General Walter Bedell Smith was General Dwight Eisenhower's Chief of Staff when the future president served as Supreme Allied Commander.  

Once that Smith culminated his lengthy military career with influential  involvement in West Germany's governmental transition at the close of World War Two, he went into the federal government with important positions in both the Truman and Eisenhower administrations.  

A CIA operation in 1954 overthrew popularly elected Guatemala President Jacobo Arbenz.  There were leaflets alleging that the democratically elected Arbenz was some kind of Communist stooge.  Mercenaries were sent in to aid "The Company's" activities, engaging in acts of sabotaging trains and oil supplies.

Arbenz, who won Guatemala's presidency in a 1951 landslide, hoped to transform Guatemala's former dictatorial leadership and feudalist economy into a vibrant and modern democratic nation, and was instead driven from power.