Peace Corps Launches: Kennedy's Global Volunteer Force

Thousands of American college graduates would soon find themselves digging wells in Ghana, teaching math in the Philippines, and building roads in Colombia — all because of a 2 a.m. challenge on the steps of the University of Michigan. During a campaign stop in October 1960, John F. Kennedy spontaneously asked students if they would volunteer to serve their country abroad. The response was overwhelming, and within months of taking office, he made it official. Kennedy signed Executive Order 10924 on March 1, 1961, establishing the Peace Corps as a new agency within the State Department. The idea drew from several sources: Senator Hubert Humphrey had proposed a similar program in 1957, and Representative Henry Reuss had pushed for a feasibility study. But Kennedy gave it presidential urgency, naming his brother-in-law Sargent Shriver to lead the effort. Shriver moved at extraordinary speed. By August 1961, the first group of 51 volunteers arrived in Accra, Ghana, to teach in secondary schools. Congress formally authorized the agency on September 22, 1961, with the Peace Corps Act. Within two years, 7,300 volunteers were serving in 44 countries. Applicants needed a college degree and had to commit to two years of service, preceded by three months of intensive language and cultural training. The program served dual purposes that Kennedy never tried to hide: genuine development assistance and a Cold War counterweight to Soviet influence in newly independent nations. Critics on the left called it imperialism with a friendly face; critics on the right called it naive. Volunteers on the ground mostly found it was neither — just difficult, underfunded, and occasionally transformative. More than 240,000 Americans have served in 142 countries since 1961, making the Peace Corps one of the longest-running volunteer programs in the world.