March 17, 2011 – Peace Corps Worldwide

OnLine with NARA: More State Department electronic telegrams

Mar 17 2011

I have found more State Department telegrams mentioning Peace Corps and available online on the NARA website. I originally had been able to locate only three. Using “hunt and peck,” “try different combinations,” and, of course, “when all else fails, read the instructions,” I was able to locate this very valuable collection. I apologize for the earlier incomplete information. Peace Corps is mentioned in 87 items that include State Department telegrams from 1973-1976 and Memos for the Record of conversations. They have been declassified and posted online on the NARA website. The telegrams can be read online; the memos are in PDF format. Some of the situations described in the telegrams involve the closing of country Peace Corps programs. Peru is one such country. This is how the collection can be accessed: 1) Go to http://www.archives.gov 2) Choose “Research our Records” on the home page. 3) On the next . . .

Stan Meisler talks about the Peace Corps on YouTube–See It Now!

Mar 17 2011

Stanley Meisler, author of When the World Calls: The Inside Story of the Peace Corps and Its First Fifty Years, talks about the Peace Corps’ most and least supportive presidents. Not an institutional history, When the World Calls is the first complete and balanced look at the Peace Corps’s first fifty years. Revelatory and candid, Stanley Meisler’s engaging narrative exposes Washington infighting, presidential influence, and the Volunteers’ unique struggles abroad. Meisler deftly unpacks the complicated history with sharp analysis and memorable anecdotes, taking readers on a global trek starting with the historic first contingent of Volunteers to Ghana on August 30, 1961. The Peace Corps has served as an American emblem for world peace and friendship, yet few realize that it has sometimes tilted its agenda to meet the demands of the White House. Tracing its history through the past nine presidential administrations, Meisler discloses, for instance, how Lyndon Johns… . . .

Archive - March 17, 2011