“The Early Days of the Peace Corps” – Video copies available

Watch Bill Moyers “channeling” LBJ. You will laugh and then cry.  Last Spring, the National Archives and Record Administration in conjunction with the Peace Corps hosted a panel discussion, described as follows:

Peace Corps 50th Anniversary

Thursday, March 17, at 7 p.m.

William G. McGowan Theater

The Early Years of the Peace Corps

Panelists included award-winning broadcaster and journalist, Bill Moyers; former U.S. Ambassador Jack Hood Vaughn; and Senator Harris Wofford – all of whom held leadership roles during the agency’s early years, as well as Mary Ann Orlando, Shriver’s administrative assistant and right hand “man.”  Peace Corps Director Aaron S. Williams introduced the panel.

The proceedings were video recorded and that DVD is now a public record. Marian Haley Beil plans to post the video on this website, Peace Corps Worldwide, sometime after September 26^th.  Peace Corps does not have plans to put this video on the government website.  However, it will make the video available to RPCVs. To request the DVD, specify the title and details outlined above and follow the instructions given in this email:

Any RPCV can just send me an e-mail at kchaput@peacecorps.gov

and I will send them a dvd. This will give me a chance to ask them for photo scans from their service. We are always looking for those to add to our photo archives.

Karen Chaput

Video Production Manager

Peace Corps Office of Communications

I viewed the video and it is a wonderful historical document. It focuses on Peace Corps/Washington and really on the early days, not years. Bill Moyers reads a letter that he wrote in 1978 to Congress that was considering placing Peace Corps back into one of the State Department “boxes.”  In it, Moyers quotes his notes from a meeting he and LBJ had with the White House back in May of 1961, pleading for the independence of the Peace Corps.