Editing Operation PBSuccess (section)

===Aftermath===
 (July 1954–Onward)  

Castillo Armas’s Regime: On July 8, 1954, Castillo Armas was installed as president, forming a junta with CIA backing. His government reversed Decree 900, returning land to UFCO, banned the PGT, and initiated a repressive campaign, killing an estimated 3,000–5,000 suspected 'communists'. The National Committee of Defense Against Communism purged resistance, Castillo Armas was assassinated in 1957, leading to further instability.

Guatemalan Civil War (1960–1996): PBSuccess destabilized Guatemala, sparking a 36-year civil war between armed resistance to United States and CIA installed governments  and U.S. backed regimes, resulting in over 200,000 deaths, mostly indigenous Maya, per the 1999 UN Truth Commission. The CIA’s arming of fascist forces fueled genocidal campaigns, notably under Efraín Ríos Montt (1982–1983).

Declassification and Exposure: The CIA declassified 1,400 pages of PBSuccess documents in 1997, prompted by the 1992 Foreign Relations of the United States volume and Guatemala’s peace accords. Nick Cullather’s Secret History: The CIA’s Classified Account of Its Operations in Guatemala, 1952–1954 (1999), a CIA internal history, detailed the operation’s planning and execution, confirming UFCO’s influence and psychological warfare’s success.