The Foreign Service Journal - January/February 2018

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2018 47 complex issues trou- bling Côte d’Ivoire, in January 2003 Ivorian political parties met in Paris to hammer out the Linas-Marcoussis Agreement, which established a gov- ernment of national reconciliation to deal with disarmament, citizenship issues, amnesty and hatred in the media. Implementation was neither smooth nor speedy. The ambassa- dor’s seat on the LMA Monitoring Committee afforded insight into the thinking of other committee members, leaders from nearby countries who were, however, reluctant to criticize Gbago’s actions. When reconciliation bogged down after some months, the ambassador told us that a United Nations peacekeeping opera- tion was needed and to “make it happen.” My team researched whether Ivorians wanted peace and whether peace looked possible. Conversations with our various contacts across the capital and country indicated mostly positive responses to both questions. In the next five weeks, as pol-econ chief, I drafted and sent 27 cables assessing hopes and risks in the country. Shortly after, in February 2004, the U.N. Security Council established a robust peacekeeping operation (PKO) to facilitate implementation of the LMA. Deep-seated differences remained, but we saw a signifi- cant payoff for the diligent diplomatic work of many as the PKO protected civilians, supported disarmament and monitored human rights. Political and social struggle continued, but the PKO reduced violence, saved many hundreds of lives and enabled political progress. James Stewart is a retired Foreign Service economics officer whose overseas posts included Italy, Botswana, Niger, Côte d'Ivoire, Sierra Leone and Kenya. Before There Was a Peace Corps Philippines, 2001 • Michael Anderson Everyone knows that the Peace Corps was founded in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy, right? Not quite. The first time the U.S. government sent young, civilian vol- unteers overseas to promote development and mutual under- standing was actually in 1901. That year the U.S. government, under President WilliamMcKinley, began sending volunteers to the newly acquired U.S. colony of the Philip- pines to establish a public school system after a long period of Spanish rule. The 540 pioneering young educators, recruited from across America’s universi- ties, sailed from San Francisco to Manila in August 1901 aboard the U.S. Army transport vessel Thomas —hence, their name, the “Thomasites.” Like Peace Corps Volunteers in the Philippines and dozens of other countries decades later, theThomasites were a hardy band of adventurous, idealistic individuals. Posted around the Philip- pine provinces to teach English, they established the precursors of today’s Department of Education and encouraged democracy and good citizenship that would lead to eventual independence. Two of the Thomasite teachers who journeyed to the Philippines starting in 1901 to establish schools. GPSMANILA/RIZALLIBRARY,ATENEODEMANILAUNIVERSITY