John writes

John writes — The Peace Corps was our great gift to the world back in the Sixties. President Kennedy asked not what America could for us, but what we could do for the world. We answered by giving the Third World our time, talents, and friendship. We went overseas not to war but to help others in the developing world. For all of us, it was a challenge and an opportunity. In the first days of the agency, the Peace Corps was overwhelmed with letters, telegrams, and in-person visits to the Maiatico Building, headquarters for the new agency on Lafayette Squire across from the White House. All of us wanted to be in the Peace Corps. All of wanted to be one of Kennedy’s Kids. We began with the first Volunteers going to  Ghana and Tanzania in August of 1961. They went to these two African countries not with weapons, . . .

John writes —   I have been reading author Doris Kearns Goodwin’s An Unfinished Love Story and I strongly recommend this “personal history of the 1960s” by her. First Doris Kearns Goodwin is a wonderful writer, and has stories to tell about the first days of the Kennedy administration, and the start of the Peace Corps — JFK’s famous introduction of the agency at 2 a.m. in the morning, for example, on the campus of the University of Michigan. Kennedy spoke for 3 minutes, Doris Kearns writes, “Yet something extraordinary transpired: The students took up the challenge he posed. They organized, they held meetings, they sent letters and telegrams to the campaign asking Kennedy to develop plans for a volunteer Peace Corps (it was not then called ‘Peace Corps’). They signed petitions pledging to give not two but three years of their lives to help people in developing countries.” During that . . .

  John writes — Taylorville (IL) Daily News – Posted Sunday Night by Leroy Kleimola The Christian County IL Coroner has released the names of the couple who died in the RV/Train Crash in rural Christian County.  Joseph M and Cristina Kessler of Sarasota Florida were pronounced deceased. Both victims were 73 years of age and Joseph was identified as the driver.  Preliminary autopsy results show they died of multiple blunt force injuries. According to the family, they had been on a journey to vicit all 50 states and nearly all US National Parks.  The Kesslers were killed in their RV after it was struck by a train late last week between Stonington and Blue Mound. (Open this link ) Cristina Kessler – Author. World Traveler. Photographer. Here is a March 2024 interview I had with Christina about her Peace Corps life and books. Cristina Kessler is an award-winning author of . . .

 John writes —    In this series that I published years ago and republishing for those who have come lately to the site, I will attempt, in short-hand fashion,  to tell the history of the first years of the agency and the men and women who created the Peace Corps.   The history begins In those early days of 1960s the agency was full of Mad Men (and a few Mad Women) who were living in a world-of-work atmosphere very much like the provocative TV AMC drama Mad Men, the program that followed a handful of ruthlessly competitive men and women in New York City who worked in advertising on Madison Avenue. They were living (in case you never saw the series) in an ego-driven world where “selling” was all that matters. That series, set in the early Sixties and has everything many of us grew up with: cigarette smoking, drinking, . . .