IMPACT OF THE U.S. PEACE CORPS AT HOME AND ABROAD, THE

Journal of Third World Studies, Spring 2007 by Hall, Michael R

Yet despite the unprecedented scale of U.S. aid to Third World countries, the newly formed hopes and expectations of decolonizing peoples far outpaced the rate of improvement in their conditions. This condition, in conjunction with widespread reactions to the frequent contradictions between American ideals and the realities of American Cold War policy, produced tensions and instability at home as well as abroad. The image of the United States as a beacon of hope for Third World countries suffered in the eyes of many Third World people begause of the United States's intimate association with the European colonial powers.

About the same time, William Lederer and Eugene Burdick published The Ugly American in 1958. The book projected a damning image of American foreign policy in the Third World. The Ugly American, which detailed self-serving, luxury-loving, condescending, and culturally offensive bureaucrats working in the Third World, also gave explicit expression to the growing uneasiness of many Americans dealing with their nation's newfound power. Many perceived that as Americans grew more affluent their ability to interact and identify with less privileged peoples diminished. Consequently, at the onset of the 1960s, the Soviets appeared to be more in touch with the realities and conditions of the Third World.

A popular need to believe in the fundamental goodness of America and its ability to use its power for the benefit of mankind thus became intertwined with Cold War anxieties and fears concerning the perversion of American character, generating a sense of urgency, even crisis, in the national psyche. Throughout the course of American history prior to the 1960s, foreign policy had traditionally provided points of popular political consensus, whereas domestic policy, as it attempted to arbitrate competing interests, was more divisive in nature. The 1960s, however, saw a definitive shift in this paradigm as Americans disagreed on how to reconcile its republican virtues and universal values with the nation's global ambitions and Cold War foreign policy. It is within this context that the idea of a government-sponsored Peace Corps gained national prominence and acquired its distinctive character and emphasis.

Although the Peace Corps is now a firmly entrenched, if relatively isolated, instrument of U.S. foreign policy, it was more ideologically resonant and more acutely symbolic in the first decade of its existence than at any point thereafter. In 1963, the newly formed organization had 6,646 PCVs around the globe and received a federal budget of $59 million. In 1964, the Peace Corps grew to 10,078 PCVs with a budget of $94 million and peaked in 1966 when 15,556 PCVs were funded by over $107 million." Soon after taking office, however, President Nixon implemented a plan to phase the Peace Corps out of existence gradually by progressively decreasing its annual budget. The strategy was successful in reducing the magnitude of the agency during the Nixon administration. Nevertheless, the Peace Corps's insulation from the formal diplomatic apparatus and its strong, ideologically-infused organizational culture enabled it to survive with the integrity of its original mission intact.5