The Peace Corps

The Journals of Peace Making It Happen by Tim Carroll (Nigeria 1963–66) • In 1988, as the first Director of the National Council of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (NCRPCV), now the National Peace Corps Association, I felt a considerable part of my mandate was to bring our disparate numbers together, to gather us up to celebrate those feelings we had in common. A number of special events given under my tenure accomplished this in varying degrees of success, but none held the hearts of Peace Corps family as did the Journals of Peace. As the 25th anniversary of the death of President John Kennedy — the founder and much loved hero of early Volunteers — approached, I made a call to St. Matthew’s Cathedral, the church that had been the site of JFK’s funeral service, and asked if we might have a memorial Mass that would include not only the . . .

I’ve already profusely thanked Karen Wiggins-Dowler for reappearing, with an essay by Warren to boot! Without necessarily disagreeing with anything Warren Wiggins says, let alone with the great quote from Scottie Reston, I do need to say something about context. Wiggins was the relatively new deputy in the International Cooperation Administration’s Far East Region under Bill Sheppard.  Warren was an all-but-dissertation Harvard Ph.D. economist.  He served in Norway in the Marshall Plan, in the Philippines, in Bolivia.  He had been the famous airsick pilot of DC 3s, flying supplies over the Himalayan Hump from India to China and back. I joined ICA as Far East Regional Counsel in November 1959. We bonded immediately. In November/December 1960 we wrote a paper on foreign aid reorganization.  I still have it. With the ICA Vietnam desk officer, Sherwood Fine, we wrote a paper on the impending crisis there.  To dramatize the crisis, Warren . . .

The October 2017 issue of Vanity Fair carries an article by Meryl Gordon from her upcoming book The Life of an American Style Legend being published by Grand Central Publishing. It is the story of how Jacqueline Kennedy turned to her friend Bunny Mellon to help Jackie fix up the White House Rose Garden, JFK’s favorite spot. The new Rose Garden was finished in June 1962 and began to be used by Kennedy for ceremonial occasions. One of the very first events in the garden was in August. Kennedy welcomed to the garden the PCVs for Ghana and (then) Tanganyika the day before they left for their assignments. That summer there were other PCVs in Training in the DC area who would meet the president on the White House lawns. They were at Georgetown, Howard, American, Catholic, George Washington, and the University of Maryland, over 600 in all. To read the whole article go to: https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2017/09/how-bunny-mellon-invented-the-white-house-rose-garden Using . . .

  Warren W. Wiggins: Bold Treatise Shaped Peace Corps’ Mission By Patricia Sullivan, Staff Writer Washington Post  Sunday, April 15, 2007 Warren W. Wiggins, 84, the major architect and organizer of the Peace Corps who wrote the basic philosophical document that shaped its mission, died of atypical Parkinson’s syndrome April 13 at his home in Haymarket. In 1961, Mr. Wiggins, who became one of the top leaders of the high-profile agency in its earliest years, was an unknown foreign policy adviser whose brief paper, “The Towering Task,” landed in the lap of the Peace Corps’ first director, R. Sargent Shriver, just as he was trying to figure out how to turn President John F. Kennedy’s campaign promise into a working federal department. The response to it became legendary in the agency as “the midnight ride of Warren Wiggins.” Shriver, burrowing through correspondence shortly after midnight on Feb. 6, 1961, was electrified . . .

  Thanks for the heads-up from Alana DeJoseph’s (Mali 1992-94) who forwarded this essay by Warren Wiggins, co-author with Bill Josephson, of “The Towering Task” the founding document that Shriver used in creating the Peace Corps. Warren’s daughter, Karen Wiggins-Dowler, sent the article to Alana, writing: “I was going through a box of family archives when I ran across this Peace Corps reflection written by my father. I don’t know if you have finished your research yet but thought that you would enjoy reading the reflection especially about the “risk” assessment with the creation of the Peace Corps.” Karen also is kind enough to let me post her father’s short essay so all of us in the worldwide Peace Corps Community might have the opportunity to read, after all these years, what one of the key founders had to say about the Peace Corps becoming a reality. — JC • What . . .

  The unofficial newsletter, Gov Exec, reports: “Nov. 16 looms large for government leaders paying attention to the 1998 Federal Vacancies Reform Act. The law stipulates that 300 days after a president is sworn in, officials who have been serving in an acting capacity since that time lose much of their authority.  I do not know how of if this would apply to the position of Peace Corps Director and Deputy Director.  I would welcome information if anyone knows more.  However, I thought I would post the postion description for Director of the Peace Corps, if it is not too late to apply! I note that among the requirements is the statement: Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (preferred). — JC • POSITION DESCRIPTION OVERVIEW Senate Committee Foreign Relations Agency Mission The Peace Corps is an independent U.S government agency considered the preeminent leader in international volunteer service, with more than 220,000 . . .

  About the book Kinky Friedman (Borneo 1967-69) has always maintained his Kinkster persona and hidden Richard Friedman from the public eye. Using one-liners, humor, and occasional rudeness, he follows the advice of his friend Bob Dylan to keep an aura of mystery. Author Mary Lou Sullivan spent many contentious days and nights at Kinky’s Texas Hill Country ranch before he trusted her enough to open up and speak candidly. Best known as an irreverent cigar-chomping Jewish country-and-western singer turned author, turned politician, Kinky has dined on monkey brains in the jungles of Borneo, supped with presidents, and vacationed with Bob Dylan in the tiny fishing village of Yelapa, Mexico. A satirist who loves pushing the envelope, he’s been attacked onstage, received bomb threats, and put on the only show in Austin City Limits’ history deemed too offensive to air. From the 1970s music scene in L.A. with Tom Waits . . .

In a note from Bill Josephson, Founding Counsel of the Peace Corps from 1961-66, Bill wrote about Thomas M. Hill’s essay entitled The Peace Corps, A lot of bucks for very little bang? saying:              The United States Consumer Price Index by Major Group 1915-2015 All Items was 31.5 in 1965.  In 2015, it was 237, an increase of 7.5 times.  Another way to make the point is that what cost $31.5 in 1965 would cost $205.50 more in 2015. From 1961 to 1966, the Peace Corps said that it held the per volunteer cost steady at $30,000 each.  $30,000 times 7.5 is $225,000. If my math is right, which it may not be, it’s no longer (at 83) one of my strong points, the Peace Corps at $56,500 a volunteer is even more of a bargain than it was in 1965. Comments and criticisms more than . . .

Loneliness, Libertinism, Anxiety: Recollections of a Peace Corps Volunteer by RACHEL LU (Uzbekistan 2002-04) November 6, 2017 National Review Surely we can maintain some standards of decency and decorum, even if we don’t all agree that fornication is a sin. I’d been in the United States Peace Corps for all of 48 hours when I received my first bag of taxpayer-funded condoms. In the Peace Corps, they don’t waste time with foreplay. This was in 2002, when I was stationed at a health sanatorium north of Tashkent, one of 50 Volunteers in training. After dinner on our second day, we were ordered to report to the clinic for the first of several rounds of vaccinations. First came the needles and then came the candy, but along with the sweets I was given a brown paper bag. I looked. “Oh, thanks,” I said, “but I don’t need this.” I handed it . . .

Peter Rush was in Cameroon from 1972-73 after graduating from Brown University with a BA in International Relations. He then earned a masters in Creative Writing from the University of Florida and has been a newspaper reporter, magazine editor, and a police officer. He is currently the CEO of a global management firm. We interviewed Peter received about his first novel. Peter, tell us a little bit about yourself and where you were in the Peace Corps.  I went to Brown and served in the Peace Corps in 1972-73. I was assigned to a little village in northern Cameroon which in the present day has been impacted by the Boko Harum group from Nigeria. In fact, many of the villages in my area have been destroyed. What was your assignment overseas? I taught at a GEG school (College Enseignment General)- teaching English (ESL) because Cameroon is officially bilingual English and French as . . .

Sargent Shriver’s Speech at the National Conference of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers and Staff, Washington, D.C. September 20, 1986 Mine is an impossible task, to describe the challenge facing the Peace Corps is to describe the most profound problems facing the entire world, and the problems within each one of us which prevent us from fulfilling our potential to overcome those problems. In a mere speech, I am not able to fulfill an assignment of that magnitude. Forgive me, if, then, I say that you know as well as I that hunger, disease, poverty, fear and anxiety afflict more human beings now than ever in recorded history. You know we live face-to-face with total disaster and death through nuclear war. You know that all of us in the Peace Corps constitute merely a handful of persons seeking perfection in a world population of billions struggling for mere survival. “Oh! Lord, . . .

The Foreign Service Journal covers foreign affairs from an insider’s perspective, providing thought-provoking articles on international issues, the practice of diplomacy and the U.S. Foreign Service. Including the AFSA News section, The Journal is published monthly (January-February and July-August issues combined) by the American Foreign Service Association. The November issue focuses on Foreign Service authors. Mark Wentling (Honduras 1967–69, Togo 1970–73; PC Staff: Togo, Gabon, Niger 1973–77) new book, Dead Cow Road: Life on the Front Lines of an International Crisis is featured on on this page.http://www.afsa.org/sites/default/files/flipping_book/1117/index.html#38   A former U.S. foreign service officer, Mark Jacobs (Paraguay 1978-80) has published more than 125 stories in magazines including The Atlantic, Playboy, The Idaho Review, The S0uthrn Review, and The Kenyon Review. His latest publication is in the Hudson Review. http://hudsonreview.com/2017/10/other-mens-fields/#.Wfn13baZPsk    

I do not think it is altogether fair to say that I handed Sarge a lemon from which he made lemonade, but I do think that he was handed and you (The Peace Corps staff) were handed one of the most sensitive and difficult assignments which any administrative group in Washington has been given almost in this century.” –President Kennedy in a speech to the Peace Corps staff It was apparent to Shriver from the very beginning that he needed talented people who had wide experience in government work. The question was–how would he find them! He followed the principle that one good man would bring another. So Warren Wiggins got him Jack Young from NASA, a demon of energy and creativity who organized our management services. Presidential Counsel Ted Sorensen recommended Joe Kauffman. The Dean of the Yale Law School, Eugene Rostow, recommended Bill Delano. The “talent search” turned up . . .

The Peace Corps: A lot of bucks for very little bang? By Thomas M Hill, Visiting Fellow—Governance Studies Brookings Monday, October 16, 2017 Former Congressman Sam Farr (D-Calif.) is credited with having stated that the Peace Corps is “the American taxpayer’s best bang for its buck.” Certainly, it’s a sentiment shared by many returned Peace Corps volunteers who describe their experiences as personally transformative. However, at approximately $56,500 per volunteer per year, the Peace Corps is one of the most expensive civilian overseas programs funded by the federal government and nearly twice as expensive as the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. The program’s cost ($410 million annually) coupled with its inconsistent development track record and the agency’s insistence that it operate independently from U.S. foreign policy should raise questions for Congress about whether an entirely taxpayer-funded model is sustainable and a good use of limited resources. In 1971, Brent Ashabranner, the former Deputy Director of the Peace Corps suggested that . . .

Thanks to the ‘heads up’ from Andy Trincia (Romania 2002-04) From The Guardian, New Zealand US officials investigated Brown after he was accused of inappropriate behaviour at a party in Samoa and was alleged by one woman to have stared at her breasts Scott Brown: US envoy to New Zealand ‘counselled on standards of conduct’ The state department said: ‘We take allegations of misconduct seriously and we investigate them thoroughly.’ Photograph: @peacecorpssamoa Facebook/The Samoan Photographer Reported by Eleanor Ainge Roy in Dunedin and Julian Borger in Washington Thursday 26 October 2017 US Ambassador to New Zealand, Scott Brown The US ambassador to New Zealand has been “counselled on standards of conduct for government employees” after an investigation into his behaviour at a party in Samoa in the summer. US officials from the state department’s office of inspector general flew to New Zealand last week to interview Scott Brown, a former Republican senator, and reported their findings . . .