Where Did The Three Goal of the Peace Corps Come From?

Scratch an RPCV or PCV and they'll tell you the three goals of the Peace Corps. While the wording varies from one publication to the next, these are the goals: (1) Contribute to the development of critical countries and regions; (2) Promote international cooperation and goodwill toward the country; (3) Contribute to the education of America and to more intelligent American participation in the world.  Now, those are the stated goals, and I know that they have been tweaked with by staff and PCVs over the last 45 + years. For example, "living at the level of the HCNs" is often stated as Goal # 2.

But the question is, who came up with these goals and why three? Well, at the famous Mayflower Hotel when the task force began to draft the proposal to give JFK that would define what "Peace Corps" was, a clear statement of purpose was needed. Now Wofford goes into this at length in his book Of Kennedys and Kings that there were many long discussions [arguments?] of how to state the reason for the new agency.

Some members of the task force wanted a single purpose, or at least a central one. "Peace" was the overriding purpose, and as many as a dozen "purposes" were argued about, until Shriver sat down and wrote out three that we have today, it could have been something else, but what Shriver and the others wanted with a new form of overseas work, volunteers who would not be missionaries, business representatives, government officials, intelligence agent, or researchers. Nor would they be high-level experts or advisers. Peace Corps Volunteers would be different. They would go with a different purpose, operate in a different relationship to their host country colleagues, and presumably return with different results.

Volunteers would break the pattern of government aid experts, as Wofford wrote in his book, who often operated at too high a level. There was a common story told then about American advisors that made this point. When the prize American bull, sent by the U.S. aid program, was put in the pasture with the cows, he just looked around. When asked why he didn't do something, the bull replied, "I'm an adviser."

I can say with confidence that wasn't how Volunteers saw their roles.

Comments

[Tom Hebert]

I just found this on the peacecorponline.org Nigeria COS message board. It hits on all three goals:

By Abdullahi Nashe (212.96.19.250) on Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Since our teachers (Peace Corps) left our school sometimes in 1969-1970 we could not trace them. I tried everything possible but in vein. Thanks to Internet may be some one could help me. They are:

Kerry kelly Compton and her husband as we knew him Mr. William Compton. Both of them served at a secondary school called Governement Secondary school Maiduguri. Maiduguri is a city in the northern part of Nigeria. The year was 1969-70. Please help me locate these guys who meant a lot to us. They change the lives of all students of form one then at the school. They tougt us English Langauge and Maths without which I could not be an Engineer, the profession I am practicing now.

PLEASE LET SOME ONE help me locate these treasure.