Book Review: Clem Seecharan’s Cheddi Jagan and the Cold War, 1946-1992

Ian Randle Publishers (Kingston, Jamaica), 2023, 743 pages

Thomas Kuhn, the historian of science explained in his book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, that a paradigm, based on a set of concepts and practices, represents an epistemology of knowledge that scientists far afield agree upon. This is possible when history is discovered via autobiographical narratives, review of archival documents/artifacts and interviews with protagonists who are creators of history. Over time, however, the discovery of new knowledge leads to a change in basic assumptions, which compel social scientists to review existing bodies of knowledge and encourage critical thinking about settled history. A shift in paradigm is particularly meaningful when it embraces our “lived experiences” and occur during our lifetime.

This is precisely what is accomplished by Clem Seecharan, Emeritus Professor of History, London Metropolitan University, with the publication of his monumental study, Cheddi Jagan and the Cold War, 1946 – 1992. The book is markedly primed and littered throughout its many pages with concrete historical facts and detailed analysis. One is left with the distinct impression that the author must have spent a substantial portion of his lifetime in the British and Guyana archives copiously pouring over everything relevant to Cheddi Jagan. Since the period in question spans nearly 50 years of Guyanese history and Cold War politics, it is not surprising that the details enshrined in this study are wildly extensive.

A couple of crucial observations must be recognized about Seecharan’s study. One, his research and writing style are inherently unique. The book is not only readerfriendly, but the writer’s management of the research materials, as well as his historical analysis, provides for engaging and educational reading, which is well grounded in academic rigour.

Two, Seecharan’s study extends far beyond a mere analysis of Jagan’s politics during the Cold War years. At the heart of this narrative, also, is an enlightened examination of the deep destruction wrought upon Guyanese society as a result of 28 years of authoritarian rule by Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham. How could it not be? The study presents hindsight from individuals intimately related to the Guyanese political struggle, including PPP operatives, inclusive of Jagan’s closest allies, comrades in arms, and former apparatchiks – preserving for the author the necessary academic space to employ his analytical skills in synthesizing available information, and avoidance of the temptation of injecting his own biases into the research. These are some of the many strengths of this study.

Guyana’s independence struggle, which was birthed during the early Cold War days, was shaped and molded by the intense global East-West conflict for ideological superiority and hegemonic dominance. Two major studies have contributed towards a greater understanding of the influence of the Cold War on British and American foreign policy towards the Latin American/Caribbean region - America’s “backyard.” Stephen G. Rabe’s study, US Intervention in British Guiana: A Cold War Story (2005) relied on diplomatic and released official records to examine US covert intervention in British Guiana between 1953 and 1969, when the Kennedy and Johnson administrations adopted policies directed at preventing the creation of an independent Guyana under the leadership of Cheddi Jagan.

Another study by Colin Palmer, Cheddi Jagan and the Politics of Power: British Guiana’s Struggle for Independence (2010), published five years later, pursued a similar analysis by examining British Guiana's struggle for independence through the political activism of Cheddi Jagan. Palmer's work, while not ignoring the role of the British and the United States in preventing Cheddi Jagan’s rise to power, emphasized a number of domestic factors that contributed to Jagan’s early political downfall, including foreign interference, political violence, racial politics, and questionable leadership, all of which contributed to delaying Guyana's independence until 1966.

The is an ambitious research project on Cheddi Jagan by Clem Seecharan, a native-born Guyanese historian, originally from Palmyra, Berbice, who has pioneered multiple studies on Guyana’s historiography. The author’s work legitimizes the world view that Jagan’s political leadership was neither free from controversy, nor criticism. Cheddi Jagan, the humble son of Girmitiyas (indentured Indians), revered by all and sundry in Guyana, including by Seecharan himself, made some costly political blunders which have contributed towards the concretization of the bifurcated nature of Guyanese society, although this burden is not only his to share.

Seecharan provides evidence-based research that lends support to several historical miscalculations and political blunders attributed to Cheddi Jagan during the Cold War. For one, Jagan maintained a dogmatic Marxist ideology (instead of a pragmatic one), and his inflexibility, combined with political naïveté, and missed opportunities have led to a grave misunderstanding on how the Americans would react to an administration led by an avowed Marxist-Leninist leader. Two, in a structured post-World War II bipolar world, which placed a premium on balance of power politics, an interminable loyalty to the former Soviet Union (from Joseph Stalin to Boris Yeltsin) was not something that could have salvaged Jagan’s political career, or his government, even if he was fortuitous to lead the country into independence.

But Jagan’s political miscalculations, rarely exemplified in the realpolitik of other Caribbean leaders (including Forbes Burnham, his nemesis) led to Jagan’s ouster from office by the British in 1953, and, later, sadly, the creation of a political dictatorship which the United States considered a necessity for preventing the rise of “another Fidel Castro” in the region. A key fact revealed from MI5 files (Chapter 10) showed that the British knew everything about Cheddi's (and Janet's) devotion to the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and Soviet communism through bugged phone calls, intercepted letters, and eavesdropping on Cheddi and Janet when they visited the CPGB office in London. Yet London still sought to counsel Cheddi and advocated on his behalf (until Birch Grove, June 1963) - in order to protect him from JFK. Jagan and his “revolutionary” Marxist supporters were unable to remove the 28-year-old PNC dictatorship supported by the Americans. From the US perspective, alliance with the Soviet Union guaranteed that Jagan’s mission was doomed to failure.

Third, ethnicity was a more potent force for maintaining a large Indian support base, rather than Jagan’s firm belief in the existence of economic conflict between the haves and the have-nots. The majority of his Indian supporters were averse to any form of communal sharing and wealth distribution. They depended upon traditional entrepreneurial skills to advance upwards on the social and economic ladder. Jagan’s legacy is marred by his failure to address the ethnic problem in Guyana, and his rigid adherence to Marxist dogma prevented him from confronting this dilemma in a manner that would mitigate its generational effects. Seecharan summarized his purposeful research objective this way:

“…the ultimate aim of this book is to endeavour to comprehend the passion and inflexibility of a man who had all the trumps in his hand and still lost the game. What was it about his mental universe that made it impossible for him to recognise that the prize was there for the taking?...at the core of the Guyanese tragedy was the ethnic chasm: it could not be papered over; it was at the heart of the social composition of this difficult colony. Marxism-Leninism could not eradicate it.”

Seecharan’s willingness to take on this herculean task of establishing a definitive record of Jagan’s biographical political leadership during the Cold War offers a much more comprehensive and nuanced approach than the studies presented by Colin Palmer and Stephen Rabe. One distinctive area that stands out in his work is the extent to which the author has submerged himself into a comprehensive examination of the domestic and external factors, as well as the early background experience of Cheddi Jagan which influenced and shaped his ideology, policy preferences and political actions.

Additionally, the author, while relying on historical documents and archival materials, including PPP and PNC publications, United States Government Foreign Relations Files on British Guiana, diplomatic releases, British Colonial Office publications (including the MI5 files released so far from 1947 to early 1961), archival newspaper reports, and secondary sources, has drawn from a wide range of field interviews conducted with prominent political players associated with Cheddi Jagan to buttress his historical analysis, thereby adding reliability and legitimacy to his research project.

Not unexpectedly, the final product is unavoidably voluminous. The study encourages readers to carefully decipher unfolding events, embedded in the sixteen chapters organized under different historical and chronological turning points that combined to amplify the big picture of Cold War politics and its impact on Guyana. Several consistent themes are advanced throughout as the driving force behind Jagan’s political activism, namely his Marxist-Leninist political creed, steadfast loyalty to the Soviet Union, and his genuine commitment to the struggle of the working class. Seecharan also points to the inconsistency that existed between Jagan’s ideology and the nexus with his largely Indian supporters through the prism of Marxists (like Brindley Benn, Joslyn Hubbard, Moses Bhagwan, Harold Drayton, Janet Jagan, Eusi Kwayana, Ranji Chandisingh, Richard Hart, Billy Strachan, etc), as well as non-Marxists (like Ashton Chase, Fenton Ramsahoye, etc). This inquiry leads the author to a logical question: How was it possible for Jagan to consistently maintain a large following of supporters who did not share his Marxist philosophy for so many years? Seecharan attributed the inconsistency between Jagan’s ideological sustainability and political