INTERNATIONAL PEACE CORPSMAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000300180013-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 7, 2010
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: September 22, 1963
• Content Type: NSPR

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/05/07: CIA-RDP75-00149R000300180013-9
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Richard Goodwin
International
Peace Corpsrna
By MILTON VIORST
A r 31, RICHARD GOODWIN is an old-timer on the
11e pole icians have vilified
him. Bureaucrats have denounced him. Columnists
have written his political epitaph. But, in the third
year of the Kennedy Administration, he shows few
signs of wear and tear and holds one of the most
exciting, most responsible jobs in Washington.
"There are only three secretary-generals in the
world, U Thant of the UN, Jose Mora of the Organiza-
tion of American states and me," said Goodwin. But
lest the company create a mistaken impression, he
added, "And I take orders from Sargent Shriver."
Goodwin is the he , , l t.Io 1 ace
Corps S
created last October at a
m nations in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Still
relatively unknown, both in the U. S. and abroad, it
has the task of stimulating and guiding the establish-
ment of organizations like the U. S. Peace Corps in
countries throughout the Western World.
As secretary-general, Goodwin is legally the em-
ploye of the San Juan nations. Actually, he is "on
loan" from the U. S. government, which pays his
salary and provides him with office space in the head-
quarters building of the U. S. Peace Corps. His staff
is small. It is made up of young people like him from
a variety of foreign countries-Israel, the Philippines,
the Netherlands, Germany-also "on loan" from their
governments.
Because the U. S. Peace Corps, a mere two years
old, has been so successful and is the "granddaddy"
of national voluntary service organizations, Sargent
Shriver, its director, exercises great influence in the
dissemination of the "Peace Corps" idea throughout
the world. Still, for all practical purposes, Goodwin
is his own boss, empowered to make his own decisions
on where he will go and whom he will see to do a
job that a growing number of western leaders con-
sider vitally important.
"This isn't simply a means of getting more tech-
nicians into underdeveloped countries or getting our
allies to share the burden of helping these countries
to stand on their feet," Goodwin said. "It is that
but it's more.
"We're trying to spread the notion of service
among the young people of the free world. The cynics
said it was impossible, that privileged South Americans
and Europeans cared only about enhancing their
privileges. We've found that's only partially true.
"It's been a revelation to see that young people
in other countries, like so many in the U. S., were
waiting for the Peace Corps idea to come along.
And when it did, their response was overwhelming."
ALREADY, SUBSTANTIAL VOLUNTEER SERVICE
programs are under way in Argentina, Belgium,
Denmark, France, Germany, Italy,- the Netherlands,
New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and the United
Kingdom.
France for instance, plans to begin this month to
train its first 100-man pilot unit of the "Volontaires
du Progres," which soon will be off to Africa to work
on rural development projects.
Perhaps even more important, many underde-
veloped countries themselves are setting up volunteer
corps to work either independently or in conjunction
with groups from abroad on projects within their
own frontiers. It is hoped that these volunteer groups
will provide the manpower for ever-expanding social
service within the underdeveloped world.
The tiny Central American republic of El Salvador,
for example, has established a Social Progress Corps
composed, according to its director, of "the cream
of El Salvador youth." Throughout the summer, its
leaders joined U. S. Peace Corps volunteers in an
intensive training course at the University of Okla.
homa. This month, the first of the five-man commu.
nity development teams-composed of two Americans
and three Salvadorans, under the leadership of a
Salvadoran--go out to the towns and villages to
promote a better way of life.
"The government of El Salvador," said the director,
"is facing the fact that we have a long way to go ...
This Social Progress Corps is a great step forward."
The El Salvador experience-adapted to the needs
of each individual country and the capacities of the
volunteers-is precisely what Goodwin and the Inter.
national Peace Corps Secretariat are seeking to re-
RICHARD GOODWIN
Young people were waiting.
produce throughout the Western World. Because the
idea is new, it permits a freshness of approach that
older organizations lack. But this very newness re-
quires the development of procedures and techniques
and often demands improvisation to cope with the
unforeseen.
IN THE EIGHT MONTHS HE SECRETARIAT HAS
been in existence, Goodwin has been on trips
throughout Europe and Africa, lecturing, persuading,
assisting demonstrating, consulting, cajoling. In Wash.
ington, he has had to consolidate his successes abroad
by turning promises and commitments into reality.
It has meant finding nmoney, sometimes out of trap
Peace Corps budget, sometimes out of the AID budget,
sometimes from some agency with only tenuous rela
tionship to international affairs. Most officials, Good-
win said, have been sympatj~tic and cooperative, most
notably Peace Corps chief :river, who he says pos-
sesses and unbelievable cap.y to get things done.
Goodwin's secretariat also rves as a liaison be-
tween countries and between a given country and
U. S. government bureaus. It acts as a collector and
disseminator of information that can be useful in
any variety of ways. -
"I received a phone call the other day," he said
as an illustration, "offering me the use of dglpfM-ur
radios that American Hams are willing to donate.
I had to think of a way to put them to work. It oc-
curred to me that in the wilds of South America
there are doctors who serve wide areas but who have
no way of knowing where they are needed. We can
set up a program to provide the radios and train the
doctors to use them, thus multiplying the value of a
single man."
The secretariat has also put its mind to training
problems. Several foreign groups have already gone
through special courses here. Trainees have been
put to work in the Washington office of the Peace
Corps, to become familiar with procedures found suc-
cessful here and apply them when they get home.
Goodwin is already thinking of establishing a training
camp somewhere in Europe, where volunteers can
receive the kind of rugged preparation Americans now
get, most of them at a- camp in Puerto Rico, before
going into the fie=d.
`!k
"t:'E'VE BEEN GETTING EXCELLENT COOPERA-
tion, on the whole, from the governments we've dealt
with," Goodwin said. "I think it's possible that by
next year the participating nations will begin bearing
costs jointly-my salary and office expenses, for in-
stance--and relieve the U. S. of much of the expense.
"That's one of our objectives: we want to identify
the Peace Corps idea with the free world as a whole.
We want all the participating peoples to pitch in to
supply training sites, professional personnel, equip-
ment and supplies. The Dutch government has already
offered to set up a European office of the Secretariat
in the Hague. We'd like to get a training camp from
the Italian government in Sicily. We recognize that
the organization and the idea are still new but we're
making headway.
"One problem we recognize is the need to keep
the international volunteer groups meticulously non-
political. So far, at Shriver's unremitting insistence,
the U. S. Peace Corps has stayed out of international
intrigue. Its objective, of course, is to give a return
to the U. S. but it must do this indirectly, by showing
the peoples of the underdeveloped countries the willin
ness of Americans to serve.
"We recognize the danger that other countries ma
not share this objective and we're constantly ca
paigning for it. We don't want volunteer corps, f
instance, to be used to pave the way for later co
mercial exploitation, forany propagandizing in beh
of a political or an economic philosophy, for any so
of colonialism. We're not worried about the sma
countries. The big countries could do some damag
We hope they won't.
"You can't imagine, after all, unless you've see
it yourself, how much the C m au-nists re tr Tn
to di r Etie Peace Co s, both e idea and h
organiza Ton. 'hey Kees' pounding. away, by ever,
means they can, on accusations that the Peace Corp
is nothing more than an instrument of America
imperialism, a band of spies, a A44 he CIA,
device for creating markets for lis
"So far, they may have succeeded in alerting th
people in underdeveloped countries but they've bee
a dismal failure in turning any hostility toward u
But the communists are afraid of the Peace Corp
idea and t'ey'll continue to do their best to destroy it."
DESPITE THE INSISTENCE OF THE WASHING
ton wags that Goodwin's present job represents a
fall from grace, Goodwin himself contends that being
Secretary-General of the International Peace Corps
Secretariat is the most satisfying assignment he has
had in government.
A staff member when Kennedy was Senator, an
adviser and speech writer during the campaign,
Goodwin began the Administration as one of the
President's top assistants in the White House. As a
specialist in Latin America, he was one of the brains
behind the establishment of the Alliance for Progress.
As a troubleshooter, he traveled widely for the
President, laying the groundwork for what Kennedy
hoped-and still hopes-will be a great democratic
revolution in Latin America.
Aggressive and ambitious, self-assured to the point
of cockiness, Goodwin fit in well with the loose, free-
wheeling band with which the new President cur-
ty13ll0ed himself. But as the Administration matured,
the trouble-shooter had to give way to the organiza-
tion man who could devote himself to the tedious de-
tails that make programs operate. Goodwin left the
White House to take a place in the State Dept. hier-
archy, as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for
Lath American affairs. But he and the hierarchy were
not meant for each other. When the post came along
with the International Peace Corps Secretariat, with
the chance to work both independently and creatively,
Goodwin snapped at it-He does not consider it a fall
from grace at all.
Slight of build but with a growing waistline, Good-
win has been variously described by Washington writ-
ers as an elf and a gnome. He dresses in the prescribed
Ivy League fashion but usually is in desperate need
of a haircut. His heavy accent, reminiscent of the
President's, inevitably betrays his Boston background.
.He went to Tufts and to Harvard Law School.
Goodwin insists he has, for the moment, no plans
beyond turning his secretariat into a vital, creative
mechanism for international social service. But, justi-
fiably, he refers to himself- as a "young man" and he
admits he is looking toward his future. Despite his
apparent distance from the White House, frequent
contact with the President, including a recent week-
end in Hyannis Port, attest to continued esteem at
the highest level. Despite the controversy that has
surrounded him, many in Washington predict that
Dick Goodwin will be heard from more, not less, in
the coming years of the Administration.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/05/07: CIA-RDP75-00149R000300180013-9