50 MARCH-APRIL 2026 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Afghanistan, during his 2002 State of the Union address. In attendance at the Capitol were Samar and future Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai—also a Habibia High School alum. Though security would prevent the agency from reestablishing a presence there, nobody could say Vasquez’s visit hadn’t demonstrated the program’s worth. The Next 65 Years Peace Corps remained an independent agency under the State umbrella until a Nixon executive order (EO) in 1971 merged it with other volunteer programs, including Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), under a new entity called ACTION. A 1979 Carter EO moved it back within State, and legislation three years later gave the agency the full independence within the executive branch it enjoys today. To hope the Peace Corps works itself out of a job in the coming decades is to miss the point. The agency’s work is more exchange than development and by most accounts does more for Americans than for the populations it serves. Volunteers currently work across six sectors—agriculture, community economic development, education, environment, health, and youth in development—earning the gift of cross-cultural communication, natural adaptability, and resilience. They hone their classroom techniques, become green thumbs, build fishponds, and test entrepreneurial ideas. They learn how to integrate with an unfamiliar community, to lean on others and be leaned on. The Peace Corps has evolved over the decades. A high of 15,000 served in 1966, fewer than 5,000 during the 1980s, and around 7,000 leading up to the pandemic, when all volunteers were evacuated. The numbers have recovered somewhat, reaching above 3,000 in 60 countries at present. To boost recruitment, the agency offers flexible ways to serve beyond the traditional 27-month commitment: a six- to 12-month overseas option and a virtual service commitment of five to 15 hours per week for three to six months. Whatever other developments await, one thing seems certain. The Peace Corps’ three goals, unchanged since 1961, will continue to steer its mission: to provide skilled human capital in countries that request it, share U.S. culture and values in communities abroad, and share volunteers’ newfound understanding of the world with people back home. In meeting these goals, the Peace Corps makes JFK’s vision a reality and deepens the skills of our diplomatic corps. n Then-PCV Parker Borg with a carving knife at the end of Philippines training in 1961; to his right is future Ambassador Brenda Brown Schoonover; at center behind them is another future FSO and deputy assistant secretary of State, Richard Dertadian. COURTESY OF PARKER BORG The agency’s work is more exchange than development and by most accounts does more for Americans than for the populations it serves.
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