2010.01.06: January 6, 2010: John Coyne writes: Chris Dodd leaves the Senate
Peace Corps Online:
Directory:
Dominican Republic:
RPCV Chris Dodd (Dominican Republic) :
RPCV Chris Dodd: Newest Stories:
2010.01.06: Chris Dodd retires from Senate :
2010.01.06: January 6, 2010: John Coyne writes: Chris Dodd leaves the Senate
John Coyne writes: Chris Dodd leaves the Senate
"Dozens of times," Dodd says, "I have been asked in interviews how my service in the Peace Corps affected me. I'm sometimes reluctant to answer because I know I can never fully explain how profoundly the experience shaped my life and career-the truth sounds too altruistic, even corny. When President Kennedy asked, ‘How many [of you] are willing to spend two years in Africa or Latin America or Asia working for the U.S. and working for freedom?' When he asked that question, it was like getting a genie out of a bottle."
John Coyne writes: Chris Dodd leaves the Senate
Chris Dodd Leaves The Senate
from Peace Corps Worldwide Master Site Feed by John Coyne
dodd-c
Senator Chris Dodd (Dominican Republic 1966-68) of Connecticut puts it this way: "The Peace Corps took a nice kid from suburban Connecticut, whose father was a United States senator, and sent him to a remove part of the Dominican Republic to ‘do something good.' I may have done some good, but mostly I learned. I learned about the complexity of a culture that is close to us geographically, but far, far away from our understanding. I learned to speak Spanish, the language of our neighbors. I learned to teach others some of the skills most of us take for granted. I learned to organize people to help themselves. Most important, I learned that one person can make a telling difference in the lives of those around him."
Dodd, who is 65, sounds like almost any other RPCV, but isn't. As a Senator and Congressmen of Connecticut since 1974, he is one of the most important friends the Peace Corps has in Congress and this Wednesday afternoon, January 6, 2010, he announced he is retiring from the Senate.
"Dozens of times," Dodd says, "I have been asked in interviews how my service in the Peace Corps affected me. I'm sometimes reluctant to answer because I know I can never fully explain how profoundly the experience shaped my life and career-the truth sounds too altruistic, even corny. When President Kennedy asked, ‘How many [of you] are willing to spend two years in Africa or Latin America or Asia working for the U.S. and working for freedom?' When he asked that question, it was like getting a genie out of a bottle."
There will be a lot of stories over the next few days how Dodd helped the Peace Corps, much of it will be true, though I always thought he could have done more, raised more hell on our behalf, fought earlier and often for an RPCV to become the Peace Corps Director, but that is just me….
Here, however, is a small story tucked away in the achieves of the agency that is important to say again about Dodd and the Peace Corps. It shows the value of having One-Of-Our-Own in the House and Senate.
In 1979 Dodd testified before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, more questions about whether there were CIA agents in the Peace Corps. It is a question all of us as PCVs had to answer.
Dodd's said:
"Last year [1978] I was in Cuba with a delegation from the Congress and spent 6 hours with Fidel Castro. In our conversations, he learned that I was a former Peace Corps Volunteer and had worked on a neighboring island, the Dominican Republic. He was fascinated with the program and what it had done. He said something to me that I thought was quite revealing. He said, In all the years I have been in office, despite rumors that have flowed from all sources, we never once have had one piece of specific information to ever link any Peace Corps Volunteer or any person who worked with the Peace Corps with any foreign intelligence operation. Castro said that on his own free will. I didn't probe him on it at all."
Even Fidel Castro knew the CIA left the Peace Corps alone.
So, if someone asks about the Peace Corps and the CIA you can tell them the Castro story. And you can tell them you heard it from Chris Dodd, another PCV.
Links to Related Topics (Tags):
Headlines: January, 2010; RPCV Chris Dodd (Dominican Republic); Figures; Peace Corps Dominican Republic; Directory of Dominican Republic RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Dominican Republic RPCVs; Politics; Congress; Connecticut
When this story was posted in December 2010, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
| Support Independent Funding for the Third Goal The Peace Corps has always neglected the third goal, allocating less than 1% of their resources to "bringing the world back home." Senator Dodd addressed this issue in the "Peace Corps for the 21st Century" bill passed by the US Senate and Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter proposed a "Peace Corps Foundation" at no cost to the US government. Both are good approaches but the recent "Comprehensive Assessment Report" didn't address the issue of independent funding for the third goal at all. |
| Memo to Incoming Director Williams PCOL has asked five prominent RPCVs and Staff to write a memo on the most important issues facing the Peace Corps today. Issues raised include the independence of the Peace Corps, political appointments at the agency, revitalizing the five-year rule, lowering the ET rate, empowering volunteers, removing financial barriers to service, increasing the agency's budget, reducing costs, and making the Peace Corps bureaucracy more efficient and responsive. Latest: Greetings from Director Williams |
Read the stories and leave your comments.
Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.
Story Source: Peace Corps Worldwide
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Figures; COS - Dominican Republic; Politics; Congress
PCOL45313
16