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Peace Corps

 
Dictionary: Peace Corps   (pēs) pronunciation
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n.
A federal government organization, set up in 1961, that trains and sends American volunteers abroad to work with people of developing countries on projects for technological, agricultural, and educational improvement.


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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Peace Corps
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U.S. government agency of volunteers, formed in 1961 by Pres. John F. Kennedy. Its purpose is to assist other countries in their development efforts by providing skilled workers in the fields of education, agriculture, health, trade, technology, and community development. Volunteers are expected to serve for two years as good neighbours in the host country, to speak its language, and to live on a level comparable to that of the local residents. By the early 21st century, more than 165,000 volunteers had served in the corps.

For more information on Peace Corps, visit Britannica.com.

US Government Guide: Peace Corps
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The Peace Corps is an independent agency that was created on March 1, 1961, by an executive order issued by President John F. Kennedy. On September 22, 1961, Congress approved legislation that formally authorized the Peace Corps to promote world peace through friendship. Congress also set three goals for the agency that have remained the mission of the Peace Corps to this day: to help the people of interested countries in fulfilling their needs for professionally trained men and women, to help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served, and to help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans. The head of the Peace Corps is a director who is appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate for an indefinite term.

During the first four decades of its existence, the agency has stationed approximately 155,000 volunteers in more than 130 countries. In 1999 there were about 7,000 Peace Corps volunteers serving in 78 foreign nations. Currently, 40 percent of the volunteers are engaged in educational work, 18 percent are working in health-related fields, 17 percent are assigned to environmental projects, 13 percent are involved in business ventures, and 9 percent do agricultural work.

See also Kennedy, John F.

US History Encyclopedia: Peace Corps
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Created in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy, the Peace Corps has been an enduring U.S. federal government program to provide trained volunteers to help developing nations alleviate poverty, illiteracy, and disease.

The Peace Corps' inception was both a product of the Cold War struggle and a reaction to the growing spirit of humanitarian activism evident throughout the Western world by the beginning of the 1960s, a spirit that had manifested itself in volunteer humanitarian programs already implemented in Canada, Australia, Britain, France, and Japan. The proposal to create a similar U.S. program had first been placed on the national political agenda by Democratic candidates during the 1950s, notably by Adlai E. Stevenson in his failed presidential campaigns of 1952 and 1956. During the course of the 1960 campaign, Kennedy, the Democratic Party's new candidate, adopted the proposal and it became one of Kennedy's signature campaign issues, largely due to its appeal to young liberals.

Once in office, Kennedy continued to challenge Americans to contribute to national and international public service, calling in his inaugural address of 20 January 1961 for Americans to form a "grand and global alliance" to fight tyranny, poverty, and disease. On 1 March 1961, he temporarily established the Peace Corps by Executive Order 10924 under the auspices of the Department of State and appointed his brother-in-law, R. Sargent Shriver Jr., to act as the Corps' first director at a token salary of one dollar per year. In September 1961, shortly after Congress formally endorsed the Peace Corps by making it a permanent program, the first volunteers left to teach English in Ghana, the first black African nation to achieve independence (in 1957) and whose government had since become an outspoken advocate of anticolonialism. Contingents of volunteers soon followed to Tanzania and India. By the turn of the century, the Peace Corps had sent over 163,000 American volunteers to over 135 nations.

Since its inception the primary missions of the Peace Corps have remained unchanged. The aim of the Peace Corps was not direct intervention to cure poverty per se; rather, it was to provide technical assistance to developing nations to make progress toward sustainable self-sufficiency. The Peace Corps' objectives reflect a mix of altruistic idealism and enlightened national self-interest. As President Kennedy explained the idealistic sentiment, "To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves." In tandem with this offer of technical assistance, the Corps also aims to foster better mutual understanding. Ideally a reciprocal process, a large part of the objective was to promote the American way of life so as to negate the appeal of communism to third world countries.

In order to retain the support of young liberals, from whose ranks most new recruits have traditionally been drawn, Shriver had striven to preserve the Corps' integrity by shielding it from bureaucratic politics. By the beginning of the 1970s, however, amidst rampant protest and cynicism about American foreign policy exacerbated by the Vietnam War, the Corps' bureaucratic independence came under political attack. In 1971 President Richard Nixon combined the Peace Corps with several other federal volunteer programs under a new agency called ACTION. In 1979, however, President Jimmy Carter reversed this by reestablishing the Peace Corps' autonomy, and in 1981 Congress passed legislation to make it an independent federal agency for the first time. With the end of the Cold War, Peace Corps volunteers were dispatched to former Soviet bloc countries struggling with new independence, such as Hungary, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania, and in 1995, in a move to supplement the primary mission of the Peace Corps, a Crisis Corps was established to mount short-term humanitarian relief efforts.

Typically serving for a period of two years, Peace Corps volunteers are invited by host nations to assist in a variety of roles of the host nation's choice. Most Peace Corps volunteers have contributed in the field of education (particularly teaching English), but the work ranges across community development, agriculture, health care, and public works. Prior to their service, volunteers receive intensive, specialized training, and once on location they are actively encouraged to assist where possible but refrain from involvement in the host nation's domestic politics.

Throughout its existence, the Peace Corps has weathered charges of cultural imperialism and persistent questioning of its self-proclaimed altruism. Critics have often suggested that it was in fact a front for the Central Intelligence Agency. Nevertheless, since its inception the Peace Corps has proved remarkably resilient to the political tides of Washington and has arguably even enjoyed qualified success in fulfilling its mission.

Bibliography

Hoffman, Elizabeth Cobbs. All You Need Is Love: The Peace Corps and the Spirit of the 1960s. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998.

Rice, Gerald T. The Bold Experiment: JFK's Peace Corps. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1985.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Peace Corps
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Peace Corps, agency of the U.S. government, whose purpose is to assist underdeveloped countries in meeting their needs for trained manpower. The Peace Corps was established in 1961 by executive order of President Kennedy; Congress approved it as a permanent agency within the Dept. of State the same year. Peace Corps volunteers serve for two-year periods. Currently volunteers serve in more than 60 countries in such areas as agriculture; the teaching of languages, mathematics, and science; vocational training; business and public administration; and natural resource development. In 1981 the Peace Corps was made an independent agency. The program now also sends volunteers to the former Soviet-bloc nations and tries to attract more people with technical training or special skills, particularly in agriculture.

Bibliography

See R. Carey, The Peace Corps (1970); B. K. Ashdoranner, A Moment in History: The First Ten Years of the Peace Corps (1971); L. Carter, Away from Home (1977); T. Z. Reeves, The Politics of the Peace Corps and Vista (1988); K. Schwarz, An Oral History of the Peace Corps (1991).

Mideast & N. Africa Encyclopedia: Peace Corps
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U.S. volunteer agency whose goal is to help developing nations share American expertise and to enhance mutual understanding.

The Peace Corps was established by U.S. President John F. Kennedy on 1 March 1961 "to promote world peace and friendship" by providing developing nations with volunteer American personnel. It was hoped that, through daily contact with Americans doing development work, developing nations would better understand the people of the United States and that in turn Americans would better understand other peoples and their situations.

Since its inception, the Peace Corps has sent more than 170,000 American volunteers to over 136 developing countries, including the following countries in the Middle East: Bahrain, Iran, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Tunisia, Turkey, and the Yemen Arab Republic. In all of these countries, Peace Corps volunteers were teachers, engineers, designers, and administrators of special programs.

In Iran from 1962 until 1976, Peace Corps volunteers founded kindergartens, taught English, built libraries, designed a new mosque in a Khorasan village after the old one was destroyed in a 1968 earthquake, and planned a college of dentistry in Mashhad. In Morocco, volunteers faced the challenge of learning both Arabic and French; they were employed in activities ranging from irrigation projects to teaching physical education in secondary schools. In addition to teaching, the Peace Corps in Tunisia supplied the Habib Thameur Hospital in Tunis with nurses. In Turkey, some of the over two hundred volunteers founded a home for street boys in Istanbul and others worked at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara. And in the former Yemen Arab Republic, Peace Corps volunteers helped construct a water-pumping station in Hodeida.

Though Peace Corps volunteers are sent only at the invitation of the host country, the program has not been without its critics. A problem that has plagued the Peace Corps in the Middle East and elsewhere has been the failure to train host-country counterparts to replace Peace Corps volunteers once their twenty-seven months of service have ended. Still, although the Peace Corps has not always succeeded as a development organization, its record has been more benign and its effects more beneficial than some other U.S. aid programs developed during the height of the Cold War.

The Peace Corps no longer had any volunteers in the Middle East in late 2003 but was planning to reinstate its programs in Jordan and Morocco in the spring of 2004. According to the Peace Corps Media Office, 68 volunteers served in Bahrain from 1974 to 1979; 1,748 served in Iran from 1962 to 1976; 227 served in Jordan from 1997 to 2003; 295 served in Libya from 1966 to 1969; 3,444 served in Morocco from 1963 to 2003; 160 served in Oman from 1973 to 1983; 2,130 served in Tunisia from 1962 to 1996; 1,460 served in Turkey from 1962 to 1972; and 564 served in North Yemen and, after unification in 1990, all of Yemen from 1973 to 1994.

Bibliography

Coates, Redmon. Come As You Are: The Peace Corps Story. San Diego, CA: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1986.

Ridinger, Robert Marks. The Peace Corps: An Annotated Bibliography. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1989.

— ZACHARY KARABELL
UPDATED BY CHRISTOPHER REED STONE

Politics: Peace Corps
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An agency of the United States government that sends American volunteers to developing nations to help improve living standards and provide training. Created by President John F. Kennedy in 1961, under the auspices of the Department of State, the Peace Corps provides an opportunity to share American wealth, technology, and expertise. During the cold war it also served as a means for spreading American influence and values in the hope of preventing developing nations from allying themselves with the Soviet Union.

Wikipedia: Peace Corps
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Peace Corps
PeaceCorpsLogo.png
Peace Corps logo
Agency overview
Formed March 1, 1961
Headquarters Washington, D.C
Annual budget US$ 340 million (FY 2009)[1]
Agency executives Aaron S. Williams, Director
Vacant[2], Deputy Director
Website
http://www.peacecorps.gov

The Peace Corps is an American volunteer program run by the United States Government, as well as a governmental agency of the same name. Each program participant, or Peace Corps Volunteer, is an American citizen who commits to working abroad in an assignment for the organization for a period of twenty-seven months. Generally, the work to be performed is related to international development. Specialties include education, business, information technology, agriculture, and the environment. In addition to its mandate of providing technical assistance in these areas, Peace Corps is also charged with increasing mutual international understanding. The mission of the Peace Corps includes three goals, which are providing technical assistance, helping people outside the United States understand the culture of the United States, and helping United States people understand the culture of other countries.

It was established by Executive Order 10924 on March 1, 1961, and authorized by Congress on September 22, 1961, with passage of the Peace Corps Act (Public Law 87-293). The Peace Corps Act declares the purpose of the Peace Corps to be:

“To promote world peace and friendship through a Peace Corps, which shall make available to interested countries and areas men and women of the United States qualified for service abroad and willing to serve, under conditions of hardship if necessary, to help the peoples of such countries and areas in meeting their needs for trained manpower.”

Since 1961, nearly 200,000 Americans have joined the Peace Corps, serving in 139 countries.

Contents

Purpose and function

Countries that the Peace Corps currently works in (orange) and has worked in previously (purple). (See picture details for countries that are unhighlighted.)

The Peace Corps sends American volunteers around the globe, to more than 70 countries, to work with governments, schools, non-profit organizations, non-government organizations, and entrepreneurs in the areas of education, business, information technology, agriculture, and the environment.

The program officially has three goals:

  • To help the people of interested countries and areas in meeting their needs for trained workers
  • To help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served
  • To help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans[3]

The Peace Corps works by first announcing its availability to foreign governments. These governments then determine areas in which the organization can be involved. The organization then matches the requested assignments to its pool of applicants and sends those volunteers with the appropriate skills to the countries that first made the requests.

History

John F. Kennedy greets volunteers on August 28, 1961.

Following the end of the Second World War, various members of the United States Congress proposed bills to establish volunteer organizations in Developing Countries. In 1952 Senator Brien McMahon (D-Connecticut) proposed an "army" of young Americans to act as "missionaries of democracy." Privately funded nonreligious organizations began sending volunteers overseas during the 1950s.

While President John F. Kennedy is credited with the creation of the Peace Corps, the first initiative came from Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, Jr. (D-Minnesota), who introduced the first bill to create the Peace Corps in 1957—three years prior to JFK and his University of Michigan speech. In his autobiography The Education of a Public Man, Hubert Humphrey wrote: "There were three bills of particular emotional importance to me: the Peace Corps, a disarmament agency, and the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. The President, knowing how I felt, asked me to introduce legislation for all three. I introduced the first Peace Corps bill in 1957. It did not meet with much enthusiasm. Some traditional diplomats quaked at the thought of thousands of young Americans scattered across their world. Many senators, including liberal ones, thought it silly and an unworkable idea. Now, with a young president urging its passage, it became possible and we pushed it rapidly through the Senate. It is fashionable now to suggest that Peace Corps Volunteers gained as much or more, from their experience as the countries they worked. That may be true, but it ought not demean their work. They touched many lives and made them better."

Peace Corps headquarters at 1111 20th Street, NW in downtown Washington, D.C.

Only in 1959, however, did the proposal for a national program of service abroad first receive serious attention in Washington when Congressman Henry S. Reuss of Wisconsin advanced the ideas of a “Point Four Youth Corps.” In 1960, he and Senator Richard L. Neuberger of Oregon introduced identical measures calling for a nongovernmental study of the “advisability and practicability” of such a venture. Both the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee endorsed the idea of a study, the latter writing the Reuss proposal into the Mutual Security legislation then pending before it. In this form it became law in June 1960. In August the Mutual Security Appropriations Act was enacted, making available $10,000 for the study, and in November ICA contracted with the Maurice Albertson, Andrew E. Rice, and Pauline E. Birkey of Colorado State University Research Foundation[4] to make the study.[5]

John F. Kennedy first announced his own idea for such an organization during the 1960 presidential campaign, at a late-night speech at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor on October 14, 1960. A few weeks later on November 1 in San Francisco, California, he dubbed this proposed organization the "Peace Corps." Critics of the program (including Kennedy's opponent, Richard M. Nixon) claimed the program would be nothing but a haven for draft dodgers. Others doubted whether college-age volunteers had the necessary skills. The idea was popular among college students, however, and Kennedy continued to pursue it, asking respected academics such as Max Millikan and Chester Bowles to help him outline the organization and its goals. During his inaugural address, Kennedy again promised to create the program: "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country."[6] President Kennedy in a speech at the White House on June 22, 1962 “Remarks to Student Volunteers Participating in Operation Crossroads Africa” acknowledged that Operations Crossroads for Africa was the basis for the development of the Peace Corps. “This group and this effort really were the progenitors of the Peace Corps and what this organization has been doing for a number of years led to the establishment of what I consider to be the most encouraging indication of the desire for service not only in this country but all around the world that we have seen in recent years”. ^ June 22, 1962 Remarks to Student Volunteers Participating in Operation Crossroads Africa. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=8730 The Peace Corps online on 10/2/2003 on the question “Who Inspired the Creation of the Peace Corps?, acknowledged that the Peace Corps were based on Operation Crossroads Africa founded by Rev. James H. Robinson. ^ (2005). "Who Inspired the Creation of the Peace Corps". Peace Corps Online. http://peacecorpsonline.org/messages/messages/2629/2027011.html


Establishment and authorization

Executive Order 10924

On March 1, 1961, Kennedy signed an Executive Order 10924 that officially started the Peace Corps. Concerned with the growing tide of revolutionary sentiment in the Third World, Kennedy saw the Peace Corps as a means of countering the notions of the "Ugly American" and "Yankee imperialism," especially in the emerging nations of post-colonial Africa and Asia.[7][8]

On March 4, Kennedy appointed his brother-in-law Sargent Shriver to be the program's first director. Shriver was tasked with fleshing out the organization, which he did with the help of Warren Wiggins and others[4]. Shriver and his think tank outlined the three major goals of the Peace Corps and decided the number of volunteers they needed to recruit. The program began recruiting volunteers that following July.

Until about 1967, applicants to the Peace Corps had to pass a placement test that tested "general aptitude" (knowledge of various skills needed for Peace Corps assignments) and language aptitude. After an address from Kennedy, who was introduced by Rev. Russell Fuller of Memorial Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, on August 28, 1961, the first group of volunteers left for Ghana and Tanzania. The program was formally authorized by Congress on September 22, 1961, and within two years over 7,300 Peace Corps volunteers were serving in 44 countries. This number would jump to 15,000 in June 1966, which was the largest number in the organization's history.

Early controversy

The organization experienced major controversy in its first year of operation. On October 13, 1961, a postcard was written by a volunteer named Margery Jane Michelmore in Nigeria to a friend in the U.S. She described her situation in Nigeria as "squalor and absolutely primitive living conditions."[9][10] However, this postcard never made it out of the country.[10] The University of Ibadan College Students Union demanded deportation and accused the volunteers of being "America's international spies" and the project as "a scheme designed to foster neocolonialism."[11] Soon the international press picked up the story, leading several people in the U.S. administration to question the future of the program as a whole.[12] Nigerian students protested the program, and the American volunteers sequestered themselves and eventually began a hunger strike.[10] After several days, the Nigerian students agreed to open a dialogue with the Americans.[12]

Independent status

1965 in-country identification card

By 1966, more than 15,000 volunteers were working in the field, the largest number in the Peace Corps' history.[3] In July 1971, President Richard Nixon, an opponent of the program, brought the Peace Corps under the umbrella agency ACTION. President Jimmy Carter, an advocate of the program, said that his mother, who had served as a nurse in the program, had "one of the most glorious experiences of her life" in the Peace Corps.[13] In 1979, he declared it fully autonomous in an executive order. This independent status would be further secured when Congress passed legislation in 1981 to make the organization an independent federal agency.

Programs diversified

Although the earliest Peace Corps volunteers were typically thought of as educational, agriculture and community development generalists, the Peace Corps had a variety of requests for technical personnel essentially from the start. For example, geologists were among the first volunteers requested by Ghana, an early country for the Peace Corps. An article in Geotimes (a trade publication) in 1963 reviewed the program up to that time, with a follow-up history of Peace Corps geoscientists appearing in that publication in 2004[14]. During the Nixon Administration the Peace Corps had foresters, computer scientists, and small business advisors among its volunteers.

Trainees swear in as volunteers in Mauritania in September 2007.

In 1982, President Reagan appointee director Loret Miller Ruppe initiated several new business-related programs. For the first time, a large number of conservative and Republican volunteers joined the contingent of overseas volunteers, and the organization continued to reflect the evolving political and social conditions in the United States. Funding cuts during the early 1980s dropped the number of volunteers to 5,380, its lowest level since the organization's early years. Funding began to increase in 1985, and Congress passed an initiative to raise the number of volunteers to 10,000 by 1992.

After the September 11, 2001, attacks alerted the nation to growing anti-U.S. sentiment in the Middle East, President George W. Bush pledged to double the size of the organization within five years as a part of the War on Terrorism. For the 2004 fiscal year, Congress passed a budget increase at $325 million, $30 million above that of 2003 but $30 million below the President's request. In 2008, Barack Obama also said he would double the size of the Peace Corps,[15] giving the rising unemployed from the recession a chance to give back to the country.[16] The Peace Corps intended to double the number of volunteers it sent abroad by 2007 in accordance with President Bush's request in 2002. According to Joseph Kennedy, "The American reputation has taken a hit in the last couple of years. The need for the Peace Corps couldn't be more urgent. The Peace Corps shows what is best in America, the generosity of spirit." The Peace Corps is trying to get more diverse volunteers of different ages. This is important so that the Peace Corps can look, according to former director Gaddi Vasquez, "more like America." An article published by the Harvard International Review in 2006 argues that the time has come not only to expand the Peace Corps but also to revisit its mission and equip it with new technology to transform it into a 21st-century engine for peace through the global sharing of knowledge.

In 1961 only 1% of volunteers were over 50, compared with 5% today. Ethnic minorities currently comprise 17% of volunteers.[1] Legally married heterosexual couples are welcome and can work together.

Peace Corps Response

Peace Corps Response, formerly named the Crisis Corps, was created by Peace Corps Director Mark Gearan in 1996.[17] Gearan modeled the Crisis Corps after the National Peace Corps Association's successful Emergency Response Network (ERN) of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers willing to respond to crises when needed; first brought about in response to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. [18] On November 19, 2007 Peace Corps Director Ronald Tschetter announced that Crisis Corps will be changing its name to Peace Corps Response.[19]

This change is the result of an ongoing effort by the Peace Corps to better define the work of its volunteers. The change to Peace Corps Response will allow Peace Corps to broaden their approach to their five programming areas to include projects that do not necessarily rise to the level of a ‘crisis.’ The program sends former Peace Corps volunteers to foreign countries to take on short-term, high-impact assignments that typically range from three to six months in duration.

Peace Corps Response volunteers generally receive the same allowances and benefits as their Peace Corps counterparts, including round-trip transportation, living and readjustment allowances, and medical care. Minimum qualifications for Crisis Corps volunteers include completion of at least one year of Peace Corps service, excluding training, in addition to medical and legal clearances. The Crisis Corps title will be retained as a unique branch within Peace Corps Response, designed for volunteers who are deployed to true “crisis” situations, such as disaster relief following hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions and other catastrophes.

Laws governing the Peace Corps

U.S. Code

Public law as currently amended governing Peace Corps is contained in the Title 22 of the United States Code - Foreign Relations and Intercourse, Chapter 34 - The Peace Corps (22USC2501-22USC2523)[20]

Code of Federal Regulations

The Peace Corps is also subject to Federal Regulations as prescribed by public law and executive order and contained in Code of Federal Regulations under Title 22 - Foreign Relations, Chapter 3 - Peace Corps (22CFR301 - 22CFR312)[21]

Executive orders

Peace Corps was originally established by Executive Order, and has been modified by several subsequent executive orders including:

  • 1961 - 10924 - Establishment and administration of the Peace Corps in the Department of State (Kennedy)
  • 1962 - 11041 - Continuance and administration of the Peace Corps in the Department of State (Kennedy)
  • 1963 - 11103 - Providing for the appointment of former Peace Corps volunteers to the civilian career services (Kennedy)[22]
  • 1971 - 11603 - Assigning additional functions to the Director of ACTION (Nixon)
  • 1979 - 12137 - The Peace Corps (Carter)[23]

Public laws

Public laws are passed by Congress and the President and create or modify the U.S. Code. The first public law establishing Peace Corps in the US Code was The Peace Corps Act passed by the 87th Congress and signed into law on September 22, 1961. Several public laws have modified the Peace Corps Act, including:

  • Pub. L. 87-293 - The Peace Corps Act - Sept. 22, 1961
  • Pub. L. 88-200 - Dec. 13, 1963
  • Pub. L. 89-134 - Aug. 24, 1965
  • Pub. L. 89-554 - Sept. 6, 1966
  • Pub. L. 89-572 - Sept. 13, 1966
  • Pub. L. 91-99 - Oct. 29, 1969
  • Pub. L. 91-352 - July 24, 1970
  • Pub. L. 94-130 - Bill to carry into effect certain provisions of the Patent Cooperation Treaty, and for other purposes - Nov. 14, 1975[24]
  • Pub. L. 95-331 - Peace Corps Act Amendments - Aug. 2, 1978[25]
  • Pub. L. 96-465 - The Foreign Service Act of 1980 - Oct. 17, 1980[26]
  • Pub. L. 97-113 - International Security and Development Cooperation Act of 1981 - Dec. 29, 1981[27]
  • Pub. L. 99-83 - International Security and Development Cooperation Act of 1985 - Aug. 8, 1985[28]
  • Pub. L. 99-514 - Tax Reform Act of 1986 - Oct. 22, 1986[29]
  • Pub. L. 102-565 - A bill to amend the Peace Corps Act to authorize appropriations for the Peace Corps for FY1993 and to establish Peace Corps foreign exchange fluctuations account, and for other purposes - Oct. 28, 1992[30]
  • Pub. L. 105-12 - The Assisted Suicide Funding Restriction Act of 1997 - Apr. 30, 1997[31]
  • Pub. L. 106-30 - Peace Corps Act, FY2002, 2003 Authorization Bill- May 21, 1999[32]

Military Regulations

Former members of the Peace Corps may not be assigned to military intelligence duties for a period of 4 years following service with the Peace Corps. Furthermore, they are forever prohibited from serving in a military intelligence posting to any country in which they volunteered. [33].

Time limits on employment

Peace Corps employees receive time-limited appointments and most employees are limited to a maximum of five years (60 months) of employment with the agency. This time-limit is referred to as the "five-year rule" and was established to ensure that Peace Corps' staff remain fresh and innovative. Another rule related to the "five year rule" specifies that former Peace Corps employees cannot be re-employed by Peace Corps until they have been out of the agency's employment for the same amount of time that they worked for the Peace Corps. Service as a Peace Corps Volunteer overseas is not counted for the purposes of either of these rules.[34]

Union Representation of Domestic Employees

Non-supervisory Peace Corps domestic employees are represented by the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3548. The Federal Labor Relations Agency certified the Union on May 11, 1983. About 500 domestic employees are represented by AFSCME Local 3548. The current Collective Bargaining Agreement governing the relationship between Labor employees and Management became effective on April 21, 1995.

Directors of the Peace Corps

Director Aaron S. Williams.

In July, 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Aaron Williams, a career international development specialist, to serve as the new Director of the Peace Corps. At the time of his nomination he was serving as vice president for international development at RTI International, a nonprofit research institute headquartered in North Carolina, with offices in the U.S. and around the world. A former senior official with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Williams was a volunteer in the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic in 1967-70. He also was coordinator of minority recruitment for the Peace Corps in Chicago in 1970-71. Williams was confirmed by unanimous consent of the Senate on Friday, August 7, 2009. [35] On August 25, 2009 Mr. Williams was sworn in as the eighteenth Director of the Peace Corps.

Director service dates appointed by notes
1 R. Sargent Shriver 1961–1966 Kennedy Three days after President Kennedy signed an Executive Order establishing the Peace Corps, Shriver became its first director. Deployment was rapid: volunteers arrived in five countries during 1961. In just under six years, Shriver developed programs in 55 countries with more than 14,500 volunteers.
2 Jack Vaughn 1966–1969 Johnson Vaughn took steps to improve Peace Corps marketing, programming, and volunteer support as large numbers of former volunteers joined the Peace Corps staff. He also promoted volunteer assignments in conservation, natural resource management, and community development.
3 Joseph Blatchford 1969–1971 Nixon Blatchford served as head of the new ACTION agency, which encompassed U.S. domestic and foreign volunteer service programs including the Peace Corps. He created the Office of Returned Volunteers to help volunteers serve in their communities at home, and initiated New Directions, a program emphasizing volunteer skills.
4 Kevin O'Donnell 1971–1972 Nixon O'Donnell's appointment was the first for a former Peace Corps country director (Korea, 1966–70). He worked tirelessly to save the Peace Corps from budget cuts, and believed strongly in a non-career Peace Corps. He resigned as director six years after first joining the Peace Corps.
5 Donald Hess 1972–1973 Nixon Hess initiated training of volunteers in the host country where they would eventually serve. With this came the greater utilization of host country nationals in the training programs. The training provided more realistic preparation, and costs dropped for the agency. Hess also sought to end the down-sizing of the Peace Corps.
6 Nicholas Craw 1973–1974 Nixon Craw sought to increase the number of volunteers in the field and to stabilize the agency's future. He introduced a goal-setting measurement plan, the Country Management Plan, which gave a firm foundation for increased congressional support and for improved resource allocation across Peace Corps' 69 countries.
7 John Dellenback 1975–1977 Ford Dellenback worked to make the best possible health care available to volunteers. He also placed great emphasis on recruiting generalists. He believed in taking committed applicants without specific development skills and providing concentrated training to prepare them for service.
8 Carolyn R. Payton 1977–1978 Carter Payton was the first female director and the first African American. As director, she believed strongly in reflecting America's diversity in the corps of volunteers and worked tirelessly to convince young people that Peace Corps service would enrich their lives.
9 Richard F. Celeste 1979–1981 Carter Celeste focused on the role of women in development and was successful in involving women and minorities in the agency, particularly for staff positions. He invested heavily in training, including the development of a worldwide core curriculum, so that all volunteers had a common context in which to work.
10 Loret Miller Ruppe 1981–1989 Reagan Ruppe was the longest-serving director and a champion of women in development. She launched the Competitive Enterprise Development program to promote business-oriented projects. She also established the Caribbean Basin Initiative, the Initiative for Central America and the African Food Systems Initiative to help address regional challenges. Ruppe was highly regarded by volunteers for her tireless energy and enthusiasm.
11 Paul Coverdell 1989–1991 G.H.W. Bush Coverdell established two programs with a domestic focus. World Wise Schools enabled U.S. students to correspond with volunteers serving overseas in an effort to promote international awareness and cross-cultural understanding. Fellows/USA assisted Returned Peace Corps volunteers in pursuing graduate studies while serving local communities in the U.S.
12 Elaine Chao 1991–1992 G.H.W. Bush Chao was the first Asian American to serve as director. She expanded Peace Corps' presence in Eastern Europe and Central Asia by establishing the first Peace Corps programs in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and other newly independent countries.
13 Carol Bellamy 1993–1995 Clinton Bellamy was the first RPCV (Returned Peace Corps volunteer) (Guatemala 1963–65) to be director. She reinvigorated relations with Returned Peace Corps volunteers and launched the first Peace Corps web site.
14 Mark D. Gearan 1995–1999 Clinton Gearan established the Crisis Corps, a program that allows Returned peace Corps volunteers to help overseas communities recover from natural disasters and humanitarian crises. He supported expanding the corps of volunteers and opened new volunteer programs in South Africa, Jordan, Bangladesh and Mozambique.
15 Mark L. Schneider 1999–2001 Clinton Schneider was the second RPCV (El Salvador, 1966–68) to head the agency. He launched an initiative to increase volunteers' participation in helping prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa, and also sought volunteers to work on information technology projects to enhance development of overseas communities.
16 Gaddi Vasquez 2002–2006 G.W. Bush Gaddi H. Vasquez was the first Hispanic American to serve as director. His focus as director was to revitalize the Peace Corps through a comprehensive outreach and recruitment program focused on attracting a diverse group of volunteers and staff.
17 Ron Tschetter September 2006–2008 G.W. Bush The third RPCV to head the agency, Tschetter served in India in the mid 1960s. Confirmed by the Senate September 13, 2006 and sworn in on September 26, 2006. He launched an initiative known as the "50 and Over," to increase the participation of older men and women with defined skills and abilities.
18 Aaron S. Williams August 2009–Present Obama Aaron S. Williams was sworn in as the eighteenth Director of the Peace Corps on August 24, 2009. Nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U. S. Senate on August 8, 2009, Mr. Williams is the fourth director in the Peace Corps’ history to have served as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

In popular culture

Books

Hundreds of Returned Peace Corps volunteers have written books about their countries of service[36] but five books that are among the most notable for capturing the positive and the negative of the Peace Corps experience are the following:

  • Published in 1969, Moritz Thomsen's Living Poor recounts the author's service as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador.[37] RPCV Paul Theroux said that Living Poor was the best book he ever read on the Peace Corps experience[38] and Tom Miller wrote that Thomsen was "one of the great American expatriate writers of the 20th century."[37] "And as an expat, he was free to judge us all, an undertaking he finessed with acute observations, self-deprecation, and a flavorful frame of reference that ranged from a Tchaikovsky symphony to a Sealy Posturpedic mattress."[37]
  • Alan Weiss's 1968 account of Peace Corps training, High Risk, High Gain, has been called "perhaps the most obscure, least known, and most unread" of all the great books written about the Peace Corps experience.[39] Trainees in those days were classified by risk and by gain and Weiss discovered in his training days that he had been classified as High Risk/High Gain, a potential "Supervolunteer" or a potential "crash and burn."[39] Weiss's book is funny, outrageous and sad but also valuable because it captures the “craziness” of those early years at the Peace Corps.[39]
  • George Packer's The Village of Waiting (1988) is "one of the most wrenchingly honest books ever written by a white person about Africa, a bracing antidote to romantic authenticity myths and exotic horror stories alike," wrote Matt Steinglass.[40] Isak Dinesen, Packer notes, wrote of waking in the Kenyan highlands and thinking, "Here I am, where I ought to be." Packer himself woke up sweating, hungry, "mildly at ease, or mildly anxious. But never where I ought to be."[40]
  • For a history of the Peace Corps' early days, Coates Redmond's Come as You Are recounts the birth of the Peace Corps and how it was literally thrown together in a matter of weeks. "The book works as a charming, first-person history of the people who made the corps what it was in its formative years," says Charles DeBenedetti at the University of Toledo.[41] "This book is highly readable and essential to understand the evolution of the unique Peace Corps spirit and style that continues to characterize the agency almost 45 years later," wrote Maureen Carroll, an early Peace Corps volunteer.[42]
  • Tom Bissell served as a Peace Corps volunteer for a few months in Uzbekistan in 1996 before he "early terminated". However, Bissell felt he had really failed the people he joined the Peace Corps to help, so he returned to Uzbekistan in 2001 to write Chasing the Sea about the Aral Sea. However, "the secret, personal point of the journey was revisiting this failure of mine, to try to make something up to the country and people I’d abandoned," says Bissell.[43] "My ambitions were actually pretty modest. I wanted to write a book that everyone who traveled to Central Asia would want to read, and I wanted to write a book that everyone who joins the Peace Corps has pressed upon them," Bissell said.[43][43]
  • A second edition of The Insider's Guide to the Peace Corps: What to Know Before You Go was published in 2009 (Ten Speed Press) to provide prospective Peace Corps applicants and volunteers with candid and real insights on everything from the work and life experience to issues related to packing, applying, housing, food, sickness, loneliness, drugs, dating, staying in touch with home, travel, training, language, quitting and more. Many applicants report this to be "the" definitive guidebook for potential volunteers. The Insider's Guide to the Peace Corps

Films

In popular culture, the Peace Corps has been used as a comedic plot device in such movies as Airplane, Shallow Hal, Christmas with the Kranks, and Volunteers or used to set the scene for a historic era as when Frances "Baby" Houseman tells the audience she plans to join the Peace Corps in the introduction to the movie Dirty Dancing. The Peace Corps has also been documented on film and examined more seriously and in more depth in movies such as the following:

  • Jimi Sir, released in 2007, is a documentary portrait of Peace Corps volunteer James Parks' experiences as a high school science, math and English teacher during the last 10 weeks of his service in Nepal.[44] James speaks Nepali fluently and brings you into a culture where there are no roads, vehicles, electricity, plumbing, telephone or radio.[44] Jimi Sir has been called the best movie ever made about the Peace Corps experience.[44]
  • The 2006 movie Death of Two Sons, directed by Micah Schaffer juxtaposes the deaths of Amadou Diallo, a Guinean in America who was gunned down by four New York City policemen with 41 bullets and Peace Corps volunteer Jesse Thyne who lived with Amadou's family in Guinea and died in a car crash there.[45] The two men never met, but their destinies intertwine in this unique documentary.[45]
  • While it may seem preposterous to many Americans, many Colombians believe that Peace Corps volunteers first taught Colombians how to process coca leaves into cocaine.[46] U.S. officials and Peace Corps volunteers have long denied the allegations, but some Colombian historians and journalists have kept it alive for years.[46] The movie El Rey directed and written by Antonio Dorado in 2004 attacks corrupt police, unscrupulous politicians and half-hearted revolutionaries but also portrays Peace Corps volunteers as having participated in the beginnings of cocaine processing in Colombia.[46]
  • The 1970 movie ¿Qué Hacer? filmed in Chile and directed by Saul Landau on the eve of the election of Salvador Allende as president of Chile, tells the story of CIA agent Martin who is sent to Chile to recruit Suzanne, a Peace Corps volunteer.[47] Suzanne instead falls for the Chilean revolutionary Hugo and gets involved in a plot to kidnap Martin.[47] Suzanne finally realizes that the revolution must be fought, but that for her the fight is back in the USA.[47]
  • In the 1969 film Yawar Mallku/Sangre de cóndor/Blood of the Condor, Bolivian Director Jorge Sanjinés portrayed "Peace Corps volunteers in the campo as arrogant, ethnocentric, and narrow-minded imperialists out to destroy Indian culture. One particularly powerful scene showed Indians attacking a clinic while the volunteers inside sterilized Indian women against their will."[48] The film is thought to be at least partially responsible for the expulsion of the Peace Corps from Bolivia in 1971.[48] Peace Corps volunteer Fred Krueger who was serving in Bolivia at the time said, "It was an effective movie - emotionally very arousing - and it directly targeted Peace Corps volunteers. I thought I would be lynched before getting out of the theatre. To my amazement, people around me smiled courteously as we left, no one commented, it was just like any other movie."[48]

Notable returned Peace Corps volunteers

Main article: List of notable returned Peace Corps Volunteers

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ a b "Fast Facts What Is Peace Corps? Learn About Peace Corps Peace Corps". http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=learn.whatispc.fastfacts. Retrieved 2009-01-22. 
  2. ^ "Deputy Director". Peace Corps. 2009-02-09. http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=learn.whatispc.management.dir. Retrieved 2009-05-18. "Jody K. Olsen is the Acting Director of the Peace Corps and since 2002 has been the Agency’s Deputy Director."  (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/5h6V3ySu2)
  3. ^ "Mission What is Peace Corps? Peace Corps". http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=learn.whatispc.mission. Retrieved 2009-02-21. 
  4. ^ a b http://m.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/Aug/23/ex-volunteers-friends-to-mark-csu-role-in-birth/
  5. ^ New Frontiers for American Youth: Perspective on the Peace Corps. Public Affairs Press. 1961. 
  6. ^ The Avalon Project (1997). "Inaugural Address of John F. Kennedy". The Avalon Project at Yale Law School. http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/presiden/inaug/kennedy.htm. Retrieved 2007-05-11. 
  7. ^ Executive Order 10924: Establishment of the Peace Corps. (1961)
  8. ^ Organization of American Historians
  9. ^ "Peace Corps Girl Stirs Anger In Nigeria by Alleging 'Squalor'". New York Times. 1961-10-16. pp. 10. 
  10. ^ a b c "The infamous Peace Corps postcard". Peace Corps Writers. 2007. http://www.peacecorpswriters.org/pages/2000/0001/001pchist.html. Retrieved 2007-05-11. 
  11. ^ "Postcard to Friend Reporting 'Primitive Living' Leads to Protest by Students". New York Times. 1961-10-16. pp. 10. 
  12. ^ a b "RIFT ON PEACE CORPS HEALING IN NIGERIA". New York Times. 1961-11-07. pp. 7. 
  13. ^ Yee, Daniel (2005). "Jimmy Carter said his mother's service in the Peace Corps as a nurse when she was 70 years old "was one of the most glorious experiences of her life."". Peace Corps Online. http://peacecorpsonline.org/messages/messages/2629/2029056.html. Retrieved 2007-05-11. 
  14. ^ Hastings, David, ed., 2004. Geoscientists in the Peace Corps. Geotimes, August 2004.
  15. ^ http://travisthornton.net/2008/02/
  16. ^ For many, the Peace Corps is a way for people usually lacking employment a chance to learn some skills.
  17. ^ Peace Corps Hotline. "Crisis Corps: Opportunity to serve again" by Melinda Bridges. November 1, 2002
  18. ^ Arnold, David. "Helping Rwanda." WorldView, Spring 1995, Vol. 8, No. 2. pg. 21
  19. ^ Peace Corps "Peace Corps Press Release" November 19, 2007
  20. ^ [1]
  21. ^ "Code of Federal Regulations, Title 22". Government Printing Office. April 1, 2009. http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_09/22cfrv2_09.html. Retrieved 2009-08-01. 
  22. ^ http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/codification/executive-order/11103.html
  23. ^ http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/codification/executive-order/12137.html
  24. ^ http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d094:HR06334:|TOM:/bss/d094query.html|
  25. ^ http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d095:HR11877:|TOM:/bss/d095query.html|
  26. ^ http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d096:HR06790:|TOM:/bss/d096query.html|
  27. ^ http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d097:SN01196:|TOM:/bss/d097query.html|
  28. ^ http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d099:SN00960:|TOM:/bss/d099query.html|
  29. ^ http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d099:HR03838:|TOM:/bss/d099query.html|
  30. ^ http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d102:SN03309:|TOM:/bss/d102query.html|
  31. ^ http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=105_cong_public_laws&docid=f:publ12.pdf
  32. ^ http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=106_cong_public_laws&docid=f:publ030.pdf
  33. ^ "Enlisted Assignments and Utilization Management, Army Regulation 614–200" (PDF). Department of the Army. February 26, 2009. http://www.apd.army.mil/pdffiles/r614_200.pdf. Retrieved 2009-08-01. 
  34. ^ [2]
  35. ^ http://peacecorpsconnect.typepad.com/peacecorpspolyglot/2009/08/aaron-williams-confirmed-to-be-the-next-director-of-peace-corps-.html
  36. ^ Peace Corps Writers. "915 Peace Corps volunteer writers by country"
  37. ^ a b c Tucson Weekly. "Under the Skin of a Locale" by Tom Miller. June 16, 2005.
  38. ^ International Traveler. "The Farm on the River of Emeralds" by Moritz Thomsen reviewed by Brad Newsham.
  39. ^ a b c Peace Corps Writers. "High Risk/High Gain: A Freewheeling Account of Peace Corps Training" by Alan Weiss. Reviewed by John Coyne. May 11, 2005.
  40. ^ a b Salon. "Destination: Togo" by Matt Steinglass.
  41. ^ Amazon Books. "Come as You Are" by Coates Redmond. 1986.
  42. ^ Peace Corps Writers. "Remembering Coates Remon" by Maureen Carroll. May, 2005.
  43. ^ a b c Random House. "A Conversation with Tom Bissell"
  44. ^ a b c "Jimi Sir an American Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal" December 18, 2004.
  45. ^ a b New York Daily News. "Disappointed Diallo ma" by Nicole Bode. November 27, 2006. The original link is dead. An archival link is available here.
  46. ^ a b c Miami Herald. "Popular film revives Peace Corps rumors: The top movie in Colombia is about the origins of the cocaine trade with an unexpected villain: the U.S. Peace Corps." by Steven Dudley. November 6, 2004. The original story is a dead link. An archival copy is available.
  47. ^ a b c Ibiblio. "WE DON'T... WIN? Country Joe & the Revolution in Chile" December 11, 1970.
  48. ^ a b c Amigos de Bolivia y Peru. "Sacrificial Llama? The Expulsion of the Peace Corps from Bolivia in 1971" by James F. Siekmeier. The original story is a dead link. An archival copy is available here.

Further reading

External links


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