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365 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. ix (1966)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0365 and id is 1 raw text is: FOREWORD The Peace Corps was five years old on March 1. In those five years, it pro- gressed from a novel idea greeted by skepticism and even derision to a vigorous reality applauded and even idealized. The idea of the Peace Corps is not so novel when seen in historical perspective. In one sense, it represents a secularization, and perhaps a bureaucratization, of the volunteer tradition in American life. Peace Corps Volunteers are doing, in greater numbers and without religious connotations, much of the same work which church and church-inspired groups have done for many years. In an age when people look increasingly to government to provide organizational leadership and financial means, when the need abroad is so great, and when the number who might be tapped for volunteer work is so large, the appearance of the Peace Corps on the American scene is, perhaps, not so surprising. The Peace Corps appears as a kind of natural development in another historical perspective. Nearly two decades of experience with assistance programs has shown that funds and expertise are not always sufficient to bring about economic and social modernization in many Asian, African, and Latin-American countries. Well-conceived and well-financed plans have been ineffectively carried out for lack of middle-level persons-teachers, nurses, medical technicians, mechanics, and agricultural-extension workers. Moreover, the farmer and the fisherman have often been only observers of the great development schemes in their countries. They have not known how to participate; their potential skills have not been realized. Peace Corps Volunteers are providing some of the middle-level skills needed and are helping villagers to find ways to participate and contribute. In this sense, the Peace Corps is a further step in the history of assistance programs. The praise which the Peace Corps has received is well deserved. Thus far, how- ever, much of it is uncritical, particularly in the context of the first perspective mentioned above. In the history of American voluntarism, how does one assess the Peace Corps? How does one measure its long-term effects? Answers are difficult, especially at this time, because the Peace Corps is at a kind of crossroads in its development. The unique position which the Peace Corps enjoyed in the Washington power structure and the special dlan which it possessed when its director was the brother- in-law of a President committed to new frontiers are gone. With these have also gone, inevitably, the youthful exuberance, the special challenge deriving from being untried and insecure, and, above all, the style of operation imparted by its first director. As a permanent part of the government and with the numbers of Volun- teers growing, there is need for a new style as well as new purpose-one that takes into account the long-term impact which the Peace Corps can have on American values. Broader and more profound developments in American society-the civil rights and protest movements, the growing erosion of traditional values resulting from prolonged military involvement abroad, the near-revolutionary changes occurring ix

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