Peace Corps

Founding

The Peace Corps was founded in the early 1960s out of both political initiatives and growing idealistic, socially oriented attitudes in society, especially among young people. The political and social climate of that era was being shaped by a number of factors and events including the baby boom, the Cold War, Sputnik, Cuba, the civil rights struggle, and a general attitude captured by the book The Ugly American. In addition, 1961 saw President Kennedy send 500 additional military advisers into South Vietnam.

In the midst of this, the idea of a citizen volunteer corps was being considered by some politicians. The phrase Peace Corps was first coined by Hubert Humphrey in a Senate bill in 1960. Humphrey also used the idea of a volunteer organization in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1960. When John F. Kennedy received the nomination, he then began to speak of a volunteer corps of Americans as well.

Among his notable speeches was Kennedy's appearance at the University of Michigan on October 14, 1960. The presidential candidate had arrived late and the press had already retired, assuming that the appearance would be canceled. Nevertheless, 10,000 university students were waiting to hear Kennedy speak. When he addressed the students extemporaneously at 2 A.M., he asked how many of them would be willing to serve their country, and the cause of peace, by living and working in the developing world. The idea of a Peace Corps quickly gained public attention. Specifically, this speech sparked the interest of many socially minded college students, and a group of them began to take action. They formed Americans Committed to World Responsibility and began a petition for the cause of a Peace Corps. They personally presented the petition to Kennedy, and shortly thereafter—one week before the presidential elections—he made an official reference to the Peace Corps in a speech at the Cow Palace in San Francisco titled “Staffing a Foreign Policy for Peace.”

After Kennedy won the election over Richard Nixon, and gave his famous inaugural address, he appointed his brother-in-law, Sargent Shriver, to head a presidential task force charged with organizing the Peace Corps. With amazing speed, Shriver submitted a report to the president that recommended an immediate executive order by Kennedy to establish the Peace Corps. Kennedy signed Executive Order 10924 on March 1 and appointed Shriver as director of the new organization. Later that year Congress passed legislation that officially created the Peace Corps and President Kennedy signed the Peace Corps Act on September 27, 1961. The first group of volunteers had already left for Ghana on August 28.

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