First RPCV Conference 1965 Washington, D.C.

CITIZEN IN A TIME OF CHANGE
THE RETURNED PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEER
1965 PEACE CORPS CONFERENCE
March 5-7 1965
Harris Wofford, Editor,conference report
Thanks to the ‘heads up’ from Geri Critchley (Senegal 2971-72) who saved the report of the first Returned Peace Corps Conference held at the State Department. The list of RPCVs who attended are on pages 85,86,87  of this 90+ report. Click on the link below to read or download the report. (Note: JCoyne)

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  • Thank you to Gri Critchely for preserving this report and John Coyne for posting it. It was fascinating for me to read the very detailed report of the Conference Proceedings. It is of historic value.

    I was still in Colombia in March 1965 and we received TIME magazine every week. It was called the Latin America edition and my recollection was it had no information about Latin America. It did report on the conference and emphasized, at length, the problem RPCVs were having returning to the United States after Peace Corps service. It was called “reverse culutural shock”. That was the focus of the article.

    The Conference Proceedings were led by Shriver, prominent political leaders and academicians who had created the Peace Corps and/or promoted and protected it. My sense was that these leaders were there to direct the RPCVs and help them decide what they should do next. My sense was that RPCVs were saying “we will row our own boats”. Underlying the conference, again my opinion, was the real question: Whose Peace Corps is it? Those of you who attended, may well disagree with me.

    For me, the real sadness is that this was the first and only Conference held by Peace Corps to convene RPCVs for the purposes of serious discussion.

  • D.C.’S A BAD TOWN NOW
    Thugs in the public trough in that tainted administration & the gang in Congress now being called RETHUGLICANS with the CuetipVP and the Coverup Kelly’s and

    the other banana republican-like “generals” who are squatting over the government agencies and departments they have been shat-out for to dismember

    and their bad buddies who work for them also tainted TAINTED, really tainted and for life. IT IS TIME, TIME TO GET RID OF THE SLIME.

    Sure, we hear about the bad swamps where even when Lincoln was President (and his son died from infections in the Potomac areas, but it wasn’t all slime all the time.

    IT IS A BAD TOWN NOW. D.C.’S A BAD TOWN NOW and all of them are taint painted now with greedy feeders so udderly and morally TWISTED cannibalizing great PIGS of our finest. D.C.’S A BAD TOWN NOW.

    by Edward Mycue, Ghana I (1961) then & it was good but now today Feb 15, 2018 D.CL.’S A BAD TOWN NOW. Make it good again.

  • Thank you so much for making this report available. It was a treasured experience that has been slipping away over the years. I have just completed writing a story of my Peace Corps experience in East Pakistan on the G-K project and wanted to mention the first returned volunteer conference. The spirit is rekindled!

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