When the World Calls

by Stanley Meisler

  Chapter 16. The Expansive Mood of the Clinton Years

  The profile of Carol Bellamy is based on a September 24, 2009, phone interview with Bellamy, an August 18, 2009, phone interview with Ellen Yaffe; Malcolm Gladwell, “From New York Political Wars to Ranking Idealist,” Washington Post, September 29, 1993; Donnie Radcliffe, “Faithful to the Corps: Carol Bellamy Returns to Head the Agency She Served as a Young Volunteer,” Washington Post, March 2, 1994; Karen De Witt, “Washington at Work: Chief and Agency Both at Crossroads as Bellamy Takes Peace Corps Helm,” New York Times, October 15, 1995; Barbara Crossette, “Carol Bellamy—From City Hall to the World’s Stage,” New York Times, April 22, 2002; and the blog John Coyne Babbles, May 18, 2009, at www.peacecorpsworldwide.org/babbles.

  The quotes of Dambaugh and Coyne about Bellamy are in Karen De Witt, “New Yorker in Line to Direct the Peace Corps,” New York Times, June 11, 1993. Coyne reassessed her in e-mails, September 14 and 16, 2009. The politicking behind the UNICEF appointment is described by me in “Carol Bellamy: Affirmative Action: From the Peace Corps to UNICEF,” Los Angeles Times, May 10, 1995. Her quotes about being a Volunteer and the director come from the same interview.

  Shriver’s quotes are from his November 29, 1990, oral history interview, LBJ Library. Shalala’s 1995 remarks on Gearan were carried at Peace Corps Online (peacecorpsonline.org) on February 4, 2002. The quotes of Chairman Gilman, Senators Dodd and Coverdell, the five former Volunteers serving in the House, and Shalala come from “The Peace Corps: 10,000 Volunteers by the Year 2000,” the transcript of the March 18, 1998, hearing of the House Committee on International Relations, which can be found at http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/intlrel.

  Gearan’s quote about the political appropriations saga comes from a phone interview on October 6, 2009; Schneider’s quote about the lack of a constituency comes from an interview on September 8, 2009; and Bellamy’s quote comes from a phone interview on September 24, 2009.

  Chapter 17. The Quiet Bush Years

  The Christiane Amanpour incident is recounted on the blog John Coyne Babbles (www.peacecorpsworldwide.org/babbles), March 18, 2008. Background to the Orange County case and the quote about Vasquez’s career coming to an end can be found in Mark Platte, Rene Lynch, and Eric Bailey, “Gaddi Vasquez to Resign as Orange County Supervisor,” Los Angeles Times, August 8, 1995. Background about Vasquez and his speech to the Republican convention is discussed in Frank del Olmo, “The GOP Loses its Great Latino Hope,” Los Angeles Times, August 14, 1995.

  Judy Mann’s attack on the nomination is in her column, “Peace Corps Deserves Better than GOP Deadwood,” Washington Post,” November 9, 2001. Joan Borsten and Roni Love’s comments can be found on “What Returned Volunteers say about Gaddi Vasquez,” at Peace Corps Online (www.peacecorpsonline.org), August 1 and September 2, 2001. Vaughn’s views on Vasquez were expressed in an article in the Tucson Citizen, September 10, 2001, and in his testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, November 14, 2001, found at www.peacecorpsonline.org. Vasquez was opposed in the New York Times editorial, “An Uninspiring Peace Corps Nominee,” August 24, 2001, and in the Los Angeles Times editorial, “Not the One for Peace Corps,” August 20, 2001. The confirmation of Vasquez is covered in “Peace Corps Online Exclusive: Senate Foreign Relations Committee Approves Vasquez 14 Votes to 4 Votes,” www.peacecorpsonline.org, December 12, 2001, and in Associated Press, “U.S. Senate Confirms Gaddi Vasquez as Peace Corps Director,” www.peacecorpsonline.org, January 26, 2002.

  President Bush’s plans for the Peace Corps are described in Elisabeth Bumiller, “A Nation Challenged: Volunteers,” New York Times, February 16, 2002. Vasquez’s remarks to Orange County officials are quoted in Dena Bunis, “Gaddi Vasquez at Peace in New Role,” Orange County Register, September 16, 2002. The on-again, off-again resignation of Vasquez is covered in the Vasquez statement of resignation, October 23, 2003, www.peacecorpsonline.org; Al Kamen, “Peace Corps Chief Does About-Face,” Washington Post, December 3, 2003; Patrick McGreevy, “Inside Politics: Routine Council Salute Brings Scolding from China,” Los Angeles Times, December 8, 2003; and the Vasquez announcement that he was not resigning was released on December 18, 2003, www.peacecorpsonline.org.

  The controversy over the political briefings of the Peace Corps staff is covered in Paul Kane, “Diplomats Received Political Briefings,” Washington Post, July 24, 2007, Ralph Mayrell, “Peace Corps Politicization and Bureaucracy Criticized,” Voice of America (www.voanews.com), August 2, 2007, and Matthew Blake, “All Politics is International,” the Nation, July 25, 2007.

  The story of the anti–Iraq war protest in the Dominican Republic is based on phone interviews with Aaron Kauffman (December 1, 2009), Aaron Drendel (November 24, 2009, plus several e-mail messages), and Jody Olsen (November 18, 2009) and on Sasha Polakow-Suransky, “Pre-empting Protest,” the Nation, May 16, 1993.

  The Robert Strauss articles were “Too Many Innocents Abroad,” New York Times, January 9, 2008, and “Think Again: The Peace Corps,” Foreign Policy, April 2008. Peace Corps director Ronald Tschetter’s letter of reply was published in the July/August issue of Foreign Policy. The comments of Blair Reeves and Emily Armitage were published on the magazine’s Web site, http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/peacecorps. Senator Dodd’s comments came in a letter to the New York Times, published January 14, 2008, replying to the piece by Strauss.

  Chapter 18. Diplomatic Troubles

  The story about the expulsion of the Peace Corps director from Tanzania is based on a November 10, 2009, interview with Christine Djondo and several of her subsequent e-mail messages; a December 2, 2009, phone interview with Ambassador Michael Retzer; a November 18, 2009, phone interview with Jody Olsen; an April 30, 2007, cable from Peace Corps director Tschetter to Ambassador Retzer; a June 28, 2007, letter from Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey T. Bergner to Djondo; Tschetter’s May 10, 2007, “Message to the Peace Corps Staff and Volunteers of Tanzania”; the Peace Corps’s undated “Background and General Talking Points” on the issue; Retzer’s annual campaign contributions from watchdog.net; a listing of Republican “rangers” by Public Citizen on www.whitehouseforsale.org; the official Peace Corps statement from press director Amanda Host, June 14, 2007, on Peace Corps Online (www.peacecorpsonline.org); numerous statements of support for Djondo from Volunteers on www.peacecorpsonline.org; and Ellyn Ferguson, “Dodd Puts Hold on Mark Green’s Nomination for U.S. Ambassador to Tanzania, Green Bay Press-Gazette, June 27, 2007.

  The exchange between Shriver and G. Mennen Williams is covered in the notes on an undated meeting between Peace Corps and State Department officials, Box 1, Subject File of the Office of the Director, 1961–66, National Archives. Ambassador Leland Barrows’s complaints about peanut butter and Peace Corps housing is covered in my January 13, 1966, evaluation report on Cameroon, National Archives. The ambassador’s later comments on the Peace Corps come from his oral history interview on February 4, 1971, by the JFK Library, obtainable online (www.jfklibrary.org/Historical-Resources/archives).

  The contrasting instructions to ambassadors can be found in a cable from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, marked “From the Secretary to all chiefs of mission,” Subject: “Peace Corps State Department Relations,” Ref: 04 State 258893; and “President George W. Bush’s Letter of Instruction to Chiefs of Mission,” dated July 30, 2003. Olsen’s comments come from the November 18, 2009, phone interview. The quotes from the Peace Corps Act can be found in Section 2503. Brent Ashabranner’s discussion of a foundation-run Peace Corps can be found in his memoir, p. 284.

  Shriver’s CIA policy and Kennedy’s instruction to call Helms are covered in Stossel, pp. 270–72. The Grogan quote comes from Rice, p. 133, and the Dodd-Castro conversation is covered in Rice, p. 135.

  Deutch’s testimony was covered by Peace Corps Online under “Testimony of Coverdell,” June 23, 2001. The relations with the CIA in Tanzania were described
by Paul Sack and Eugene Mihaly in phone interviews December 8, 2009, and November 30, 2009, respectively.

  My account of the controversy in Bolivia is based on Jean Friedman-Rudovsky and Brian Ross, “Peace Corps, Fulbright Scholar Asked to ‘Spy’ on Cubans, Venzuelans,” ABC News, February 8, 2008; Alvaro Zuazo. “Morales Accuses U.S. Official of Spying,” Associated Press, February 11, 2008; Andrew Whalen, “Ex-Volunteers Are Angry at Peace Corps Bolivia Pullout,” Associated Press, October 11, 2008; and Joshua Partlow, “Policy and Passions Collide in Bolivia,” Washington Post, October 23, 2008.

  The story of Edward Lee Howard is covered in David Wise, “The Spy Who Got Away,” New York Times Magazine, November 2, 1986, and in John Coyne, “The Spy Who Was a PCV,” www.peacecorpswriters.org.

  Chapter 19. Obama and the Future

  Barack Obama’s Cornell College speech can be found on www.barackobama.org. The story of the battle to increase the Peace Corps appropriation and the work of Rajeev Goyal and More Peace Corps is based on Laurence Leamer, “Obama’s First Betrayal,” on Huffington Post, January 18, 2009; Laurence Leamer, “The Peace Corps Crisis,” Huffington Post, May 14, 2009; interview with Rajeev Goyal, September 22, 2009 (and subsequent e-mail messages); Rajeev Goyal, “What Happened to Obama’s Promise of 16,000 Peace Corps Volunteers by 2011?” Peace Corps Online (www.peacecorpsonline.org), December 3, 2009; and Rajeev Goyal, “Congratulations! Senate Approves Highest Single-Year Increase in Peace Corps History,’ an e-mail broadcast to many on December 14, 2009.

  The rumor about James Arena-DeRosa as a candidate for director is covered in Al Kamen, “No Peace at the Corps,” a segment of his “In the Loop” column, Washington Post, May 11, 2009, and David Searles, “A Worrisome Possibility: The Candidacy of James Arena-DeRosa,” posted on the John Coyne Babbles blog on www.peacecorpsworldwide.org, May 15, 2009.

  My biographical profile of Aaron Williams is based on a January 26, 2010, interview with Williams; phone interviews of Kate Raftery and William Reese on January 4, 2010; the official Peace Corps biography on www.peacecorps.gov; the biography on the White House press release announcing the appointment, July 14, 2009, www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office; and the transcript of Tavis Smiley’s interview of Williams on October 12, 2009, www.pbs.org.

  The comments of Hugh Pickens about the confirmation hearings were posted as “Senate Confirmation Hearings for Aaron Williams to Become the 18th Director of the Peace Corps” on www.peacecorpsonline.org on July 20, 2009. David Gauvey Herbert’s interview of Aaron Williams, “As the Peace Corps Turns 50, What Now?” ran as an “Insider Interview” in the National Journal, September 17, 2009. Williams’s remarks clarifying what he meant were made in our January 26, 2010, interview.

  Afterword: Does the Peace Corps Do Any Good?

  The story of Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo and the Peace Corps Volunteers is based on Tyler Bridges, “The Peace Corps President,” Tucson Weekly, September 8, 2005; Nancy and Joel Meister, “Making a Difference: One Life At a Time,” Peace Corps Writers, July 2002; Tyler Bridges, “The Professor and the President,” Palo Alto Weekly, July 21, 2004; and Tyler Bridges, “The Contender,” Stanford Magazine, March 1, 2001. Toledo’s remarks to the Peace Corps were reprinted in “Toledo Thanks Peace Corps,” posted at Peace Corps Online (www.peacecorpsonline.org), March 12, 2006.

  The 2008 annual report can be found on www.peacecorpsonlinelorg. The quote of Debbie Erickson can be found in Terence Smith, “Peace Corps: Alive But Not So Well,” New York Times Magazine, December 36, 1977. Judy Guskin’s quote can be found in Milton Viorst, ed., Making a Difference: The Peace Corps at Twenty-Five (New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1986), p. 177. Hapgood and Bennett reprinted excerpts from Leslie Hanscom’s evaluation of Afghanistan on pp. 120–22.

  Details about the Wisconsin calendar can be found at www.rpcv.calendar.org, about the work of the Peace Corps Alumni Foundation for Philippine Development at www.rpcvphilippines.org, about the work of the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of South Florida at www.rpcvsf.org, and about the Marafiki wa Tanzania at www.fotanzania.org.

  Matt Marek’s story was told as “Former NPCA Staffer on the Ground in Haiti for Red Cross,” Peace Corps Polyglot, blog of the National Peace Corps Association, www.peacecorpsconnect.org, January 14, 2010, and as “People Who Make a Difference—Matthew Marek,” on the Red Cross Web site, www.redcross.org, January 13, 2010. The Alice O’Grady story comes from the Accra Academy Alumni Web site, www.accraacaalumni.com, and from a July 31, 2008, e-mail sent by Laura Damon to all members of Ghana I.

  The names of noted alumni come almost entirely from the Peace Corps Web site, www.peacecorps.gov. Jack Vaughn told me the story about Ambassador Robert Gelbard in a phone conversation on March 27, 2009.

  Index

  Please note that page numbers are not accurate for the e-book edition.

  AARP (American Association of Retired Persons), 113

  ABC News, 209, 226

  Accíon, 111

  ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), 99

  ACTION: Brown as director of, 129–35, 178; creation of, 115–16; Pauken’s nomination as director of, 151–52; and Peace Corps, 115–16, 130–35, 231

  Active Corps of Executives, 116

  Adams, Franklin P., 40

  Adams, Timothy, 40–42

  Afghanistan: Agnew’s trip to, 101, 112–13; anti–Vietnam War protest by Peace Corps Volunteers in, 101, 112–13; Peace Corps nurses in, 222–23; war in, 189

  Africa: Brown on Peace Corps teaching programs in, 130–31; Dumont on, 131, 132; expulsion of Peace Corps Volunteers from, 126–27; Johnson’s vice-presidential trip to, 88; need for Peace Corps in, 128; negative attitudes about Peace Corps in, 24, 31, 36, 39; teaching by Peace Corps Volunteers in, 50, 132–33; U.S. foreign policy in, 127. See also specific countries

  African-American Institute, 7

  Agency for International Development (AID). See AID (Agency for International Development)

  Agents of Change (Hapgood and Bennett), 50–51

  Agnew, Spiro, 101, 105, 112–13

  AID (Agency for International Development): and Barrows, 203; and Bellamy, 179; and Dominican Republic, 81; electioneering during G. W. Bush’s presidency at, 191; in Ethiopia, 118; and former Peace Corps Volunteers, 226; ICA as former name of, 17; and Robert Kennedy’s 1965 tour of South America, 90; in Nigeria, 41; relationship between Peace Corps and, 21, 25, 112, 215, 216; and State Department, 215; in Tanzania, 198; Vaughn in, 25; and Wiggins, 17; and Aaron Williams, 214–17

  Albania, 171

  Albright, Madeleine, 181, 182

  alcohol use, 162–63, 168

  Alexander, Lamar, 109

  Algeria, 72

  Allende, Salvador, 115

  Alliance for Progress, 84, 91

  Amanpour, Christiane, 187

  ambassadors. See State Department, U.S.

  American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), 113

  American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), 99

  American Occupational Therapy Association in, 166

  American Red Cross, 225

  American Taboo: A Murder in the Peace Corps (Weiss), 139

  Amin, Idi, 127

  Amnesty International, 166

  Anderson, Peggy, 60–61, 145, 226

  anti-communism. See communism

  anti–Vietnam War protests, 86, 95, 97–105, 112–13, 129, 192. See also Vietnam War

  Apter, David E., 30, 31, 32

  Arena-DeRosa, James, 213

  Armenia, 171

  Armitage, Emily, 195

  Ashabranner, Brent: as director of training of Volunteers, 55; and independence of Peace Corps, 206; and Nigeria postcard incident, 40, 43; as Peace Corps country director in Nigeria, 40, 43; and requirements for placement of Volunteers, 105; on Shriver and Va
ughn, 94; on size of Peace Corps, 56

  Associated Press, 49, 137

  Bachysche, Okeksandr, 144

  Bacon, Deborah, 4

  Baker, Russell, 5

  Balewa, Abubakar Tafawa, 43

  Baltic Countries, end of Peace Corps in, 174

  Banda, Hastings Kuzuma, 98, 127

  Bangkok World, 103–4

  Barbados, 214

  Barrows, Leland, 202–4

  Bates, Robert, 25

  Bayley, Ed, 23

  Bay of Pigs, 22, 24, 75

  Bayou Farewell (Tidwell), 163

  Beil, Marion Haley, 160

  Bell, Paul, 99

  Bell, T. H., 152

  Bellamy, Carol: and AID, 179; on expansion of Peace Corps, 185; as Peace Corps director, 178–82, 231; as Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala, 178–79, 226; political career of, 179–81; resignation of, from Peace Corps, 181–82; as UNICEF director, 181–82, 226; work style of, 181

  Belsky, Tomas, 226

  Benítez, Jaime, 84–85

  Bennett, Meridan, 50–51

  Bennett, W. Tapley, Jr., 74

  Bergner, Jeffrey T., 201

  Berlin Wall, 170

  Berreman, Gerald, 97

  Beschloss, Michael R., 67, 68

  The Bicycle Thief (movie), 2

  Blatchford, Joseph: as ACTION director, 116; and anti–Vietnam War protests, 101–5; credentials of, for Peace Corps director, 111; departure of, from ACTION, 116; and evaluation reports, 58; and Micronesia, 113–14; Nixon’s relationship with, 109–10, 115; as Peace Corps director, 57–58, 101–6, 109–16, 231; recruiting campaign of, 111–13; reduction in size of Peace Corps under, 109–10