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Jfk Peace Corps Research Paper

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The Peace Corps: an altruistic propaganda tool In the age of “Camelot,” President Kennedy was a young, fresh, opponent running against his off-putting fellow candidate Richard Nixon. Kennedy represented not only a fresh start to a rejuvenated government, but also provided a strong platform on which Americans could find a way to serve the nation themselves. Although the Peace Corps was an ideological call for Americans to serve their country, President Kennedy ultimately used it as an international propaganda tool. The concept of the Peace Corps was simple. The idea actually originated under Roosevelt in the 1930s and went through some format changes before Hubert Humphrey utilized the specific name of Peace Corps in the late 1950s (Giglio …show more content…

Kennedy spoke to students on the campus of the University of Michigan. In his short speech, he challenged the students with the idea of going abroad to make use of their skills in underprivileged countries. A petition was signed by 1,000 students willing to serve in such a capacity, which, no doubt, fueled the concept further for Kennedy (Peace Corps). A few weeks later, at the San Francisco Cow Palace, Kennedy proposed establishing a “national peace agency” if elected (Kennedy, Speech...Cow Palace). Kennedy utilized the concept two months later in what would arguably become one of the top speeches ever written. In his inaugural address, Kennedy pointedly promoted the concept in his most famous words, “Ask not what your country can do for you –ask what you can do for your country” (Kennedy, Inaugural Address). A few days after his inaugural, Kennedy placed R. Sargent Shriver in charge of the organizing and shaping of the group. Shriver then returned a seven step memorandum to the president in February of 1961. The Peace Corps was ultimately established by executive order on March 1, 1961 and approved as a permanent federal agency by the U.S. Congress on September 22, 1961 (Peace

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