The Myth of Bananaland: The Marketing and Reality of the United Fruit Company

Re:The Myth of Bananaland: The Marketing and Reality of the ... by ttyprintk on Thursday December 12, 2024 @03:03AM (#42397220)

I was wrong and there are numerous other companies that are coded as operations.

My understanding is that the UFC operated a fleet of fruit shipments which also transported tourists. That seems like a pretty comfortable setting for CIA agents.

I myself don’t know the cryptonym, maybe begins with YO-.

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Re:The Myth of Bananaland: The Marketing and Reality of the ... by eesmith on Friday December 13, 2024 @06:22AM (#42407636)

My understanding is that a lot of primarily cargo ships back then also had passenger service. At https://archive.org/details/great-whitefleet-united-fruit-co... you can read how UFC's "Great White Fleet" used ships "intended for general fruit carrying and passenger service between New York, West Indian and Central American ports."

The passenger service existed "to satisfy the tropic-hunger of the North", and the pictures show the luxury.

It's still possible to be a passenger on a modern freighter, but not at that level of luxury.

https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1952-54Gua... page on "Abbreviations and Cryptonyms" says UFCO, UNFC, and UNIFRUIT were used for United Fruit Company. The Danish Wikipedia mentions UNIFRUIT at https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA%27s_kodeord but the English one does not.

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