The Purpose Of The Peace Corps

The Peace Corps, established by President John F. Kennedy, operates as an independent agency within the executive branch of the U.S. government. The purpose of the Peace Corps is to assist in the development of underprivileged nations through volunteer service. Since the formation of the Peace Corps in the 1960’s, the organization’s popularity has increased with younger generations. Peace Corps volunteers are currently serving around the world in countries on all seven continents. In addition, the humanitarian efforts of the Peace Corps has influenced the creation of similar projects. Although the Peace Corps has achieved its goals of further advancing developing nations and has positively affected American society, the Peace Corps is not
Kennedy first developed the idea for the Peace Corps through a presidential campaign speech at the University of Michigan. On October 14, 1960, John F. Kennedy addressed a massive body of University of Michigan students about their willingness to volunteer in third-world countries. Kennedy asked the students “How many of you who are going to be doctors are willing to spend your days in Ghana? Technicians or engineers, how many of you are willing to work in the Foreign Service and spend your lives travelling around the world?” (Wimmer, 2016, p. 4). Through his speech, Kennedy forced many students minds to think about the lives of people in underprivileged nations around the world. The original idea of the Peace Corps was to restore relationships between America and other nations with peace, a revolutionized thought in a post-World War II era (Wimmer, 2016). The idea of the Peace Corps was first fabricated and publicized when John F. Kennedy gave a presidential campaign speech to the students and faculty of University of
Kennedy, the idea of creating a youth corps that focused on benefitting underdeveloped nations traces back to numerous Congressmen. First, Massachusetts representative John F. Kennedy proposed to Congress in December 1951 that young college graduates would gain life experience from volunteering in developing nations (Wimmer, 2016). Hubert H. Humphrey, a Minnesota senator, was the first legislator to suggest that a Peace Corps be organized. Humphrey’s proposed bill to gather “talented young men and women in an overseas operation for education, health care, vocational training, and community development” was not widely accepted because other legislators feared sending young recruits to foreign countries (Wimmer, 2016). Wisconsin representative Henry S. Reuss recommended that a “Point Four Youth Corps” should be established because he was determined to alter the foreign stereotype of Americans after a trip to Southeast Asia. After Kennedy was elected President, he appointed his brother-in-law, R. Sargent Shriver as director to get the Peace Corps functioning. Shriver wanted the Peace Corps to be independent of other government agencies and to take as many volunteers as possible in order to exploit the enthusiasm for the Corps. Without the consistent recommendations to form a Peace Corps by various Congressmen, the Corps would not have been established due to fear of sending volunteers to foreign