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For more than 35 years, the Peace Corps has pursued John F. Kennedy's vision of helping people of the Third World build a better life. Yet with the exception of a few celebrations of its early years, little effort has been made to document that organization's history. Now a former deputy director of the Peace Corps offers a first-hand look at life in the agency—both in the field and at headquarters—and a radical reinterpretation of its history during the Nixon and Ford administrations.

By the end of the 1960s, the Peace Corps was in disarray. Debate raged over its effectiveness, and many new volunteers embraced the antiestablishment behavior of the day's youth. When President Nixon appointed Joseph Blatchford as director in 1969, some insiders felt the agency's days were numbered—especially when Blatchford set about re-evaluating the Peace Corps' mission and initiated a program called New Directions to reorient its work.

Many observers simply lump Blatchford's efforts with the failures and faults of the Nixon administration. David Searles, however, contends that the new director's initiatives revitalized the Peace Corps and made it a more relevant organization. Searles faithfully relates the history of these policies and their implementation in the field, drawing on his personal experience as country director for the Peace Corps in the Philippines. He shows how, despite constant carping from veterans of the early Peace Corps and much furor at headquarters, New Directions reenergized the agency and renewed and reaffirmed the Peace Corps' mission.

Searles's descriptions of political maneuverings are incisively observed, and his firsthand characterizations of Peace Corps life richly impart the joys and frustrations of volunteer work. The Peace Corps Experience will give historians a new perspective on the agency and will also interest anyone who has served in the Peace Corps or who wants to understand it.

In addition to having served with the Peace Corps, P. David Searles is a former deputy chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. He is the author of A College for Appalachia: Alice Lloyd on Caney Creek.

"Not only took me back to my memorable days as a volunteer, but also gave me a perspective on the era in which I served."—Pamela Tripp-Melby, former Peace Corps Volunteer

"Searles reflects on the direction taken by the Peace Corps during Nixon's presidency. He rebuts the criticisms that his generation of volunteers violated the idealistic ethos of the early days through their technocratic emphasis on skills, and examines the difficult process of cultural acclimatization endured by volunteers as they tried to define roles for themselves in remote parts of the world."—Times Literary Supplement

"Offers insightful amendments to the history of the Peace Corps."—Journal of American History

Publication Date

1997

Publisher

The University Press of Kentucky

Place of Publication

Lexington, KY

ISBN

9780813120096

eISBN

9780813156774

Keywords

Peace Corps, Joseph Blatchford, New Directions

Disciplines

United States History

The Peace Corps Experience: Challenge and Change, 1969-1976
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