Reinventing history: Lincoln Gordon and his multiple versions of 1964

Abstract

U.S. Ambassador Lincoln Gordon was at the center of U.S. operations that supported the 1964 coup detat, from coordinating connections through Vernon Walters with the military conspirators to lobbying for a U.S. naval task force that could intervene should a civil war break out between pro and anti-Goulart forces. At the time, and in the following years, Gordon, however, insisted that the coup detat was "100 percent Brazilian." Using U.S. State Department documents, Gordons speeches, oral histories, and a 2005 interview with the former ambassador, this article analyzes the changing justifications that Gordon has offered over the last forty years to explain why he supported the overthrow of Goulart and gave unconditional support to the new military regime. © 2009 ANPUH.