The Peace Corps

It was not all ‘work’ and no ‘play’ at the Peace Corps for the Mad Men and Women. Here’s a story from the early years that has been told and retold a couple thousand times, and is retold in the late Coates Redmon’s book Come As You Are: The Peace Corps Story. Coates, as I mentioned, was a writer for the Peace Corps in the early days, later press person for Rosalynn Carter, and later still, director of the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award. It is a story–as all good Washington, D.C. do–that begins in Georgetown. It was a Sunday evening in the fall of 1961 and Dick Nelson, who was Bill Moyers’s assistant, and Blair Butterworth, whose father was ambassador to Canada, and who worked as a file clerk at PC/W, were living together at Two Pomander Walk in Georgetown. That Sunday, Moyers’ wife and kids were in Texas . . .

John writes —   If you ever had watched the TV show Mad Men you know all about the office atmosphere and the thick layer of smoke that filled the offices. It was no better in the Peace Corps during those early years of the 1960s. Flipping through pages of old Peace Corps publications, I see half a dozen people who I knew, all with cigarettes in their hands. Al Meisel in the Training Division; Charlie Peters, head of Evaluation; Jim Gibson, head of Agricultural Affairs. He liked cigars and smoked them in the building! The wonderful Jules Pagano. Other heavy smokers: Howard Greenberg in Management; Jack Vaughn, the second director; Frank Mankiewicz; evaluator Dick Elwell, (as I recall, everyone in evaluation smoked and drank and wrote great prose). Doug Kiker and his crew in Public Affairs knew how to light up. And so did Betty Harris. When the Mad . . .

Documentary Now Available on DVD & for Streaming Finally, A Towering Task is available on DVD and to stream! And just in time for the holidays or to celebrate a birthday or milestone. You can purchase DVDs: DVDs can be purchased through Amazon. CLICK HERE Through First Run Features, you can purchase a DVD or view (while supporting a small film distributor). CLICK HERE View online by renting or purchasing: Rent or purchase online viewing through Amazon, and be sure to leave us a review! CLICK HERE  If you would like to, instead, view through your local library – or if you are a student or teacher – you can do that through Kanopy. CLICK HERE Take a look, and do share these options with friends, family, colleagues, and schools! Video montage from the upcoming new website. Stay tuned! PBS Broadcast Update: In the past few months, A Towering Task: The Story of the Peace Corps has been broadcast across the . . .

  Cupid’s Arrow by Susan English (Namibia 2004-06) Out on a Whim Press January 2022 318 pages $0.00 (Kindle); $2.99 (to buy)   When her utopian moon base is targeted by Earth’s authoritarian powers, can she stand in the face of tyranny to prove love is stronger than hate? Biologist Pavani Nampeyo is devastated to lose her soulmate. But with the world military preparing to raid their lunar science colony, the broken-hearted specialist makes the agonizing decision to stay behind while the love of her life escapes to another solar system. And when the brutal invaders fail to find the missing colonists, Pavani’s protective instincts steer her in the path of a violent assault. Bruised but undaunted, she and her team attempt to drive out the troops by broadcasting video of the illegal occupation across the planet. But with the threat of reprisal looming, Pavani’s only hope of reconnecting with . . .

Charlie Peters, the founder of the Washington Monthly who died on Thanksgiving, wasn’t easy but he cared intensely about the country. The magazine was the tool he had to help. by Nicholas Thompson December 6, 2023 Washington Monthly founding editor Charles Peters in 2008. Credit: Gunes Kocatepe/Wikimedia Commons The first time I met Charlie Peters was in a job interview. It was the fall of 1999: I was 24, he was 72, and I was a candidate to be an editor at the Washington Monthly. I trudged up the stairs to the third floor of 1611 Connecticut Avenue to a well-worn office filled with old magazines and crossed by the occasional cockroach. Charlie sat across from me and a big wooden desk with a box for incoming manuscripts and one for outgoing manuscripts that he had marked up with a felt green marker. “What is your relationship like with your father?” he asked a . . .

  Establishing the Peace Corps by John Coyne (Ethiopia 1962-64)   Let me start with a quote from Gerard T. Rice’s book, The Bold Experiment: JFK’s Peace Corps: In 1961 John F. Kennedy took two risky and conflicting initiatives in the Third World. One was to send five hundred additional military advisers into South Vietnam; by 1963 there would be seventeen thousand such advisers. The other was to send five hundred young Americans to teach in the schools and work in the fields of eight developing countries. These were Peace Corps Volunteers. By 1963 there would be seven thousands of them in forty-four countries. Vietnam scarred the American psyche, leaving memories of pain and defeat. But Kennedy’s other initiative inspired, and continued to inspire, hope and understanding among Americans and the rest of the world. In that sense, the Peace Corps was his most affirmative and enduring legacy. Historical Framework . . .

New List of RPCV & STAFF Authors December 2023 Here is our new list of RPCV & staff authors we know of who have published two or more books of any type. Currently—in December 2023–the count is 523. If you know of someone who has written two books and their name is not on this list, then please email: jcoyneone@gmail.com. We know we don’t have all the Peace Corps writers. Thank you.’ Jerome R. Adams (Colombia 1963–65) Tom Adams (Togo 1974-76) Thomas “Taj” Ainlay, Jr. (Malaysia 1973–75) Elizabeth (Letts) Alalou (Morocco 1983–86) Jane Albritton (India 1967-69) Robert Albritton (Ethiopia 1963-65) Usha Alexander (Vanuatu 1996–97) James G. Alinder (Somalia 1964-66) Richard Alleman (Morocco 1968-70) Hayward Allen (Ethiopia 1962-64) Diane Demuth Allensworth (Panama 1964–66) Paul E. Allaire (Ethiopia 1964–66) Jack Allison (Malawi 1967-69) Allman (Nepal 1966-68) Nancy Amidei (Nigeria 1964–65) Gary Amo (Malawi 1962–64) David C. Anderson (Costa Rica 1964-66) Lauri Anderson (Nigeria . . .