1986.09.01: September 1, 1986: Headlines: COS - Chile: Directors - Shriver: Human Rights: Multinational Monitor: Sargent Shriver talks about the Peace Corps and Pinochet in Chile in an interview from 1986

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Chile: Peace Corps Chile : The Peace Corps In Chile: 2006.12.10: December 10, 2006: Headlines: COS - Chile: Yahoo News: Ex-Chilean dictator Pinochet dies at 91 : 1986.09.01: September 1, 1986: Headlines: COS - Chile: Directors - Shriver: Human Rights: Multinational Monitor: Sargent Shriver talks about the Peace Corps and Pinochet in Chile in an interview from 1986

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Sargent Shriver talks about the Peace Corps and Pinochet in Chile in an interview from 1986

Sargent Shriver talks about the Peace Corps and Pinochet in Chile in an interview from 1986

"When [General Augusto] Pinochet came into power a lot of Peace Corps volunteers were in Chile and they started protesting Pinochet and writing letters to newspapers. I was criticized in Washington for the actions of these volunteers. My response was that we should rejoice that we are the only country in the world that had the vision to send abroad people who are not under government control. Instead, they are independent free-standing human beings. I maintain that they are the greatest advertisement for the American system of government that there is in the world, they are worth a thousand Coca-Cola signs. There is no better advertisement for what this country stands for than an individual Peace Corps volunteer walking down the street unarmed, wearing the same clothes that the people do, eating the same food, living the same life, and being there as an independent free-standing person who believes in democracy and who is compassionate to his fellow man. That's what we're supposed to produce here. We're not here to produce bombs. We're producing a certain kind of human being. When we started the Peace Corps no country had such an activity abroad, no other country had the nerve."

Sargent Shriver talks about the Peace Corps and Pinochet in Chile in an interview from 1986

An Interview with Sargent Shriver

Caption: Chile's former dictator Augusto Pinochet, seen here in 1996. Pinochet, whose brutal 17 year rule became a symbol of Latin American military repression, died at 91, his doctor at the Military Hospital in Santiago said.(AFP/File/Martin Thomas)

In 1961, only weeks after his inauguration, President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps. At the helm of the new and somewhat undefined agency, Kennedy placed Sargent Shriver.

Within six months, the relatively inexperienced Shriver had created a fully functional government agency. By autumn 1961, the first Peace Corps volunteers were on their way to the developing world to offer what they could to improve living standards in impoverished villages. But as support for the program has grown, so has the controversy surrounding the Peace Corps. On the occasion of the Peace Corps' 25th Anniversary, Shriver talked with the Multinational Monitor about the formation of the Peace Corps and the role it has played in development, public relations, and politics.

[Excerpt]

Monitor: Have there been instances when Peace Corps activities have been creating a political movement in one direction which is contrary to the direction that the State Department, the Pentagon and the CIA are pushing in?

Shriver: Well, I would not say that the Peace Corps was creating a political movement because we don't do that. But as a result of Peace Corps education, as a result of Peace Corps attitudes, and as a result of Peace Corps compassion, people change. We don't get into politics or economics, but the Peace Corps can teach people to do those things by themselves.

Monitor: When has the Peace Corps encouraged people in this manner so that they have organized against the United States?

Shriver: The Philippines is a good example. We've had 8,000 volunteers or more in the Philippines. The Peace Corps in that country was a significant factor in the development of the Aquino movement and you can go other places and find the same thing.

Monitor: Does this undermine U.S. foreign policy?

Shriver: The kind of foreign policy that the military and the CIA conduct on behalf of the United States is not the kind of foreign policy that the Peace Corps represents. Fm not trying to condemn what the CIA does or what the military does, Pm trying to say it is different from what the Peace Corps does.

It could be antithetical. It depends upon the actual situation in a given country. When [General Augusto] Pinochet came into power a lot of Peace Corps volunteers were in Chile and they started protesting Pinochet and writing letters to newspapers. I was criticized in Washington for the actions of these volunteers. My response was that we should rejoice that we are the only country in the world that had the vision to send abroad people who are not under government control. Instead, they are independent free-standing human beings. I maintain that they are the greatest advertisement for the American system of government that there is in the world, they are worth a thousand Coca-Cola signs. There is no better advertisement for what this country stands for than an individual Peace Corps volunteer walking down the street unarmed, wearing the same clothes that the people do, eating the same food, living the same life, and being there as an independent free-standing person who believes in democracy and who is compassionate to his fellow man. That's what we're supposed to produce here. We're not here to produce bombs. We're producing a certain kind of human being. When we started the Peace Corps no country had such an activity abroad, no other country had the nerve.




Links to Related Topics (Tags):

Peace Corps Annual Report: 1986; Peace Corps Chile; Directory of Chile RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Chile RPCVs; Sargent Shriver (Director 1961 - 1966); Human Rights





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Story Source: Multinational Monitor

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Chile; Directors - Shriver; Human Rights

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