Land Rovers prowled the streets, bristling with British tommies and submachine guns. Army helicopters whirred overhead. Military radios crackled back and forth. It was election day in British Guiana, and Her Majesty's government in Whitehall was determined to ensure the peaceful elections that seemed to be the colony's only hope of ending its three-year reign of racial violence. But -not for the first time-hope for stability in British Guiana was thwarted by Marxist Premier Cheddi Jagan.
The election was specifically designed to oust Jagan, whose People's Progressive Party is overwhelmingly supported by...