John Emil Peurifoy (August 9, 1907 – August 12, 1955) was an American diplomat, an
ambassador
An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...
in the early years of the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
. He served as United States ambassador in
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
and
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...
and was the United States Ambassador to
Guatemala
Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...
during the
1954 coup that overthrew the democratic government of
Jacobo Arbenz
Jacobo is both a surname and a given name of Spanish origin. Based on the name Jacob. Notable people with the name include:
Surname:
* Alfredo Jacobo (born 1982), Olympic breaststroke swimmer from Mexico
* Cesar Chavez Jacobo, Dominican profession ...
.
Background
Peurifoy was born in
Walterboro,
South Carolina
)''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
, on August 9, 1907.
[''The New York Times'']
"Peurifoy's First-Name Diplomacy Succeeded in Hard Assignments," August 13, 1955
accessed April 17, 2011 His family of lawyers and jurists traced their New World ancestry to 1619, two years before the arrival of the ''
Mayflower
''Mayflower'' was an English ship that transported a group of English families, known today as the Pilgrims, from England to the New World in 1620. After a grueling 10 weeks at sea, ''Mayflower'', with 102 passengers and a crew of about 30, r ...
''.
His mother Emily Wright died when he was six, and his father John H. Peurifoy died in December 1926.
[''The New York Times'']
Flora Lewis, "Ambassador Extraordinary: John Peurifoy" July 18, 1954
accessed April 17, 2011 When he graduated from high school in 1926, the yearbook recorded his ambition to be President of the United States.
Peurifoy received an appointment to
West Point
The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...
in 1926. He withdrew from the military academy after two years because of pneumonia.
Career
He worked for a time in New York City as a restaurant cashier and then as a Wall Street clerk.
He went to Washington, D.C. in April 1935 in the hopes of working for the State Department. He operated an elevator for the House of Representatives–a patronage job he got through South Carolina Congressman
"Cotton Ed" Smith–and worked for the Treasury Department.
He attended night school at
American University
The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was charte ...
and
George Washington University
, mottoeng = "God is Our Trust"
, established =
, type = Private federally chartered research university
, academic_affiliations =
, endowment = $2.8 billion (2022)
, preside ...
.
Peurifoy married Betty Jane Cox, a former Oklahoma schoolteacher, in 1936.
When he lost his job at Treasury, he and his wife both worked at
Woodward & Lothrop
Woodward & Lothrop was a department store chain headquartered in Washington, D.C. that began as the capital's first department store in 1887. Woodies, as it was often nicknamed, maintained stores in the Mid-Atlantic United States. Its flagship s ...
department store.
Peurifoy identified himself as a political liberal and was a lifelong Democrat, because, he said, "You're born that way in South Carolina. It's almost like your religion."
State Department
Peurifoy joined the State Department in October 1938 as a $2000 a year clerk and eight years later was earning $8000 a year as assistant to the Under Secretary of State.
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Peurifoy served as the State Department's representative on several inter-departmental committees of the
Board of Economic Warfare
The Office of Administrator of Export Control (also referred to as the Export Control Administration) was established in the United States by Presidential Proclamation 2413, July 2, 1940, to administer export licensing provisions of the act of July ...
and the
War Production Board
The War Production Board (WPB) was an agency of the United States government that supervised war production during World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt established it in January 1942, with Executive Order 9024. The WPB replaced the Sup ...
.
In 1945, Peurifoy managed the arrangements for
Conference on International Organization in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
that led to the establishment of the United Nations. President Truman's
Executive Order 9835
President Harry S. Truman signed United States Executive Order 9835, sometimes known as the "Loyalty Order", on March 21, 1947. The Executive order (United States), order established the first general loyalty program in the United States, designed ...
(1947) established departmental review boards to remove from government service or to deny employment to persons if "reasonable grounds exist for belief that the person involved is disloyal to the United States." In 1947, Peurifoy asked the FBI to conduct an audit of the State Department's Division of Security and Investigations, which found them "lacking in thoroughness."
[Richard Loss, "Secretary of State Dean Acheson as Political Executive: Administrator of Personnel Security," ''Public Administration Review'', vol. 34 (1974), 354-6]
On December 7, 1948, Peurifoy testified before the
House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...
(HUAC), as it pursued the
Alger Hiss
Alger Hiss (November 11, 1904 – November 15, 1996) was an American government official accused in 1948 of having spied for the Soviet Union in the 1930s. Statutes of limitations had expired for espionage, but he was convicted of perjury in con ...
Case.
[
]
Secretary of State
George C. Marshall
George Catlett Marshall Jr. (December 31, 1880 – October 16, 1959) was an American army officer and statesman. He rose through the United States Army to become Chief of Staff of the United States Army, Chief of Staff of the US Army under Pre ...
appointed him Deputy Undersecretary of State for Administration in 1949, the third-ranking job in the Department, and tasked him with reorganizing the Department and handling relations with Congress.
His responsibilities included everything except the substance of foreign policy: the Offices of Personnel, Consular Affairs, Operating Facilities, and Management and Budget. Throughout the years of Peurifoy's involvement in security and personnel issues, the Department focused on new hires rather than its established employees–the primary targets of Soviet attempts at infiltration–unless Congressional investigations prompted a review of a particular employee.
When Senator
Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visi ...
charged in 1950 that Communists were working in the State Department, Peurifoy unsuccessfully challenged him to share his information.
However, the same year, Peurifoy tells a
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and pow ...
committee of a "homosexual underground" in the State Department and announced that 91 State Department employees had been outed and discharged. His remarks along with gay baiting comments from Senator
Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visi ...
help ignite the so-called "
Lavender scare
The "lavender scare" was a moral panic about homosexual people in the United States government which led to their mass dismissal from government service during the mid-20th century. It contributed to and paralleled the anti-communist campaign wh ...
".
Peurifoy passed his foreign service examinations in 1949 and joined the Foreign Service that year.
Greece
In 1950, he was appointed ambassador to Greece. The Communists had already been defeated in the
Greek Civil War
The Greek Civil War ( el, ο Eμφύλιος όλεμος ''o Emfýlios'' 'Pólemos'' "the Civil War") took place from 1946 to 1949. It was mainly fought against the established Kingdom of Greece, which was supported by the United Kingdom ...
. During his three-year tenure in Greece, to counter the possible return of the Communists, he helped strengthen the anti-Communist government, a center-right Greek government that included the Greek royal family, with whom Peurifoy had warm personal relations.
Due to his direct and un-diplomatic involvement in Greece's internal affairs, his name has negative connotations in Greece and a foreigner who attempts to interfere with Greece's politics is called a "Peurifoy".
In 1953, Peurifoy told
Adlai Stevenson that the career members of the Foreign Service were "depressed" by Senator McCarthy's campaign against the State Department. He said he was "unhappy" himself and believed that McCarthy had engineered his transfer from Greece because of a dispute over "some files," though the more likely reason was his experience dealing with Communists.
Guatemala
In 1953, during the
Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
administration, Peurifoy was sent to Guatemala, the first Western Hemisphere nation to allegedly include Communists in its government.
The fabrications regarding the communist regime had been triggered by a year long smear campaign instigated by the
United Fruit Company
The United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) was an American multinational corporation that traded in tropical fruit (primarily bananas) grown on Latin American plantations and sold in the United States and Europe. The company was formed in 1899 fro ...
UFCO, after a series of social reforms had expropriated land acquired under dubious circumstances by UFCO. The "standard" of the smear campaign had been using the social reforms in the country to accuse the regime of communism. The CIA led operation was codenamed
PBSuccess. He took up his position as Ambassador there in November 1953.
Carlos Castillo Armas, leader of the CIA sponsored rebel forces, was already raising and arming his forces.
Peurifoy made clear to Guatemalan President
Jacobo Arbenz
Jacobo is both a surname and a given name of Spanish origin. Based on the name Jacob. Notable people with the name include:
Surname:
* Alfredo Jacobo (born 1982), Olympic breaststroke swimmer from Mexico
* Cesar Chavez Jacobo, Dominican profession ...
that the United States cared only about removing Communists from any role in the government.
In June 1954, the
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
set into motion a plan to overthrow the Arbenz government. Peurifoy pressed Arbenz hard on his positions on land reform and played an active role in the coup. He then played a central role negotiations between Guatemala's army officers, Elfego Monzon, the head of the military junta that seized power and
Carlos Castillo Armas, leader of rebel forces.
Carlos Castillo Armas was later declared president of Guatemala.
His work in Greece and Guatemala earned him a reputation as "the State Department's ace troubleshooter in Communist hotspots."
''The New York Times'' reported in 1954 that he contemplated running for the U.S. Presidency someday.
Thailand
Peurifoy was given a new post as
U.S. ambassador to Thailand.
Death
On August 12, 1955, while serving as ambassador in Thailand, Peurifoy and his nine-year-old son Daniel Byrd Peurifoy died when the
Thunderbird
Thunderbird, thunder bird or thunderbirds may refer to:
* Thunderbird (mythology), a legendary creature in certain North American indigenous peoples' history and culture
* Ford Thunderbird, a car
Birds
* Dromornithidae, extinct flightless birds ...
he was driving collided with a truck near
Hua Hin
Hua Hin ( th, หัวหิน, ) is one of eight districts (''amphoe'') of Prachuap Khiri Khan province in the northern part of the Malay Peninsula in Thailand. Its seat of government, also named Hua Hin, is a beach resort town. The district ...
. His older son, John Clinton Peurifoy, known as Clinton, who was injured in the accident, had cerebral palsy. In 1957, ''Time'' in its "Religion" section published a story from the Peurifoys' years in Greece, when
Prince Constantine told Clinton "My sister and I have been talking about you, and we have decided that you must be the favorite pupil of Jesus....In school the best pupil is always given the hardest problems to solve. God gave you the hardest problem of all, so you must be His favorite pupil." Clinton protested.
Queen Frederika repeated her son's words to the Ambassador, who also objected to the sentiment. A few weeks later, ''Time'' published a letter from a woman with cerebral palsy who defended Peurifoy and asked: "Why do we become mushy and impractical as well as intolerant when we speak of religion?". Another letter called the point of view taken by ''Time'' and the Queen as "fantastically puerile." John Clinton died in 1959 at the age of 19. Peurifoy and his sons are buried together in Arlington National Cemetery. Betty Jane Cox Peurifoy (1912–1998), the ambassador's widow, later married Arthur Chidester Steward.
Legacy
Based in Thailand, the John E. Peurifoy Memorial Foundation provides funds for Fulbright Scholars.
[Thailand - United States Educational Foundation]
"Peurifoy Foundation: Holding TUSEF’s Hands to Help Fulbright Grantees"
, accessed April 17, 2011
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peurifoy, John Emil
1907 births
1955 deaths
Ambassadors of the United States to Greece
Ambassadors of the United States to Guatemala
Ambassadors of the United States to Thailand
Burials at Arlington National Cemetery
Guatemalan Revolution
McCarthyism
People from Walterboro, South Carolina
South Carolina Democrats
United States Foreign Service personnel