48 MARCH-APRIL 2026 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL communist emissaries long trained and dedicated and committed to the cause of extending communism in those countries?” Kennedy then proposed “that our inadequate efforts in this area be supplemented by a peace corps of talented young men and women, willing and able to serve their country in this fashion for three years, as an alternative or as a supplement to peacetime selective service.” From the beginning, the Peace Corps experience was intended to develop a new talent pool for a diplomatic corps JFK considered unprepared to face Cold War realities. One measure of the agency’s success in this regard might be the number of returned Peace Corps volunteers (RPCVs) to enter government service in foreign affairs. One estimate suggests that roughly 10 percent of Foreign Service officers from across all agencies are RPCVs. Another measure of the Peace Corps’ contribution to Foreign Service talent is the number of RPCVs to reach the pinnacle of overseas representation. Eighty of the roughly quarter million Americans to serve as volunteers have gone on to become U.S. ambassadors, beginning with Parker Borg, who was nominated by Ronald Reagan as ambassador to Mali in 1981. Borg was a volunteer with the first group to arrive in the Philippines, in October 1961, a cohort that also included future U.S. Ambassador to Togo Brenda Brown Schoonover. Testimonials from foreign leaders who got to know the volunteers in their local communities show the ways these volunteers spread U.S. ideals around the world over the last 65 years and give us hope for the next 65. Household Names in Career Diplomacy Most Journal readers will recognize the name Brian Aggeler, creator of the “Lying in State” comic series that once graced State Magazine. His cartoons were also a popular regular feature in the FSJ for about a decade. He and his wife, Angela Aggeler, U.S. ambassador to North Macedonia from 2022 until her December 2025 recall, served as volunteers in the Central African Republic. Aggeler himself headed the Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2022 to 2025. (An unofficial accounting of all RPCV ambassadors appears at https://bit.ly/ PCV-list.) Two department spokespersons, the late Richard Boucher and Mark Toner, served as volunteers—Boucher in Senegal (1973–1975) and Toner in Liberia (1986–1989), where he also served as ambassador (2024–2025). Four others were ambassadors in their country of Peace Corps service, bringing unparalleled depth for interpreting and navigating local language, culture, and customs: Robert Gelbard (Bolivia), David Greenlee (Bolivia), Thomas Hull (Sierra Leone), and Kathleen Stephens (South Korea). At least four RPCV ambassadors served as assistant secretary of State, including Christopher Hill (East Asian and Pacific Affairs), Johnnie Carson (African Affairs), Donald Lu (South and Central Asian Affairs), and Richard Boucher (Public Affairs). The four distinguished themselves in a total of 11 ambassadorships. Four of the 52 diplomats held hostage in Iran for 444 days had previously been volunteers—three in Iran itself. Two went on to become ambassadors, including past AFSA President John Limbert, ambassador to Mauritania from 2000 to 2003 (and PCV in Iran, 1964–1966). Limbert would help Iraq National Museum personnel round up looted antiquities after the 2003 U.S. invasion. Victor Tomseth served as ambassador to Laos from 1993 to 1996. Before that, as deputy chief of mission in Tehran during the 1979 hostage crisis, Tomseth used his aptitude for foreign languages, first acquired as a volunteer, to communicate in Thai with chef Somchai Sriweawnetr, evading eavesdropping and getting six Americans to safety inside the Canadian embassy. As consular officer in Kabul, Michael Metrinko (RPCV Turkey 1968–1970 and Iran 1970–1973) administered the oath of office for FSO Robert Finn (RPCV Iran 1967–1969), the first post-9/11 U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan. Other RPCVs have gone on to serve the country in various ways. Former U.S. Senators Paul Tsongas (D-Mass.) In 2002 Consular Officer Michael Metrinko, an FSO and RPCV from Iran (right), administers the oath of office for Ambassador Robert Finn, an FSO and RPCV from Iran, at the chancery in Kabul as Executive Assistant Cheryl Helm (center) holds the Bible. SALLY HODGSON / U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
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