Archive - February 6, 2013

This comes to us again through the kindness of Joanne Roll (Colombia 1963-65) who blogs on this site and is an expert on the history of the Peace Corps. This audio is 30 minutes long. The Peace Corps is mentioned in the first five minutes.    http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/TNC-5.aspx#.UQwOozmfFJw.email According to Joanne, President Kennedy announces the Peace Corps as a pilot program at the beginning of his Press Conference, on March 1st, 1961.  “The entire Press Conference is thirty minutes long,” says Joanne, ” and it is well worth listening to the entire Conference.  Many of the topics sound contemporary for today, such as finding alternatives to military resolution of international problems and how to control the deficit.  Kennedy’s moral positions shine throughout all of his remarks. This very special press conference illustrates the political and ethical environment in which the Peace Corps was born.” This was only the 5th Press Conference for JFK. Again, thanks, . . .

Joanne Roll (Colombia 1963-65) who blogs on our site, and who knows more than all of us about the agency, sent me the following note and interesting links at the JFK’s library in Boston. Joanne writes: “The JFK Presidential Library works hard to protect the history and legacy of the Kennedy administration. The Peace Corps is an important part of that history.  Here is an example of how important preserving and protecting that history can be. “Since the beginning, Peace Corps Volunteers have long fought the myth that somehow Volunteers were intelligence agents in disguise. A telephone conversation between President Kennedy and Sargent Shriver on April 2, 1963 documents that Kennedy and Shriver were strongly determined to protect the Peace Corps from the CIA. “This telephone conversation was recorded in the White House and the JFK Library has now digitized the recording and is making them available on its website. . . .