The Peace Corps was designed to encourage mutual understanding between Americans and other cultures of the world.
On October 14, 1960, Senator John F. Kennedy spoke to the students at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor during a campaign speech and challenged them to live and work in developing countries around the world, thus dedicating themselves to the cause of peace and development. That idea inspired the beginning of the Peace Corps.
The Peace Corps was designed to encourage mutual understanding between Americans and other cultures of the world. It was established by executive order in 1961 and was approved by Congress as a permanent, U.S. federal agency within the State Department later that year. Robert Sargent Shriver, President Kennedy's brother-in-law, was appointed the first director of the U.S. Peace Corps in 1961. In 1981, the Peace Corps was made an independent agency.
The Peace Corps program was an outgrowth of the Cold War. President Kennedy pointed out that the Soviet Union, “had hundreds of men and women, scientists, physicists, teachers, engineers, doctors, and nurses…prepared to spend their lives abroad in the service of world communism." The United States did not have an equivalent organization that prompted individual citizens to work abroad and dedicate themselves to the development, progress and peace of developing countries and cultures. Kennedy wanted to involve Americans more actively in the cause of global democracy, peace, development and freedom.
The Peace Corps was very popular in the 1960s with recent college graduates whose ideals reflected the generational attitudes of the time, i.e., a committment to peace and international goodwill. After the Vietnam War and Watergate, the Peace Corps no longer commanded great interest and government funding was cut. Due to low recruits and financial support, President Nixon incorporated the Peace Corps under the umbrella agency, ACTION in July 1971, where it remained until 1979 when President Jimmy Carter declared it autonomous in an executive order. In 1983, under the Reagan administration, Congress made the Peace Corps an independent federal agency. At that time, Reagan attempted to diversify the Peace Corps program by branching it out from its traditional concern with education and agriculture to more current concerns like computer literacy and business-related education by initiating several new business related programs. For the first time the Peace Corps saw a rise in conservative and Republican volunteers who joined the largely progressive volunteer contingent overseas. The program continued to reflect the evolving and expanding ideology of the United States. Today, on average, more recent volunteers have been older than their predecessors and more experienced in specialized fields.
The Peace Corps has now been operating for over 4 decades, and is still growing. In 44 years, the Peace Corps has had over 178,000 volunteers serving in over 138 countries and learning more than 200 languages and dialects. Volunteers serve 2 year-periods helping to build a self-sustaining, better future within their host country, along with establishing good will. Life as a Peace Corps volunteer is not easy and volunteers face many challenges from language barriers to poor living conditions. There is no salary. Volunteers receive a monthly stipend for room, board and few essentials—“enough to be at a level sufficient only to maintain health and basic needs. Men and women will be expected to work and live alongside the nationals of the country in which they are stationed—doing the same work, eating the same food, talking the same language." Culturally, volunteers work to build trust within their communities and with their counterparts to be included within the community and their skills realized and utilized.
At a grass-roots level, volunteers teach and share their skills to help solve challenges that face developing communities. There are many different areas/sectors that volunteers work in. These sectors include: education/teaching, health and nutrition, including HIV/AIDS training, agriculture, business, community development and the environment/forestry.
The Peace Corps is always adapting to the times and to an ever-changing world, but has never wavered from its three original 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
Countries that are interested in hosting Peace Corps volunteers must meet certain requirements in order to participate in the Peace Corps program. These requirements are:
- A country must invite the Peace Corps
- Since there is a limited budget, the Peace Corps decides in which countries it can be active in and then prioritizes each country's needs
- The Peace Corps makes sure that the volunteers go to a country that is safe
To start a Peace Corps program, the Peace Corps announces its availability to foreign governments in countries that have met these established requirements. These governments determine areas in which the Peace Corps can be involved. The Peace Corps then matches the requested assignments to applicants with the appropriate skills who first made the request. The Peace Corps membership and funding have increased since the opening of Eastern Europe to American interests in 1990.
Today, the Peace Corps is still growing and is more vital than ever. As part of his “War on Terrorism", President George W. Bush pledged to double the Peace Corps within the next five years, especially since our nation was alerted to growing anti-US sentiment after the September 11 attacks and the invasion of Iraq. From Kennedy’s inspiration came an agency devoted to world peace and friendship and volunteers who continue to help individuals build a better life for themselves, their children, their community and their country.