PEACE CORPS ESTABLISHED:

March 1, 1961

On March 1, 1961, President John F. Kennedy issues Executive Order #10924,
establishing the Peace Corps as a new agency within the Department of State. The
same day, he sent a message to Congress asking for permanent funding for the
agency, which would send trained American men and women to foreign nations to
assist in development efforts. The Peace Corps captured the imagination of the
U.S. public, and during the week after its creation thousands of letter poured
into Washington from young Americans hoping to volunteer.The immediate precursor
of the Peace Corps--the Point Four Youth Corps--was proposed by Representative
Henry Reuss of Wisconsin in the late 1950s. Senator Kennedy learned of the Reuss
proposal during his 1960 presidential campaign and, sensing growing public
enthusiasm for the idea, decided to add it to his platform. In early October
1960, he sent a message to the Young Democrats that called for the establishment
of a "Youth Peace Corps," and on October 14 he first publicly spoke of the Peace
Corps idea at an early morning speech at the University of Michigan in Ann
Arbor. The night before, he had engaged Vice President Richard Nixon in the
third presidential debate and was surprised to find an estimated 10,000 students
waiting up to hear him speak when he arrived at the university at 2 a.m. The
assembled students heard the future president issue a challenge: How many of
them, he asked, would be willing to serve their country and the cause of freedom
by living and working in the developing world for years at a time?The Peace
Corps proposal gained momentum in the final days of Kennedy's campaign, and on
November 8 he was narrowly elected the 35th president of the United States. On
January 20, 1961, in his famous inaugural address, he promised aid to the poor
of the world. "To those peoples in the huts and villages of half the globe
struggling to break the bonds of mass misery," he said, "we pledge our best
efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required--not
because the communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but
because it is right." He also appealed to Americans to "ask not what your
country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."After March 1,
thousands of young Americans answered this call to duty by volunteering for the
Peace Corps. The agency, which was headed by Kennedy's brother-in-law, R.
Sargent Shriver, eventually chose some 750 volunteers to serve in 13 nations in
1961. In August, Kennedy hosted a White House ceremony to honor the first Peace
Corps volunteers. The 51 Americans who later landed in Accra, Ghana, for two
years of service immediately made a favorable impression on their hosts when
they gathered on the airport tarmac to sing the Ghanaian national anthem in Twi,
the local language.On September 22, 1961, Kennedy signed congressional
legislation creating a permanent Peace Corps that would "promote world peace and
friendship" through three goals: (1) to help the peoples of interested countries
in meeting their need for trained men and women; (2) to help promote a better
understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served; and (3) to help
promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.By the
end of 1963, 7,000 volunteers were in the field, serving in 44 Third World
countries. In 1966, Peace Corps enrollment peaked, with more than 15,000
volunteers in 52 countries. Budget cuts later reduced the number of Peace Corps
volunteers, but today more than 7,000 Peace Corps volunteers are serving in over
70 countries. Since 1961, more than 161,000 Americans have joined the Peace
Corps, serving in 134 nations.