Peace Corps

The Peace Corps is a U.S. government grass-roots development initiative. President John F. Kennedy created the Peace Corps in 1961 to channel the idealism of American youth toward alleviating the problems of the developing world. One of the first groups went to the island of Saint Lucia in the Caribbean. Soon programs were established in virtually every country in the Western Hemisphere. During the first three decades over 20,000 volunteers were sent for two-year periods of service in the region.

During the 1960s the Peace Corps efforts in Latin America concentrated on community development. The objective was to help poor people solve local problems. Volunteers were expected to live in situations as close as possible to those of the people they served and to learn the local language. The number of volunteers in Latin America peaked in the late 1960s.

During the 1970s and 1980s budget cuts and political factors reduced the program, especially in South America. Nevertheless, a broad range of projects was undertaken in agriculture, education, and health. Skilled technicians in these fields were recruited as volunteers. Community development became a secondary priority. Efforts were made to coordinate the Peace Corps activities with other official U.S. and private assistance programs. Programs were designed in consultation with the recipient countries. However, funding began to increase again in the 1990s. Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York, President George W. Bush proposed doubling the size of the Peace Corps as a way to combat anti-Americanism abroad. With the extra funding, the Peace Corps has begun recruiting more volunteers to meet the president's goal.

The return home of the volunteers increased awareness in the United States of the problems of the poor and dispossessed in Latin America. At the same time the cross-cultural linkages of the program created a better understanding of the United States among the people at the community level in the participating countries.

See alsoUnited States-Latin American Relations .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

R. Sargent Shriver, "Ambassadors of Good Will, the Peace Corps," in National Geographic 126 (September 1964): 297-345.

Robert B. Ridinger, The Peace Corps (1989).

Additional Bibliography

Cobbs Hoffman, Elizabeth. All You Need Is Love: The Peace Corps and the Spirit of the 1960s. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000.

Fischer, Fritz. Making Them Like Us: Peace Corps Volunteers in the 1960s. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998.

                                        David L. Jickling