THE MILITANT PEACE CORPS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000400220031-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 19, 2004
• Sequence Number: 31
• Publication Date: August 27, 1969
• Content Type: TRANS

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THE MILITANT PEACE CORPS
[Article by Ya. Valakh; Kiev, Literaturna Ukraina, Ukrainian, 18 July 1969,
p 21
A sorry accident recently befell a certain 14r Walt Colby from the
United States while in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa. That Colby,
in his official capacity as a "Corpsman," that is, a member of the so-called
"Peace Corps" of the United States, undertook to give advice to Ethiopian
writers. The uninvited mentor displayed such ignorance in literary matters,
praised the "American way of life" so importunately and showed such disres-
pect for Ethiopian national traditions that his listeners, to put it bluntly,
showed Mr Colby the door....
Later on it turned out that the shameless Corpsman launched in Addis
Ababa a new kind of activity by the "Peace Corps:" "assistance" to under-
developed countries in literary and art affairs.
The incident with Walt Colby was particularly dismaying to the "Peace
Corps" because it occurred just when the beginning of a "new stage" in the
activity of this organization was being trumpeted in the United States.
"The new stage" is connected with the appointment of a new and'the fourth
director of the "Peace Corps," Joseph Blatchford, the former Chief Consult-
ant for Latin American Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. On taking
the oath in the ::cite House Blatchford announced that he came to the. "Peace
Corps" with an already well-developed plan of action in his new post which,
supposedly, would assure a swift revival of the activity of this organiza-
tion and lay the foundation for a "new stage" in its history.
It must be admitted that Joseph Blatchford inherited unpleasant mat-
ters of business from his predecessors in the post of Director of the "Peace
Corps." This organization, in which barely several years ago Washington had
been placing great hopes, recently has been sufferig one failure after an-
other. But it can be said in advance that neither Blatchford nor any one
else can do anything about ft. The failure of the "Peace Corps" are not a
legacy of the activity of poor directors but ensue from the very principles
on which this organization was based, as one of the instruments of foreign
policy and ideological expansion of the United States. The failures of the
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"Peace Corps" merely reflect the routing of Washington's imperialist policy,
of its anti-communist line.
Let us return to certain moments in the history .,d past activity of
the "Peace Corps." The official date of its establishr,,,i: is considered 1
March 1961, when the then President of the United States John Kennedy signed
the decree for the establishment of the "Corps." The official purposes of
this organization are considered to be, as stated in the Presidential decree,
"assistance by highly trained experts to other countries," and "assistance in
the great common cause of the development of the entire world." But all
these high-sounding phrases are only a handsome screen masking the true pur-
poses of the "Peace Corps."
Certain persons from Washington who stood close to the cradle of the
"Corps" expressed more concretely the purposes of their child. The former
head of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Taylor, said that his sol-
diers alone can no longer combat the national liberation movement in vari-
ous countries. This requires also "simple American boys" who do not wear a
military uniform. Another general, Trudeau, spoke with no less candor about
the newly created "Peace Corps" as of yet another means of struggle against
"communist ideas and communist and semi-communist regimes." And when these
problems were being discussed in the U.S. Mouse of Representatives, Henry
Reuss, the zealous proponent of the idea of establishing the "Corps," put
forward the thesis that, supposedly, Soviet experts would win sympathy
throughout the world and this "communist influence" should be urgently coun-
teracted by American influence while there was still time....
Thus behind the noble facade of the new organization hid yet another
center of the struggle against the national liberation movements of the
nations, yet another center of U.S. imperialist expansion. The matter con-
cerned again the "rollback of communism"--that insane dream of modern im-
perialism.
Such imperialist camouflaging of its true aims was mentioned by L.I.
Brezhnev in his speech at the International Conference of Communist and
Workers Parties in Moscow on 7 June 1969. He declared: "Imperialism cannot
count on success by openly proclaiming its true aims. It is forced.to
create an entire system of ideological myths obscuring the true meaning of
its intentions and dulling the vigilance of the nations. To this end it'has
created a giant machinery of propaganda which exploits all the current pos-
sibilities for ideological influence."
A component part of this propaganda machinery in the United States is
also the "Peace Corps." No money was spared for it. The budget of the
"Corps" has been rising from year to year, having reached hundreds of milli-
ons of dollars. In 1965 "Peace Corps" teams have operated already in 46
countries throughout the world. But the more the "Corps" has been broaden-
ing its activities, the more money it has been receiving from the U.S. Gov-
ernment, the more clearly the world has pe-:ceived the true purpose of that
organization. The first direct;::: - .he "Corps," Sargent Shriver, was
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forced to resign precisely because of the numerous scandals which accom-
panied the very first steps of these "Corpsmen." For the same reasons the
second director, Jack Hood Vaughn, also left his post.
Members of the "Peace Corps" came to the various countries of Asia,
Africa and Latin America in the capacity of experts--teachers, geologists,
agronomists, engineers. But very soon these countries became convinced
that all these "Corpsmen" were no experts, and that the true profession of
the "simple American boys" from the "Peace Corps" was in no way related to
teaching, geology or agronomy.
Soon something curious became known about the principles for the
selection and training of the "Corpsmen." This matter was for some reason
handled chiefly by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. The very name
"Corpsman" greatly resembled the appellation of ordinary intelligence agents
and saboteurs. The pseudo-teachers, pseudo-geologists and pseudo-agrono-
mists were being taught to operate various kinds of weapons, to climb trees,
to swim underwater, to write in code.
In Tunisia, Mexico, Chile, and Ceylon, "Corpsmen" were caught in the
process of gathering intelligence, distributing printed material directed
against the governments of these countries, and impudently engaging in sub-
versive activities. Exposes were published by the periodical Jeune Afrique,
the Ceylonese newspaper Forward, the Chilean El Siglo. Some of the most
insolent "Corpsmen" were simply expelled from the country.
It was in vain that the then Secretary of State of the United States
Dean Rusk outdid himself to prove that, first, the "Peace Corps" is not at
all an instrument of Washington's foreign policy, nor God [sic] forbid, of
the CIA, the American intelligence service, and second, that those unfortu-
nate incidents with individual "Corpsmen" were nothing more than minor mis-
understandings. It was in vain that Rusk and, following him, the organs of
the American press argued that the representatives of the "Peace Corps" are
"disinterested friends" of the developing countries.
To somehow rectify the situation, the U.S. Government even tried to
conceal the activity of its "Peace Corps" under the screen of the United
Nations. In particular, it presented for the consideration of the U.N. Eco-
nomic and Social Council a proposal for the "Utilization of Volunteers to
Implement the Programs of the United Nations for Economic and Social Prog-
ress in the Underdeveloped Countries." But this cunning attempt failed.
As is known, the failures and mistakes of he "Peace Corps" have not
led to the discontinuation of its activities. The propaganda machinery of
the United States has at its disposal sufficient resources to spread lies
and to mask its imperialist alas. Currently these resources are being
orier.:ed toward spreading claims about some "new stage" in the activity of
the "Peace Corps," about its reorganization and the recruitment of "the best
experts." In particular, it is said that, supposedly, "upon request of the
Ll~
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intelligentsia of various countries," the "Corpsmen" from now on will also
include experts in the problems of literature and fine arts .... That these
experts have already begun to ply their activities is evidenced by the inci-
dent in Addis Ababa.
Another new aspect of the activity of the "Peace Corps" is that its
directors are trying to establish some kind of an "International Peace
Corps." They already have reached an understanding with Bonn, although the
Minister of Foreign Affairs in Bonn Willy Brandt has proposed a somewhat
different variant, to wit, the united American-West German "Corps." The
Minister of Information in Franco's Spain, Iribarne also has become greatly
enthused with this idea.
Well, all this is quite normal. It was exactly the International
Conference of Communist and Workers Parties in Moscow that pointed to those
who, under the banner of anticommunism, are now uniting the most reactionary
forces in the world. They disdain no means in order to obstruct the deve-
lopment of national liberation movements and they engage in the most inso-
lent ideological diversionary activities. Th