PEACE CORPS IN THE 21 ST CENTURY: A RHETORICAL ANALYSIS

26Review of LiteratureA review of pertinent scholarly literature reveals a preoccupation with the PeaceCorps of the 1960s. The idealism and newness of the organization in its formative yearsoffers scholars an excellent opportunity to understand the Peace Corps’ historical,political, and rhetorical challenges and successes. In particular, Sargent Shriver’s book,The Point of the Lance, recounts the organization’s formative days including thestruggles with budget, naming, administration, and volunteer health and safety. Hisaccount of these years points out the idealism of the early administration. For example,Shriver writes about the choice of Peace Corps as the organization’s name, “What we didwant was a name which the public at large could grasp emotionally as well asintellectually. . . Peace is the fundamental goal of our times. We believed the PeaceCorps could contribute to its attainment.” 79Along with Kennedy, Shriver was one of themain proponents of idealism; as the first director, Shriver was responsible for advancingthat idealism at every step.Fritz Fischer’s Making Them Like Us is an examination of volunteers in the1960s. The premise of Fischer’s book is that by looking at the Peace Corps experience,“We can gain valuable insights into American culture and its interactions with the worldin the late twentieth century.” 80Fischer’s work gets at the heart of the organization’sliberal idealism in the 1960s and explores the relationship between American culture,volunteers abroad, and the host countries they served. Understanding the way the PeaceCorps and its volunteers are a reflection of a larger cultural context is a concern of thisproject. In response to a changing American public, today’s Peace Corps looks differentand recruits differently than that of the 1960s. The organization faces challenges to