Cool USA Facts!
In 1953, A 2011 release of British intelligence files revealed that US and British MI5 forces overthrew the government of Cheddi Jagan, the elected leader of British Guyana. They showed how British spies kept up intense scrutiny on Cheddi Jagan and his wife Janet, who together founded the People's Progressive party (PPP) to campaign for workers' rights and independence from British rule for the sugar-producing colony in northern South America. Churchill and the US feared that the Jagans were communists, although MI5 found no foreign ties. Churchill dispatched a warship, HMS Superb, and brought hundreds of troops by air and sea to secure key sites. An outraged Cheddi Jagan appealed by telegram to Britain's opposition Labour party for help. Leader Clement Attlee replied curtly: "Regret impossible to intervene."