John Emil Peurifoy
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John Emil Peurifoy (August 9, 1907 - August 12, 1955) was the ambassador for the United States to Guatemala during the 1954 coup that overthrew the democratic government of Jacobo Arbenz.
Peurifoy was born in Walterboro, South Carolina on August 9th, 1907. His mother died when he was six, and his father died in his teenage years. Peurifoy lived in a variety of places in South Carolina until he managed to attain an appointment to West Point in 1926. He had to drop out of the military academy after two years because of pneumonia. He was a Fulbright Scholar and graduated from the Fletcher School of Law Diplomacy at Tufts University. During World War II, Peurifoy began working as a clerk in the Economic Warfare and War Production Boards. In 1945, Peurifoy organized a meeting in San Francisco for the United Nations, and in 1949 he became the Deputy Undersecretary of State. In 1950, he was assigned to be the ambassador to Greece. During his three year tenure in Greece, he helped put together a center-right Greek government that included the Greek royal family. Due to his direct and un-diplomatic involvement in Greece's internal affairs, his name has still extremely negative connotations and every foreigner attempting to interfere with Greece's politics is characterized as a "Peurifoy".
In 1953, the Eisenhower administration reassigned Peurifoy to Guatemala as ambassador. It was in 1953 when the CIA set into motion an operation to overthrow the government of Guatemala, led by Jacobo Arbenz. He pressed Arbenz hard on his positions on land reform and communism, and at certain points,may have participated in the coup. After the CIA successfully overthrew Arbenz, Peurifoy worked with the military junta that controlled the country afterwards, led by Carlos Castillo Armas, a Guatemalan rebel. After Armas was declared president of Guatemala, the State Department gave Peurifoy a new post: ambassador to Thailand.
On August 12, 1955, Peurifoy and one of his sons died in an auto accident near Hua Hin, Thailand. In Thailand, there is a John E. Peurifoy Memorial Foundation, which provides funds for Fulbright Scholars.
