PCAFPD

Only a few months after John F. Kennedy uttered the famous phase, “Ask not what your country can do for you ….” 233 young Americans answered the call and were selected for the Peace Corps in the Philippines .

It was 1961. Nobody knew what lay in store, or even if the idea would work. Now, 50 years later, their stories have been collected in a book of more than 100 essays¾personal firsthand accounts of why they joined, what they experienced, what it was like in the Philippines and how it affected their lives. Original staff members and Filipino friends also write about their recollections of the period. The book creates an archival record of what it was like in 1961 to join a fledgling new government agency fired by the idealism of the times and to live for two years “like the people” in small communities far from Manila. The former volunteers recount their personal crises, misadventures, apprehensions and sources of satisfaction and accomplishment. They clearly fall in love with the Philippines and its people. Above all, the stories tell of the determination and spirit of these early volunteers in establishing a strong base for Peace Corps, one of John F. Kennedy’s enduring legacies. The book was edited by four members of Philippines I, II and III.

After recouping the investment for professional help with book and cover design, any royalties will go to the Peace Corps Alumni Foundation for Philippine Development!

Published by Peace Corps Writers, the book costs $25 (plus shipping ,which varies with number of copies and speed of delivery) at Create Space E-store, an Amazon affiliate responsible for printing and sales. Enter the following website in your browser http://www.createspace.com/3528295 to order the book.

The book is printed “on-demand,” so it is unlikely to appear in book stores, although it will also available from Amazon.com. It is a large paperback of 508 pages with photos accompanying each essay and maps showing the assignments of the volunteers who contributed.

Ask not ... Huwag nang
itanong, edited by Hans Groot of
Philippines Group I, reviews 50 years of
the Peace Corps experience in the
Philippines. The coffee-table book contains recent and historical writings and recollections of staff and volunteers, key documents and photos, program activities over the years, and descriptions of continuing efforts of former volunteers in
Philippine development activities long after their service has ended. Ask Not will be
published late March and will be available online from http://www.blurb.com/bookstore
All profits go to the Peace Corps Alumni Foundation for Philippine Development!

A complete and revealing history of the Peace Corps - in time for its fiftieth anniversary.

Since its inauguration, the Peace Corps has been an American emblem for world peace and friendship. Across the nation, there are 200,000 former volunteers, with alumni including members of Congress and ambassadors, novelists and university presidents, television commentators and journalists. Yet few Americans realize that through the past nine presidential administrations, the Peace Corps has sometimes tilted its agenda to meet the demands of the White House. Stanley Meisler discloses, for instance, how Lyndon Johnson became furious when volunteers opposed his invasion of the Dominican Republic; he reveals how Richard Nixon literally tried to destroy the Peace Corps, and he shows how Ronald Reagan endeavored to make it an instrument of foreign policy in Central America. But somehow the ethos of the Peace Corps endured.

In the early years, Meisler was deputy director of the Peace Corps' Office of Evaluation and Research - and his unswerving commitment to write an unauthorized and balanced history results in a nuanced portrait of one of our most valued, and complex, institutions.