A provocative post appeared at Peace Corps Worldwide over the weekend that generated much discussion within that community about the agency’s doomed future.
First to my mind was Mark Twain’s famously misquoted line in response to an inquiry about his own undoing: “The report of my death was an exaggeration.”
Even so, I didn’t want to take any chances and investigated the agency’s prospects. I’m happy to report: the Peace Corps is not dead.
Instead, my research uncovered a long history of resilience thanks in part to the agency’s ability to adapt to a changing world, and to good will toward from both Democratic and Republican leadership in Congress and the White House.
Only two presidents seem to have tried undermining its mission, Nixon by stripping the Peace Corps of its independence in 1971 and Trump by pushing for cuts to its budget during each year he was in office.
Reagan undid Nixon’s meddling by restoring independence in the Eighties, and a bi-partisan Congress denied Trump his petty cuts by restoring its budget all four years.
Republican George W. Bush articulated hopes of doubling the number of volunteers to 14,000, going so far as to send agency Director Gaddi Vasquez to Afghanistan on the heels of the post-9/11 invasion to stand up a program there. But it wasn’t until Democrat Barrack Obama came into office that volunteer numbers actually ticked up to their post-Sixties high water mark (15,000) in 2010 and 2011.
If any of this interests you, please have a look at the full piece posted at Peace Corps Worldwide. And thank you.
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Ben East Books 
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