John Peurifoy | |
|---|---|
 | |
| United States Ambassador toThailand | |
| In office December 3, 1954 – August 12, 1955 | |
| Preceded by | William J. Donovan |
| Succeeded by | Max Waldo Bishop |
| President | Dwight D. Eisenhower |
| United States Ambassador toGuatemala | |
| In office November 4, 1953 – October 2, 1954 | |
| President | Dwight D. Eisenhower |
| Preceded by | Rudolf E. Schoenfeld |
| Succeeded by | Norman Armour |
| United States Ambassador toGreece | |
| In office September 25, 1950 – August 9, 1953 | |
| President | Harry S. Truman |
| Preceded by | Henry F. Grady |
| Succeeded by | Cavendish W. Cannon |
| Assistant Secretary of State for Administration | |
| In office March 17, 1947 – August 10, 1950 | |
| Preceded by | Donald S. Russell |
| Succeeded by | Carlisle H. Humelsine |
| Personal details | |
| Born | John Emil Peurifoy (1907-08-09)August 9, 1907 |
| Died | August 12, 1955(1955-08-12) (aged 48) Hua Hin, Thailand |
| Cause of death | Car accident |
| Resting place | Arlington National Cemetery |
| Party | Democratic |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
John Emil Peurifoy (August 9, 1907 – August 12, 1955) was an American diplomat andambassador in the early years of theCold War. He served as ambassador toGreece,Thailand, andGuatemala. In this latter country, he was serving during the1954 coup that overthrew the democratic government ofJacobo Arbenz.
Peurifoy was born inWalterboro,South Carolina, on August 9, 1907.[1] His family of lawyers and jurists traced their New World ancestry to 1619, two years before the arrival of theMayflower.[1] His mother Emily Wright died when he was six, and his father John H. Peurifoy died in December 1926.[2][3] When he graduated from high school in 1926, the yearbook recorded his ambition to be President of the United States.[1] Peurifoy received an appointment toWest Point in 1926. He withdrew from the military academy after two years because of pneumonia.[1]
He worked for a time in New York City as a restaurant cashier and then as a Wall Street clerk.[3] 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.[1][3] He attended night school atAmerican University andGeorge Washington University.[1]
Peurifoy married Betty Jane Cox, a former Oklahoma schoolteacher, in 1936.[1][3] When he lost his job at Treasury, he and his wife both worked atWoodward & Lothrop department store.[3]
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."[3]
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.[1][3]
DuringWorld War II, Peurifoy served as the State Department's representative on several inter-departmental committees of theBoard of Economic Warfare and theWar Production Board.[4]
In 1945, Peurifoy managed the arrangements forConference on International Organization inSan Francisco that led to the establishment of the United Nations.[5] President Truman'sExecutive Order 9835 (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."[6]
On December 7, 1948, Peurifoy testified before theHouse Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), as it pursued theAlger Hiss Case.[7]
Secretary of StateGeorge C. Marshall 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.[1] His responsibilities included everything except the substance of foreign policy: the Offices of Personnel, Consular Affairs, Operating Facilities, and Management and Budget.[8] 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.[6]
When SenatorJoseph McCarthy charged in 1950 that Communists were working in the State Department, Peurifoy unsuccessfully challenged him to share his information.[3] However, the same year, Peurifoy told aUnited States Senate committee of a "homosexual underground" in the State Department and announced that 91 State Department employees had been outed and discharged.[9] His remarks along with gay-baiting comments from SenatorJoseph McCarthy help ignite the so-called "Lavender scare".
Peurifoy passed his foreign service examinations in 1949 and joined the Foreign Service that year.[3]
In 1950, he was appointed ambassador to Greece. The Communists had already been defeated in theGreek Civil War. 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.[3] 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".[10][11][12]
In 1953, Peurifoy toldAdlai 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.[13]
In 1953, during theEisenhower administration, Peurifoy was sent to Guatemala, the first Western Hemisphere nation to allegedly include Communists in its government.[1] The fabrications regarding the communist regime had been triggered by a year-long smear campaign instigated by theUnited Fruit Company 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 codenamedPBSuccess. He took up his position as Ambassador there in November 1953.[1]Carlos Castillo Armas, leader of the CIA sponsored rebel forces, was already raising and arming his forces.[3] Peurifoy made clear to Guatemalan PresidentJacobo Arbenz that the United States cared only about removing Communists from any role in the government.[3] In June 1954, theCIA 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 in the negotiations between Guatemala's army officers, Elfego Monzon, the head of the military junta that seized power andCarlos Castillo Armas, leader of rebel forces.Carlos Castillo Armas was later declared president of Guatemala.[1][3]
His work in Greece and Guatemala earned him a reputation as "the State Department's ace troubleshooter in Communist hotspots."[1]The New York Times reported in 1954 that he contemplated running for the U.S. Presidency someday.[3]
Peurifoy was given a new post asU.S. ambassador to Thailand.[14]
On August 12, 1955, while serving as ambassador in Thailand, Peurifoy and his nine-year-old son Daniel Byrd Peurifoy died when theThunderbird he was driving collided with a truck nearHua Hin.[15] The President sent a military plane for the safe transport of their bodies back to the United States, despite questions of propriety.[14]
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, whenPrince 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.[16] 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 byTime and the Queen as "fantastically puerile."[17] John Clinton died in 1959 at the age of 19.[18] 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.
Based in Thailand, the John E. Peurifoy Memorial Foundation provides funds for Fulbright Scholars.[19]
Το όνομα «Πιουριφόι» έγινε σύντομα σύμβολο για τον άθλιο και ωμό τρόπο με τον οποίο οι Αμερικανοί φέρονταν στους... υποτελείς τους. Ο βιογράφος του μάλιστα σημειώνει: «Ο Πιουριφόι εννοούσε να φέρεται προς τις ελληνικές κυβερνήσεις σαν να ήταν υποταγμένες, όπως στα πολεμικά χρόνια του 1946-49»." "The name "Peurifoy" soon became a byword for the vile and brutal way the Americans treated their... subjects. His biographer notes that: "Peurifoy intended to behave towards the Greek governments as if they were subservient, as in the war years of 1946–49"."
... του τοποτηρητή των αμερικανικών συμφερόντων στη χώρα μας πρέσβη, Ν. Μπερνς. Ο νέος Πιουριφόι... ["the supervisor of American interests in our country, ambassador N. Burns. The new Peurifoy..."]
Eίναι καιρός να συνειδητοποιήσει ότι η εποχή Πιουριφόι δεν μπορεί ν' αναβιώσει. ["It is time he realized that the era of Peurifoy can not be revived"]
| Government offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Assistant Secretary of State for Administration March 17, 1947 – August 10, 1950 | Succeeded by |
| Diplomatic posts | ||
| Preceded by | United States Ambassador to Greece 1950–1953 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | United States Ambassador to Guatemala 1953–1954 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | United States Ambassador to Thailand 1954–1955 | Succeeded by |
 Kingdom of Greece(1868–1924) | |
|---|---|
| Second Hellenic Republic | |
| Kingdom of Greece (1935–1973) Military junta (1967–1974) | |
 Junta-declared Republic (1973–1974) Third Hellenic Republic(1974–present) | |
