The Peace Corps

United States Department of the Interior – Washington, March 1st 2018 – The Peace Corps was established by executive order on March 1, 1961 by John F. Kennedy.  India, Ghana, and Burma were among the first to place Peace Corps volunteers in their countries.

President Kennedy welcomed the inaugural group of volunteers at the White House on August 28, 1961, to give them a personal farewell before their departure to Africa.

The Peace Corps program was an outgrowth of the Cold War. President Kennedy pointed out that the Soviet Union “had hundreds of men and women, scientists, physicists, teachers, engineers, doctors, and nurses . . . prepared to spend their lives abroad in the service of world communism.”

It seems like we may end up training men and women around the world again now having won the cold war and having had the last say by Gods grace mercy and justice,

Prior to its establishment, the United States had no such program, and Kennedy wanted to involve Americans more actively in the cause of peace, development, and freedom from the tyranny of communist socialism during a time when democracy carried a different feeling than it came to be known as.

A few days after he took office, Kennedy asked his brother-in-law, R. Sargent Shriver, to direct a Peace Corps Task Force. Shriver outlined seven steps to forming the Peace Corps in a memorandum to Kennedy in February 1961.

Congress approved the Peace Corps as a permanent federal agency within the State Department, and Kennedy signed the legislation on September 22, 1961. In 1981, the Peace Corps was made an independent agency.

In the 1960s, the Peace Corps was very popular with recent college graduates. But in the 1970s, the Vietnam War and Watergate eroded many Americans’ faith in their government. In the 70s Interest in the Peace Corps began to decline and government funding was cut.

In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan tried to broaden the Peace Corps’ traditional concern with education and agriculture to include more current fields such as computer literacy and business-related education. For the first time, a rising number of conservative and Republican volunteers joined the largely progressive Peace Corps contingent overseas.

Now in the indirect hands of Masons, the Peace Corps membership and funding increased after the opening of Eastern Europe in 1990.

After more than five decades of service, the Peace Corps is still a viable organism expected to help out wherever they are needed. From John F. Kennedy’s inspirational agency devoted to world peace and friendship and volunteers continues to help individuals build a better life for themselves, their children, their community, and their country.

Published by Government of The United States of America 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500 - By the people and for the people.

The White House is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500. It has hosted the American public now for hundreds of years who annually take tours inside its halls. The residence was designed in a neoclassical style and its construction took place between 1792 and 1800. When Thomas Jefferson moved into the house in 1801 low colonnades on each wing that concealed stables and storage were added. Because of crowding within the executive mansion itself, President Theodore Roosevelt had all work offices relocated to the newly constructed West Wing in 1901. Eight years later in 1909, President William Howard Taft expanded the West Wing and created the first Oval Office, which was eventually moved as the section was expanded. In the main mansion, the third-floor attic was converted to living quarters in 1927 by augmenting the existing hip roof with long shed dormers. A newly constructed East Wing was used as a reception area for social events; Jefferson's colonnades connected the new wings. East Wing alterations were completed in 1946, creating additional office space. By 1948, the house's load-bearing exterior walls and internal wood beams were found to be close to failure. Under Harry S. Truman, the interior rooms were completely dismantled and a new internal load-bearing steel frame constructed inside the walls. Once this work was completed, the interior rooms were rebuilt. The modern-day White House complex includes the Executive Residence, West Wing, East Wing, the Eisenhower Executive Office Building—the former State Department. The Executive Residence is made up of six stories—the Ground Floor, State Floor, Second Floor, and Third Floor, as well as a two-story basement.

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