THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MARCH-APRIL 2026 47 FEATURE Sixty-five years ago, on March 1, 1961, President John F. Kennedy signed Executive Order 10924, creating a Peace Corps within the Department of State. That was a logical home given one of JFK’s stated purposes for establishing the agency. Stumping in San Francisco the previous November, Kennedy said: “The key arm of our Foreign Service abroad are the ambassadors and members of our missions. Too many have been chosen who are ill equipped and ill briefed. … Men who lack compassion for the needy here in the United States were sent abroad to represent us in countries, which were marked by disease and poverty and illiteracy and ignorance, and they did not identify us with those causes and the fight against them. … How can they compete with Peace Corps Response Volunteer Betsy Holtz trains Malawian wildlife reserve rangers in radio-tracking for elephants in 2016. Since its founding, the Peace Corps has been inextricably linked to the Department of State, and many of its volunteers have gone on to excel at the department. BY BEN EAST COURTESY OF PEACE CORPS MEDIA CENTER Ben East retired from the Foreign Service in 2025 after three decades telling America’s story to the world as a Peace Corps volunteer (PCV), educator, and diplomat. A detail to the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training in 2022 enabled him to research Peace Corps–Foreign Service connections. His nonfiction narrative, Profiles in Service, covers 50 years of diplomatic history focused on ambassadors who started out as PCVs. He serves on the FSJ Editorial Board and can be reached at ben@ beneastbooks.com. Peace Corps at 65
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