[Editor’s note: Insofar as is possible, the letters and notes of Peoples Temple’s contacts with the Guyana Ministry of Information have been arranged below in chronological order.]
N-10 (1)
MINISTER OF INFORMATION
18 Brickdam
P.O. Box 1023
Georgetown, GUYANA.
August 78, 1977
Dear Comrade,
Thank you very much for your letter and enclosed clipping.
It is very encouraging to have received from you a letter which sets out so clearly the depth of your concern and involvement in the struggle to create of Guyana a socialist society. We do have problems particularly arising out of the comments of those who do not understand the process through which we are passing and seek therefore to decry it. However, the answer to this is to make a success of the revolution in which we are engaged and in this spirit we welcome your contribution to this end.
Yours cooperatively,
Shirley Field–Ridley,
Minister.
Cde Nancy Sines, P.O. Box 893, GEORGETOWN.
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N-10 (2)
[Envelope addressed to Nancy Sines]
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D-1-N-2 (1)
Sharon Amos
Ron van Dyke
(meeting 3/4/78, Marcie, Mike P. [Prokes]. Sharon, Debbie)
– I asked him if he had gotten the paper for us with guidelines for us so we knew if there was a press standoff or not about us and he had said he would talk to Shirley Field-Ridley (his boss) and Mingo about us to see, but we never received it
– he said his view is that as long as we did not conflict with the national goals, it was okay. I asked him if he felt we did that, he said well you could run counter to the cultural life, and might inject something into society that hasn’t built up its pride etc.
– we want to build a Guyanese culture, he said, that is self-reliant, the former society produced beggars
(Prokes and Marcie said they understood and they saw what he meant)
– he said it was officials fault that they hadn’t briefed us properly and he was trying to be honest
– we talked about wanting only to help with the progress in Guyana
– he said we had a North American orientation
(by the way he was an hour late for our meeting and he had stood us up on a similar engagement when we invited him for dinner. He said he was sick and called to apologize saying he had laryngitis) but he didn’t call the evening of the dinner and didn’t call until I went into his office and left a note for him
– he said Guyanese believe what they are told and that is a problem/first and foremost they need to determine their own destiny
– I asked him what the problem was with us
– he said “you push your own line” (I went thru the whole bit about the fact that even he the first time had told us we could be a help to Guyana and an inspiration and we had been told to let people know more about us so we wouldn’t be thought of as assertive (on an official level)
– he said that if we do publicize ourselves (and he heard of our open invitation of the press (as did Shirley Field-Ridley) they should all come at one time/ “The media should reflect the same thing and the content should be the same”
– Marcie said “That makes sense”
– he said “you are thinking too much”/ he said any group that came in from a foreign country would be looked on with suspicion
(I told Marcie to hold onto her chair which she did, and warned her that I was going to blast him/ his tone was unfeeling and I didn’t think we should let him get away with this)
– I told him I didn’t even believe he was being straight with us, and who had he been talking to because he had been so encouraging of us the first time we came in. He said he had talked to some (I asked who but he wouldn’t say)
– I told him that if he wouldn’t help us or tell us what we are dealing with he was insensitive since we are socialists living interracially and we are a people who never were accepted in the US because of what we stood for and now it seems we weren’t accepted here. (I started to cry)
– he said we are trying to [illegible word] people of that what we are doing is good [illegible [ two words]
– I said we certainly have not tried to get converts and as far as bringing in an alien culture, it’s quite the opposite, the man in the street is brainwashed thinking America is the land of promise and in rejecting that culture, we are actually affirming the Guyanese culture
– he agreed that was true and started to take a more apologetic tone
– he said it was the fault of administrators whom we have met but wouldn’t specify/ I told him then he should help us since he was the one who had been willing to be direct with us
– first he said he couldn’t advise you, it would have to be regional people/ I asked him if it was they who had complaints and he didn’t answer (over)
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D-1-N-2 (2)
Ron van Dyke pg 2 3/4/78
– I told him that it was incredible to me that socialists in this world could regard each other as aliens even when the world was all in conflict and more than anything we needed peace and people working together regardless of barriers
– I told him I was sure Angela Davis also didn’t feel comfortable in the US just as we never did either and where was it you could go and be accepted
– he said we were over-enthusiastic
– I told him that I was sure that people like Lenin had been considered over-enthusiastic
– he told me I wasn’t a diplomat but I shouldn’t change anyway
– Marcie [balance of two lines over typed] us tomorrow and come over/ and he would call Mingo about us
Dick McCoy 2/4/78 Marcie, Sharon, Mike, Debbie
– regarding Lynetta’s will, he wondered if the will would be probated here in the US/ if her money is there Charles Garry could take care of it for us and we should contact him
– she wasn’t sure if Marcie would have to be at a hearing or not to deal with her becoming executor
Re Performances
– he said people from his Embassy who attended thought it was very good
– Dan Webber Political Officer wonder tho about the mention of assassination in regard to Pres. Carter (it had been said something about our enemies being his enemies and we hoped he wouldn’t meet the same fate as Kennedy Martin Luther King for his progressive stands
– he took this as political/ Marcie had the speech with her and said what she had said which didn’t exactly mention assassination when I told him that I thought death of a good man would be a moral issue as well
– he said he heard it was a very professional job
– he couldn’t understand why we would explain to Guyanese why we have been thrown out of the US
– Prokes said we should have cleared it thru you
– he said “no problem”
– Dan Webber the political officer is a former Peace Corps person in Afghanistan/ (political officers Dick said are often thought of with suspect by some people) (CIA I guess)
– a man by the name of Douglas Ellis [Ellice] will replace McCoy, he is a young officer, served in Luxembourg and before that in Manila
– the Ambassador’s secretary also attended the performance and another secretary
– he said that some people had thought it would be amateurish and hadn’t attended one turned out to be quite professional
– he said that he is on first name basis with Dr. Jagan, said when he was in the US, he looked up Jagan’s children who both live in the US/ one is a permanent resident there/ the daughter was at Moscow University but didn’t like it and left and is now in the US. Jagan goes to the US frequently (he of course has to sign a paper that he is a communist and he does so and McCoy teases him about it, he says Socialism is bankrupt and communism is just a way to perpetuate certain people in power and Jagan just laughs.
– McCoy likes Russian culture (said to Debbie who was writing) “don’t quote me on this” (tho one Russian group that came was very bad and Jagan didn’t like it either
– I teased McCoy for having Leftist connections and he laughed and said it is all in the job (a CIA agent) has to contact everyone (he didn’t say that of course)
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D-1-N-9 (1)
Ron van Dyke/Ministry of Information, visited by Sharon Amos & Deb T.
– Ron said he would like to meet [Dick] Tropp, after we presented an article Tropp wrote
– had not done anything in writing for us as to whether there was a press standoff on us for not, said he would speak with Shirley and Mingo and get back to us.
– He said he liked Tropp’s style. “When I’m finished with the article, I think I’ll music. The article on medicine will be published and People’s Temple will be mentioned. He said that was something they wanted to do. We invited him
– We invited him to dinner, and he was very evasive, set a date finally. He didn’t show up
Ron van Dyke, visited by Marceline, Sharon, Deb T., Mike P.
– Ron – Guyanese people are very simple, can easily be swayed. Government wants China to know the first is to have self-development. When you have other organizations that [illegible word] their own line, government has to draw the line somewhere.
– Marceline – Are you referring to minister Hoyte (the article) “No, coming from minister Hoyte I didn’t expect anything better,” Ron said. Marceline – What are you referring to?
– The content of the news must be the [illegible word], he didn’t want us to invite individual persons, but go through him. Ron – people say America is God’s own country.
– We’re moving from one system to the next. They built around themselves artificial constraints out of fear, fear of making decisions (ref. to standoff from the press) he said he was cut off from the office for a long time, people were afraid to give information, maybe because it comes from higher up and they would get into trouble. On the phone to someone he said he wasn’t well).
– Ron – Minister Mingo will be in at 3:00 today, the man who I was supposed to get your letter from (ref. to standoff, made a phone call about an appointment with Minister Mingo.
– Sharon said, “If you’re going to put us in a schizophrenic bind… Ron said I don’t care… I’m not trying to tsk tsk tsk. (If conversation doesn’t make much sense to you, it didn’t for us either. Ron’s voice was cold, unattached, and hostile, he was trying to lay some stir emotion with intellectual coolness.)
– Ron – he saw the cultural presentation was good, though “Frankly I don’t think you would appeal to anybody.”
Deb Touchette
April 5, 78
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D-1-N-9 (2)
– Sharon asked him for direction. Ron said our direction shouldn’t come from him. He said he was supposed to be our advisor. Sharon asked why.
– He said Sharon would make a lousy diplomat, he said sometimes he couldn’t even help himself because of the pressures.
– Sharon – are we that controversial? Ron – No, “I have to be very careful of decisions that we make, I have to weigh everything. I don’t think you controversial, I don’t think the Government would like to make special privileges be it religious or a foreigner
– Ron – If I had my way, nobody would get into the god damn paper anyway
– Ron. “People think you are enthusiastic, you came into the country and started with agriculture, you’re doing more than you’re allowed to do.” He said our activities would have interfered culturally, we are an imported alien culture. He said he would tell us what he would do… Sharon broke down and started crying, Ron refused to talk to her, he said that’s why I like talking to men, “Look at her isn’t she a pretty sight… He made a couple of other critical remarks, but I didn’t catch them, we all began to yell at him, Marceline told of Jim risking his life, being shot at, adopting children.
– Ron – Guyanese don’t know the man, what is Jim Jones to Guyanese? [Illegible word] some of what Marceline said, told of young people being saved from fine cars and fancy clothes, while living in ghettos, unable to change because the media had so brainwashed us etc.
– Ron – pointed at me, “I don’t want to talk to that girl… Ever.” I told him he was going to hear what I had to say.
– Deb – some people often accuse us of being emotional, but one thing they can count on, if they are ever in need of someone fighting for their rights, we’ll fight just as hard for them, as we do for them as we do for the rights of others.
– Ron – shook everybody’s hand but mine as we were going out the door.
– Deb – I told him if he had that much hate towards me, I didn’t care if he didn’t shake my hand, so he shook my hand briefly. He said he wanted to meet with Mike alone, we told him we didn’t work that way.
Ron Van Dyke/Ministry of Information: Mike, Tim, Deb, Sharon… April 4, 78
– We made an appointment for two o’clock in the afternoon, he didn’t show up until after 8 PM, ordering a blackout in fact.
– I sat down beside him on the couch, because it was the only seat available, he looked at me as though he would throw up right there.
– Ron – are you still alive? I thought you’d be dead by now.
– Ron – I came here because I want to get to know you people, I didn’t drive to come. He implied he had to make a decision (which may include us) and wanted to know more. Then… I don’t care anything about you, I don’t care what you do, just want to know what you really are.
– He came from a middle-class background, he said, has traveled to many countries, including the United States, has relatives in the US.
– Married six months, broke up, got drunk on the eve of wedding night, didn’t show up to ceremony. Regretted his mistake (hates women), he said he couldn’t deal with women, he has a sister, and he can’t deal with her.
– Sharon said don’t. Let’s just be people. He said yes, he should do that. Kept asking Mike to meet with him alone, to come to his office alone, no women.
– Sharon responded to a comment he made about not knowing Jim, talked about [illegible word] totalitarianism, I added that you had to protect your children from bullies, and Ron told me that I was to shut up, I was there to listen and keep quiet.
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D-1-N-6
Deborah Touchette
April 10, 1978
Ministry of Information
Ron Van Dyke
Visited by: Sharon Amos
Deborah Touchette
Mike Prokes
– He said Shirley was a little worried because we’ve got people with various opinions about Peoples Temple. Basically said same as Shirley about going slow in dealing with people
– people must look on themselves on self-reliant, not beggars
– Mike told him about trying to give food to people and being reproached for this
– Ron said the problem is we’ve not briefed you. People must see themselves as Guyanese and be proud, not lean on someone as a prop.
– He was invited to lunch mid day.
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D-1-N-7
Deborah Touchette
April 10, 1978
Ministry of Information
Ron Van Dyke
Visited by: Marceline Jones
Sharon Amos
Deborah Touchette
Mike Prokes
– He said [illegible word] assigned to the cultural center (photographer) by the Ministry of Information, said it was the best show he had ever seen. Almost all the people he [illegible word] said the same.
– Sharon asked how people responded to the speech?
– He said he didn’t know, his mother was there and she enjoyed it.
– [Several illegible words] said there has never been a show that was free theater, except for the very first program to open the theater. Said one of the riders had been there, he wished he had been there himself.
– Another appointment, Cde. Arnold said he had given the paper (story) on PT cultural show to the press, said it was good, but he couldn’t promise anything big… Said he was sure there would be something mentioned about it in the news, but he couldn’t promise it would be all of our story, although he had sent it over.
10/4/78
– Mike Prokes checked on this with Carl Blackman and found that he had not seen it. And neither had the man Arnold claimed he had given it to. Also Arnold still had the pictures in his desk, undeveloped. Mike asked if they could develop them at the Guyana Chronicle in spite of the blackout situation is. Arnold agreed that they could, but said they wanted to develop them at the Ministry, and could not because they did not have access to equipment because of the blackout.
Cde. Arnold works in the office with Ron Van Dyke, as an Information officer
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D-1-N-8
Deborah Touchette
April 10, 1978
Ministry of Information
Shirley Field-Ridley
Visited by: Marceline Jones
Mike Prokes
Sharon Amos
Deborah Touchette
– Mike asked about a documentary on PT
– Shirley said it was a cost problem, she mentioned that she had even given up her air-conditioner from the office to help on saving
– they couldn’t afford foreign currency, but had no objection to us doing it on our own
– said we could ask the team for a script before they start to be sure they will be sympathetic
– Sharon [illegible word] a standoff policy in the press?
– Shirley said there was an article on PT printed with Fernandes comments four weeks ago.
– Mike ask if it was in the “Mirror”?
– Marceline praised her on being in the position she is as a woman.
– Mike said it was refreshing.
– She responded greatly to this, said that was nice coming from a male.
– Sharon asked about the Hoyte article?
– Shirley – the last article was difficult (explained that usually comments are separated from facts, and this had not been done). There was no problem, certainly there was no problem that can be sorted out.
– (ref. to our program) said the quality was good, but the only problem was the length.
– She thought it went very well. In terms of some of the hours we spent in practice.
– She wished some of the artists could have spent some time with us so we could be an example.
– She mentioned we came from different backgrounds, different ideologies and it hasn’t made any change in the government’s attitude towards us. (ref to Hoyte’s letter)
– It’s bound to happen again. It will happen again.
– Mike said we want to integrate.
– Shirley said it will take a little time, don’t press it too hard. It’s a soft approach and all the time. Basically we are reserve, although the Caribbean are generous and friendly. [Illegible words], but basically reserved, “I suppose that comes from the British.”
– Marceline told her about conspiracy against us, (Senator Stinnis [John Stennis] issue)
– Shirley said “I know that won’t stop now, after any while it will begin to go.) (ref. to security we [several illegible words])
– said she understood that we need to be vigilant and answer to charges, it’s a different pace of life than New York, floors her completely
– Marceline asked about the arrest order?
– Shirley said she didn’t know what was going on, is this by our court? Ask if the child had [illegible word] Jim appeared in court?
– We showed her a letter from Philip Burton and Mrs. Carter.
– If it’s [illegible word] arrest to bring him to court, then there’s no problem arresting him
– if they did, they would be in trouble, what would they do with him. (Shirley is [illegible word] profession) no one can come along to use the orders because it [illegible words] for that special purpose, and because the trial has already taken place and only waiting a decision, can’t be used
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D-1-N-3
Aaron Adams, Ministry of Info 12/4/78
– we went in to talk to Van Dyke about the article not being published
– showed Aaron the booklet about Jonestown (A Model Community) and showed him and Ron VanDyke some pictures of the project
– he said he “sincerely wants to help”
– said if we gave him some booklets he’d get them out to reporters with a note on then (I gave him some) (He was going to send them to the CITIZEN paper with a note that they should cover our story)
– he sees what we mean about our story (Cultural show) being ignored/ says that happens to them too sometimes when they send in a story
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D-1-N-4
[Editor’s note: This page, likely a Peoples Temple press release about a performance by Jonestown residents in Georgetown, is mostly illegible.]
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D-1-N-5 (1)
May 2, 1978
Deborah Touchette
Roy van Dyke/ Minister of Information
Pegasus poolside w/ Tim Carter, Deborah Touchette
– I met Roy the night our group was performing, he said he dropped him because he wanted to hear us.
– He came with a man from the Cuban press in Guyana, both he and the man appeared to be very drunk.
– He said they were close friends, they had gone to school together in East Germany
– it was his birthday, (Roy’s) and he wanted to know if I would take a drink with him?
– I said I didn’t drink, so I’d have a Pepsi. He got obnoxious with persistence, said this is what we do in Guyana, and he was going to buy a drink for me and I was going to [illegible word] a beer. (He got loud enough so that all standing around the bar could hear, and the tone he used was accusation that I was too good). I told him I hated beer and if he wanted me to have a drink it would be a soft drink, or I wasn’t going to drink with him at all.
– He finally got a drink but declared before the evening was over I was going to have one.
– He said he was going to East Germany, the govt was asking him to go there and work in the Embassy. He felt some reservations about it because he had a lot of conflicts
– said he was being put into the position directly under the ambassador(chargé d’affaires)
– I told him it was good and he should accept the job.
– he said he knew he could do it, but he had conflict about it. He said he didn’t even like the job he had right now because of what it entailed.
– He said there’s a part of him the likes us (Peoples Temple), but at the same time he has always keep in mind his country’s goals first and what they are trying to do.
– Whenever he talks to us, or any group of non-Guyanese, he has to let them know that no one will rule us or tell us how to run our country (In so many words he said this is a black country and they had to maintain their nationalism)
– I told him I didn’t see how he could view our group in the same way as he did others in that we were multi-racial, not only in marriages, but our children were of different nationalities with Jim Jones as our example.
– He maintained that people could still be racist and be married to a person of a different race, used himself as an example, said he was once married for nine months to a pure East Indian woman, but he still maintained that they had to protect the nationalism of the country (Blacks in Power).
– He said he knew a lot of people who were married to East Indian women that would fight to keep the Indians from gaining power.
– I told him I could not understand how he could view Peoples Temple with racism at all [illegible words] trying to gain power in Guyana. I mentioned that we came working voluntarily and didn’t take any jobs from Guyanese, and that he should come and see how we live in that we are living cooperatively, the lifestyle of the Guyana talks about and is trying to work towards. I said if nothing else you could tell what [we] were by the way we live.
– He said you people keep inviting me up there, but you don’t seem to understand, especially Sharon and you. He said Mike understood why he couldn’t come up, but Mike was one of us and he had to maintain the position that we took.
– He said the reason he didn’t like his job is because he had to lie to people, people like you (Peoples Temple) and others
– He said after he came and visited us in our home, the next day he told his colleagues, one young man that works for him in his office, not to talk to us unless he got instructions from him first, but to listen and to learn.
– Roy said he likes talking to us because he learned a lot, especially Sharon, Tim & Mike. His friend from Cuba kept coming after us and trying to get Roy to leave.
– Roy said he had originally come with his friend to go to the Cuban embassy, said that
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D-1-N-5 (2)
– May 1 meant a lot of celebration in Cuba because Labor Day, meaning that the power was in the hands of the people, meant a lot in Cuba. He had asked him to stop off at the Pegasus so he could hear a little of our performance.
– I kept telling Roy I thought he should go with his friend in lieu of the Pegasus for some time.
– He said he didn’t want to go and he would just tell his friend to go get a beer every time he bothered him about going.
– Roy said he didn’t want me to feel like he was pumping me for information (which is exactly how I felt)
– He wanted to know where Sharon was, I told him she was in the Hospital. He said he would go visit her.
– The whole time he was talking to me he kept tapping my shoulder, fiddling with my collar and holding onto the necklace around my neck. I kept moving away from him and finally told him I had to go before the next performance because I was helping to coordinate it. Before this I had taken him around to try to introduce him to some of our other people, so he couldn’t corner me but they were all involved in other conversations, so when I broke away from him, I asked Debbie what did she think would be the best thing to do, finally I got Tim to go with me and talk to him. Earlier I tried to get him to go with me to see Tim, he said he didn’t want to talk to Tim so he was slightly hostile when Tim came over. He just was persistent that he drank a beer and got almost nasty with Tim about this [illegible word].
– Tim had Shirley to announce a special happy birthday to him from Peoples Temple over the microphone, he became a little pleasanter to deal with.
– Earlier in the conversation I reminded him he had not given us guidelines, or a code of ethics to go by.
– He said he thought the whole suggestion was ridiculous.
– he made a comment about us going from person to person asking about guidelines
– I said if we had been given some particulars in the beginning, then maybe some of our difficulties could have been avoided, such things as customs where the things we bring in to assist Guyana, but in all the bureaucracy, those that hinder us from bringing in things with expediency are only hindering Guyana.
– He said something and I started to answer it, he told me to shut up.
– I told him he had just better cool it.
– Some other people came up that I knew and I excused myself to say hello.
– A few minutes later, Roy introduced us to a friend of his who was working in the National Service Press.
– His name is Fabian Comer, he said he wanted to come over to our home and talk to us about our project, said he had heard about us and was interested.
– I told him we would enjoy talking with him sometime.
– He said good, then he would come over Tuesday.
– I told him Tuesday was a bad day, just after the holidays. He asked what they would be better, I told him Wed., said he would be coming at [illegible words]
– After the [illegible word] was over Roy asked Debbie Blakey to locate me, he wanted to talk to me before we left, so I kept out of sight until time to go. He caught us going out the back.
– He said another one of his friends had been left laying on the ground by members of the band and was drunk, so he and the [several words over typed] and another Cuban [illegible word] was trying to help him home. He asked me to step aside with him, before [illegible word] I wouldn’t understand. His friend was homosexual and dressed in a [illegible word] transvestite fashion)
– He said his father was a minister in parliament when the British were in power
– said I love my father, but he’s an ass
– said people say when he goes somewhere, “oh, you are so-and-so’s son, but he (Ron)
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D-1-N-5 (3)
wanted to do something from Guyana. He wanted to do something to make people in Guyana be proud of themselves, mentioned that the people were lazy, wanted them to work to change the society.
– He said his father lived in a fine home, but he didn’t want that type of life.
– Said he was given everything he wanted when he was young, and that was bad.
– He asked me to call him on Monday. I told him I could not because I would be in the parade. I told him we would come in some time this week.