Peace Corps Chronology; 1961-2010
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1961
Mar. 1, 1961 President John F. Kennedy signed an Executive Order creating the Peace Corps. He hoped to have 500 volunteers in the field by year’s end.
Mar. 4, 1961 Robert Sargent Shriver Jr, Kennedy’s brother-in-law, was appointed the first Peace Corps Director. “I think the Peace Corps is beginning to remove doubts…I have been impressed.” Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-AZ)
May 15, 1961 Colorado State University Research Foundation presented their final report. The first placement test was administered.
Jun., 1961 Peace Corps News first published.
Aug. 28, 1961 The first countries to request technical assistance were: Ghana, Nigeria, and Tanzania, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Thailand, Colombia, Chile, St. Lucia, and the Philippines.
In an effort to weed out potential problems the Peace Corps instituted an entrance exam to fit psychological profiles. Training was done within the United States and included “team-building” physical activities similar to those used by airborne rangers. Trainees were monitored by psychologists. Training included approximately 50 hours of language class as well as “instruction in the philosophy, strategy, tactics, and the menace of communism.” (Section 8(c), Peace Corps Act)
The first groups of Peace Corps Volunteers sent to Ghana and Tanzania, Africa.
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About the Book
Nominated for 2010 Peace Corps Writers Special Publisher Award
“This is a very impressive book.” John Coyne, Editor of Peace Corps Writers and Peace Corps Worldwide
“A great job! I am astonished at how detailed and thorough this work is.” David Searles, author of The Peace Corps Experience: Challenge and Change, 1969-1976
Useful for anyone interested in the Peace Corps, this easy-to-read book includes all notable activities related to America’s most iconic program. It describes the first half century of service during which more than 200,000 Americans volunteered to work in 139 countries. Inspired by JFK’s inaugural call- “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”- volunteers from all 50 states traveled to tropical cloud forests, savannahs, prairies, deserts and frigid mountainous steppes to learn a new language and lend a hand.
About the Author
The Author was born in the southern suburbs of Chicago, Illinois in 1951. His family later moved to Arizona where he graduated from grade school, high school and Arizona State University. He reluctantly served in the U.S. Army Reserves during the closing years of the Vietnam War and enthusiastically volunteered for the Peace Corps. His travels and work have taken him from the salmon spawning Nushagak River Basin in southwestern Alaska to the fertile Argentine Pampas. His continuing studies have included master’s coursework in urban planning at la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in Mexico City, art and creative writing at Skyline College in San Bruno, California and education at California State University Fresno. He has earned his living as an urban planner for many years, working in Honduras, Mexico, Alaska, Arizona and California.
As a younger man, he picked salmon from set nets in bush Alaska, fought a plague of mosquitoes in Canada, crawled through burial tombs in Peru, rode bulls in Bolivia, relaxed in Ecuadorian volcanic hot springs alongside Indians, hung out with an Uruguayan acting troupe, drank mate with Argentine lawyers, listened to tales of Chilean torture in a peña, floated alongside a pelican on the Sea of Cortes, danced to reggae while sipping cane liquor on Honduran sands, cheated border guards in Guatemala, ate pupusas in El Salvador and went underground in Mexico City after becoming embroiled in local politics. His travels outside the (lower) 48 states lasted for seven and one half years.