246
Westinghouse Electric, 671
Westmoreland, Gen. William, 544, 573, 581–82
Weyerhaeuser, David, 486
Wharton, Clifton, 555, 831
Wheeler, Alvaro, 811, 811n
White, Charles L. 28
Whitlock, Peter, 757
Whitman, Ann, 255, 716, 831
Whitney, John Hay, 115, 372, 859n44
Whyte, William F., 871n42
Wiesel, Elie, 826
Wiesemann, Ursula, 774
Wiggin, Albert H., 76
Williams, Garland “Dee,” 514–16, 521
Willkie, Wendell L., 93
Wilson, Harold, 585
Wilson, Richard “Dickie,” 719–20, 763
Wilson, Woodrow, 164, 176
Wilson Meat Packing, 298, 608
Wipfler, Rev. William, 748
Wisner, Frank, 241, 271
Witch Doctor’s Apprentice, 495
Witte, Paul, 590
Wolf Plume (Blackfoot Indian), 17, 26
Wolfe, Dr. Eric, 743, 778
Women’s Civic Union, 444
Wood, Struthers and Winthrop, Inc., 885n7
Woodward, Harper, 372, 595n, 678, 852n45
Woodward, R. Beavans, Jr., 888–89n77
Woodward, Robert Forbes, 389
Woodward Foundation, 678, 888–89n77
Woolworth, Pamela, 776
Work, Herbert, 28, 29
World Bank, 315, 328, 427, 450, 655, 696, 715n, 828
World Council of Churches (WCC), 678, 680, 681, 689
World Life Research Institute, 510
World’s Fair, 1964–65, New York, 484
W. R. Grace and Company, 312, 397, 660, 662, 673, 703
Wright, Marion, 542
Wroughton, James, 490
Wycliffe, John, 65
Wycliffe Associates, 489, 692, 802, 805
Wycliffe Bible Translators: and Billy Graham Crusade, 294; and conservative politics, 797; denies genocide in Brazil, 4; founding of, 124; growth of, 486, 751, 815, 822; and JAARS, 281, 359; as missionary visage of SIL, 123, 248, 810; sources of funds, 569; and South American Indians, 482, 484–85; in Vietnam, 358. See also Summer Institute of Linguistics; Wycliffe Associates
Wynne, Bedford, 579, 880n6
Xerox Corporation, 603
Xingu National Park, Brazil, 360, 432, 624, 698
Yale University, 21, 100, 202, 476, 842n12
Yalta Agreement, 171, 172, 174, 175
Yalta Conference, 164, 165, 170–72
Yarborough, Gen. William P., 392
Yarinacocha SIL base, Peru, 203, 461, 481–82, 487, 509, 770
Ydígoras Fuentes, Miguel, 312, 319, 322, 412
“Year of Minority Language Groups,” 744
Youderian, Roger, 284
Young, Gordon, 556
Young, Harold, 556, 565
Young, Kenneth Todd, 559–61
Young, Whitney, 371
Young, William, 556
Youth for Christ, 202, 389
Zahedi, Ardeshir, 788
Zapata, Emiliano, 62, 69–70, 102, 153
Zapatista Liberation Army, 830
Zeckendorf, William, 211
Zemurray, Samuel, 320, 801
Zondervan, Pat, 690
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This is a great “How” age. But “Why” remains unanswered, and will doubtless again claim attention.
—Malcolm Muggeridge, 1958
There is a subtlety about time that can break the heart, and it is hard to believe that eighteen years have passed since this journey of discovery began, and even harder to believe it is over. In 1976 the authors traveled to the Amazon to seek out the truth behind allegations in the Latin American press that members of the Wycliffe Bible Translators (known abroad as the Summer Institute of Linguistics), American corporations, and the Central Intelligence Agency had been involved in the destruction of Indian life and culture in the Amazon basin countries. The charges were widespread and, given the nature of revelations at the time about CIA abuses of authority, including assassination plots, mind-control experiments on unwitting citizens, and use of missionaries as sources of intelligence, they could not be ignored. Was there any truth to American involvement in a crime so serious as genocide or its cover-up, and if so, why?
The research trip to the Amazon was supposed to take six weeks; it ended up consuming six months, involving some 170 interviews in eight countries, including visits to Wycliffe’s jungle bases in the five Amazon basin countries of Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, and Colombia. In the years that followed, research also took us throughout the United States, particularly the South and Southwest, and parts of Europe and southern Africa, as well as several more trips to Latin America. After realizing the story was much more complex and richer in themes than we originally thought, we returned our advance on royalties to one publisher in order to avoid rushing to print. Our search for the right publisher required us to change literary agents twice. Finally, through word of mouth at a National Writers Union conference on censorship, we received the referral that helped make this book possible.
We wish, therefore, to thank first of all our able literary agent, Chris Tomasino of RLR Associates, whose wisdom and responsiveness to our concerns set a standard for mutual respect between authors and agents. She found us an editor who was familiar with many of the names in our initial prospectus and understood the research requirements of this book.
Our next thanks go, therefore, to Hugh Van Dusen, our editor at HarperCollins, for his untiring belief in this book and for the long-suffering patience he showed while waiting for its delivery.
We are grateful to the Fund for Investigative Journalism, particularly its former directors, Howard Bray and John Hanrahan, for supporting the “Amazon Project,” as we called it, since our first visit to Latin America in 1976, and to the staff of the International Indian Treaty Council for their encouragement and advice.
Our deep appreciation also goes to the Reverend William Wipfler, formerly of the Latin America and Human Rights offices of the National Council of Churches and vice chair of Amnesty International, whose dedication to the cause of human rights has been an inspiration.
For profound insights into American anthropology, as well as the Wycliffe Bible Translators and their work with American oil companies, we are indebted to anthropologist and filmmaker Scott S. Robinson. His movie, Sky Chief, depicting the disastrous impact of Gulf Oil’s and Texaco’s operations on the environment of the Ecuadorian Amazon and the Kofan Indians, is a classic in documentary filmmaking.
Kenneth Kensinger’s explanation about why he left Wycliffe provided us with a look into the utilitarianism that can prevail even among sincere missionaries when confronted with questions that get in the way of their mission.
The missionaries we met were uniformly hospitable and gracious. We could not help but be impressed by their willingness to endure many lonely years with remote tribes in the jungle. These were not people who fi
t the stereotype of the fanatical missionary; they were thoughtful, kind, considerate people who had studied hard to learn the linguistic skills that had earned them Ph.D.s and their reputation as the crème de la crème of the Fundamentalist missionary world. Yet their sincere dedication to bring about what they believe is good for the Indian cuts both ways. When we first met them, they were clearly struggling to cope with a modern world that questioned their vision of “enlightened” Christianized tribes being the key to fulfilling a biblical prophecy of the Second Coming of Christ. There was also, beyond the determined naïveté apparent to many observers, the reality of power, both political and technological, that Wycliffe enjoyed. Never, in our collective ten years of investigative journalism, had either of us encountered so much fear surrounding a religious organization; in country after country respected critics were vanquished.
The truth behind this remarkable organization lies beyond the claims of miraculous interventions and hometown support for its field missionaries. Some of this truth could only be found in the papers of Wycliffe’s founder, William Cameron Townsend, at the headquarters of its Jungle Aviation and Radio Service (JAARS) outside Waxhaw, North Carolina. Unfortunately, some of Townsend’s documents could not be quoted directly but had to be paraphrased in this book, because Wycliffe elders, describing the documents as “sensitive,” refused to grant permission to quote. Nevertheless, we are grateful for Wycliffe’s cooperation throughout most of our research.
We are also grateful to those who supported our work on this project during many difficult financial times. For sheer perseverance and unquestioning support over many, many years, we are greatly indebted to Carol and W.H. Ferry, Robin Lloyd, Ted and Georgia Keller, Robert and Barbara O’Connor, and Beverly Jacobson. They have been outstanding friends. We also wish to thank Sallie Bingham, John Bloch and Rebecca Sheppard, Rev. Philip and Susan Wheaton, John Douglas, Joan and Stuart Eagle, Ed Everts and Deb Davis, Ben Ptashnik, Jean Hardisty, Jonathan and Roxanne Leopold, Maya Miller, Peter Shepherd, Michael Howard, Olivia Robinson, John Puleio, Jerry Shields, Dwight and Barbara Steward, William Hoffman, Jim Gosdin, Ann Dunlop, Steve Freeman, John and Patti Gallagher, Jeff Weaver, Lesli Myers, Terry Allen, Warren King, Jackie Harman, Kim Chase and Don Odell, Jack and Tina Mulvey, Anthony Pollina and Deborah Wolfe, Philip Caleb and Anna Taylor Caleb, Judith and Richard Dewey, Eddie Becker, Michael Parenti, Gloria Perez, David and Donna McWilliams, Bob and Kathleen Engstrom, Al Salzman, Ed Krales, Mary Anne Holowaty, Paul Abbott, Christine Wood, Terry Dugan and Larry Klein, Barry Kade, Jim Higgins, Louise and Anala Ferland, Toward Freedom magazine, Dan Higgins, Jane Kramer, Roz Payne, Cameron O’Connor, Jonathan Block, Beth Kubly, Deep Kumar, Elizabeth French, David Levinson, Richard Geidel, Joshua Mailman, Cora Weiss, Fred Goff, Mary Muphy, Janice Temple, Pierre Laramée, Bob Phares, the Rainforest Action Network, the PEN Writers Fund, and the Haymarket Foundation.
