73. Editorial Note
On September 22, 1961, President Kennedy signed the Peace Corps Act. (P.L. 87–293; 75 Stat. 612) For text of the President’s remarks on this occasion, see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1961, pages 614–615. The Act formalized the authority and purpose of the activities of the Peace Corps, which included the placement abroad of volunteer men and women of the United States in newly developing nations of the world to help fill needs for critical manpower. Peace Corps volunteers, carefully selected and trained, were to serve for periods of 2 years teaching, building, or working in the communities to which they were sent. They would serve local institutions and live with the people they were helping. Volunteers could also be used to support existing economic assistance programs of the United States, the United Nations, or other international organizations.
The Peace Corps would provide skilled manpower to newly developing nations through several different channels of operation, as follows: 1) arrangements with private voluntary agencies to carry out Peace Corps-type programs; 2) arrangements with colleges, universities, or other educational institutions; 3) programs of other U.S. Government agencies; 4) programs of the United Nations and other international agencies; 5) directly administered Peace Corps programs with host countries.
[Page 135]R. Sargent Shriver, Jr., as Director of the Peace Corps, was responsible to the Secretary of State for all activities of the agency. He was assisted by a Deputy Director and an Executive Secretariat. The operating components of the Peace Corps included an Office of Program Development and Operations; Office of Public Affairs; Office of Peace Corps Volunteers; Office of Management; Office of Planning and Evaluation; General Counsel; Division of Contracts and Logistics; Division of Public Information; Division of Private Organizations; Division of University Relations; and Division of Research.
Documentation on the establishment, organization, and operations of the Peace Corps is in the National Archives and Records Administration, RG 490, Records of the Peace Corps; and in the Peace Corps Historical Collection, maintained by the Peace Corps, Reference, Research, and Distribution Division, Washington, D.C.