Who was the U.S. ambassador to Guatemala during the 1954 coup?

John Peurifoy was the U.S. ambassador to Guatemala during the 1954 coup that overthrew President Jacobo Árbenz.

Peurifoy arrived in Guatemala in November 1953, during a period of intense conflict over Árbenz’s agrarian reform and the influence of the Guatemalan Communist Party. The United States portrayed the Árbenz government as vulnerable to communist influence, while United Fruit Company strongly opposed land reforms that affected its extensive holdings.

The CIA’s covert operation, code-named PBSUCCESS, supported forces led by Carlos Castillo Armas. Peurifoy applied diplomatic pressure and maintained contact with Guatemalan military officers as the invasion and political crisis unfolded. After Árbenz resigned in June 1954, Peurifoy helped mediate negotiations among competing military leaders, including Castillo Armas and members of the interim junta.

The other options refer to important Cold War figures, but none was the ambassador in Guatemala at that moment. George Kennan was a diplomat and strategist, Richard Bissell was a CIA official, and Spruille Braden was a former ambassador elsewhere.