Question: Why did the United States support the overthrow of an elected Guatemalan president?
Answer: The US wanted to protect their country and prevent the spread of communism.
Explanation: In the 1950s, during the Cold War, the US decided on foreign policy with the objective of containing communism. The U.S. intervened in Guatemala in 1954 by removing its elected president, Jacobo Arbenz, who was soft on communism, in order to maintain the US hegemony in the Western Hemisphere.