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principal protagonist in the Department of State. Despite this, however, he was a man who, in retro- spect at any rate, was held in the highest regard by both Richard Bissell, the DDP, and Jake Esterline, Chief, WH/4.* While Tom Mann would continue to be embroiled in the Agency's relations with Guatemala, the United * In an Oral History Interview with the author in the fall of 1975, Esterline had the following comments to make about Mr. Mann: If you discussed a project in general terms and he didn't like it, he would tell you, but if you could bring him around to the point where he said, "well, go a- head and do it, but be damn sure that you do it all out," that would be the end of it. I think he was one of these who felt that the prestige of the United States was getting very thin in the hemisphere -- in the sense of relating it to our gunboat diplomacy days ... when we could of sort of rape the lock and there would be no problem with it. I think that he felt that the odds of being able to put every- thing into it were very sli~i but, again, when he finally realized what the alterna- tives were, he finally said, "Well, if this is it, then let's do that plan, and let's go the whole way on it." I had many go- arounds with Tom on something until I . finally got him to agree, or he said, "I am not going to agree." In this case he finally agreed. No, it would be very hard to fault Tom on the thing.2£! - 29 -