45 Years Young: The Value of the Peace Corps by Kevin Quigley

by Kevin Quigley

Forty-five years ago today, President Kennedy signed an Executive Order establishing the Peace Corps. By taking this bold action within his Administration’s first forty days, he demonstrated high commitment to the fight “against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty and war itself.”

Across the years, Kennedy’s call to service still resonates… “And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”

However, it is Kennedy’s call in the next line of his inaugural address that clearly inspired Peace Corps and still speaks eloquently in these troubled times, “My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.”

For 45 years, Peace Corps has been Americans and citizens from other countries working together for the freedom of man. As a consequence, Peace Corps has generated some of the most positive perceptions of the United States from heads of states to school principals to local farmers. More importantly, Peace Corps has significantly altered the views of Americans about others through the efforts of all of us who served.

In sending 182,000 Americans volunteers to 138 countries, Peace Corps has operated on a set of simple, but proven, principles. These principles are to: 1) help others help themselves, 2) let them learn about the United States through individual, highly-personalized contact, and 3) have volunteers share their experiences with other Americans when they return home.

After the tragic events of September 2001, President Bush recognized the critical national priority of expanding opportunities for Americans to learn about others through the Peace Corps and to work together to promote freedom. In the President’s 2002 State of the Union, he pledged to double the size of Peace Corps to roughly 14,000 by 2007.

With just a year to go to reach this goal, Peace Corps currently has 7,810 volunteers and trainees—a three-decade high—but woefully short of the President’s goal and far below what the United States needs to reach in order to alter perceptions and continue to make a contribution to combating humanity’s common enemies.

Peace Corps is successful because it is fundamentally not about government but simply about people helping other people strengthen their communities for themselves and their children. Reflecting this, Peace Corps is relatively unique for a government program in that it is not perceived in partisan ways at home and is generally well regarded abroad. In this country, six returned Peace Corps volunteers continue to serve their country by being in the U.S. Congress: three are Republicans and three are Democrats.

Volunteers come away from their Peace Corps service profoundly changed. They learn skills and deepen empathy in ways that spur them to discover myriad opportunities to contribute to their communities and country. They make lifelong friendships that span continents. They become committed to justice and tolerance, know the importance of being engaged in the world and possess an unshakeable belief that individuals do make a difference. They continued to be exhorted by compelling command of Peace Corps’s founder, Sargent Shriver, “Serve, Serve, Serve…”

Abroad, numerous heads of states and leading political figures like Alejandro Toledo of Peru, Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia, Isaias Afworki of Eritrea and Anwar Ibrahim of Malaysia studied with Peace Corps Volunteers. They all indicate that this was a life-changing experience for them. They know how important direct contact with Americans is for changing views and making connections that last a lifetime. They understand that together we can make progress in the struggle for “the freedom of man.”

If the United States is serious about promoting freedom and combating poverty, as well as changing the increasingly negative views about this country, one of the best and easiest ways to do so is to fulfill President Bush’s pledge and increase Peace Corps to 14,000 volunteers within the next two years.

In this time when freedom is threatened at home and abroad, it is worth harkening back to Peace Corps’s founding and then having our country make the difficult but necessary commitment to reinvigorate this “best face of America.” If we did so, Peace Corps would not only have an inspiring past but a bright future.


Kevin F. F. Quigley is President of the National Peace Corps Association, the alumni organization for people influenced by Peace Corps service; he served as a volunteer in Thailand.