Phyllis Parker was a graduate student at the University of Texas, doing research for a master’s thesis in 1974, when she stumbled across recently declassified documents that proved U.S. knowledge of the 1964 coup in Brazil. Up until this point, the U.S. government had denied accusations that they had knowledge of or were involved in the coup that overthrew Goulart, and no historian had documentary proof to combat their statements. After finding documents that verified U.S. knowledge of the coup before it occurred, as well as outlining U.S. military support backing the coup, she interviewed Lincoln Gordon, who admitted to the existence of Operation Brother Sam (the military’s code name for the naval forces and other military support the United States had in place in case of the coup’s failure). Parker’s discoveries were published in 1974 in a book called Brazil and the Quiet Intervention, the first text to be published documenting U.S. military support for the 1964 coup.