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The '''Peace Corps''' is an organization of [[United States|American]] citizens who [[volunteer]] to serve in a foreign country, living with and at the same [[standard of living]] as the members of the community, to share [[appropriate technology]]. Over 168,000 Americans have served since the organization was founded.

The Peace Corps works by first announcing its availability to foreign governments. These governments then determine in what areas they feel trained volunteers can help their citizens. Peace Corps then matches the requested assignments to its pool of applicants and sends those volunteers with the appropriate skills to the countries who first made the requests.

The program officially has three goals:

* To help the people of interested countries and areas in meeting their needs for trained workers;
* To help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served;
* And to help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

Various members of the [[United States Congress]] had proposed bills to begin volunteer organizations to serve the [[third world]] since [[World War II]], and privately funded non-religious organizations had been sending volunteers overseas since the [[1950s]]. [[John F. Kennedy]] first announced his own idea for such an organization during his campaign for the [[President of the United States|Presidency]] in [[1960]] at a late-night speech at the [[University of Michigan]] in [[Ann Arbor, Michigan|Ann Arbor]] on [[October 14]]. During a later speech in [[San Francisco, California]] on [[November 1]], he dubbed this proposed organization the "Peace Corps". Critics of the program (including Kennedy's opponent, [[Richard M. Nixon]]) claimed the program would be nothing but a haven for [[draft]] dodgers, and others doubted whether college-aged volunteers had the skills necessary to help the third world. The idea was popular among college students, however, and Kennedy continued to pursue it, asking respected academics such as [[Max Millikan]] and [[Chester Bowles]] to help him outline the organization and its goals. During his [[inauguration|inaugural]] address, Kennedy again promised to create the program.

On [[March 1]], [[1961]], Kennedy signed [[executive order|Executive Order]] 10924, which officially started the Peace Corps, and on [[March 4]], he appointed [[Sargent Shriver]] to be the program's first director. Shriver was tasked with fleshing out the organization, which he did with the help of [[Warren W. Wiggins]] and others. Shriver and his think tank outlined the three major goals of the Peace Corps and decided the number of volunteers they needed to recruit. The program began recruiting volunteers that following [[July]]. 

Until about [[1967]], applicants to the Peace Corps had to pass a placement test that tested "general aptitude" (knowledge of various skills needed for various Peace Corps assignments) and language aptitude.
After an address from Kennedy on [[August 28]], 1961, the first group of volunteers left for [[Ghana]] and [[Tanzania]]. The program was formally authorized on [[September 22]], 1961, by [[US Congress|Congress]], and within two years, over 7,300 Peace Corps volunteers were serving in 44 countries. This number would jump to 15,000 in [[June]] of [[1966]], the largest number in the organization's history.

Despite its promising beginnings, the Peace Corps was almost finished before it began due to a [[scandal]] on [[October  13]], 1961. Volunteer [[Marjorie Michelmore]] in [[Nigeria]] wrote a [[postcard]] to her boyfriend in the US in which she described the "squalor and absolutely primitive living conditions" of Nigeria. Somehow, the postcard never made it into the mail. A Nigerian student at the University College at [[Ibadan, Nigeria|Ibadan]] found it and made copies to distribute around campus. Nigerian students accused the volunteers of being [[spy|spies]] of the US government or agents of [[imperialism|imperialists]]. The story was picked up by the international press, and some people began to question the future of the program as a whole. After several days of isolation imposed on volunteers by angry Nigerian students, the American personnel went on a [[hunger strike]]. Organizations such as the [[Nigerian-American Society]] and the [[Organization of Nigerians Trained in America]] also came to the Peace Corps' defense. Finally, the Nigerian students agreed to open a dialogue with the Americans, and the scandal ended.

In July of [[1971]], President Richard M. Nixon brought the Peace Corps under the umbrella agency, [[ACTION]]. Peace Corps would remain under ACTION until President [[Jimmy Carter]] declared it fully autonomous in a [[1979]] executive order. This independent status would be further secured when Congress passed legislation in [[1981]] to make the organization an independent federal agency.

Peace Corps had always had a reputation as a "[[hippy]] organization", mostly concerned with education- and agriculture-related projects. In [[1982]], [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]] appointee Director [[Loret Miller Ruppe]] initiated several new business-related programs. For the first time, large numbers of [[United States Republican Party|Republican]] volunteers joined their [[United States Democratic Party|Democrat]] counterparts as overseas volunteers, and the organization gained a reputation as a non-partisan endeavor. Nevertheless, funding cuts during the [[1980s]] dropped the number of volunteers to 5,380, its lowest level since the organization's early years. Funding increased again in [[1985]], and Congress passed an initiative to raise the number of volunteers to 10,000 by [[1992]].

Following the [[September 11 terrorist attack]]s, President [[George W. Bush]] vowed to double the size of the organization within five years as part of his [[War on Terrorism]]. Congress later passed a budget increase for the [[2004]] fiscal year in order to fulfill that goal.

==External link==
*[http://www.peacecorps.gov/indexnf.cfm Peace Corps website]

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====References====
* Adapted from the [[Wikipedia]] article, "Peace_Corps" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_Corps http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_Corps], used under the [[GNU Free Documentation License]]