YOUTH PEACE CORPS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP63T00245R000300400001-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 6, 2014
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: January 9, 1961
• Content Type: MEMO

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?IGRESSIONAL RECORD ? SENATE
ica are rushing into a tremendous social
revolution. The revolution of rising expec-
tations is under way?with brighter hopes
for an end to the misery, poverty, hunger,
and ignorance which degrade human nature
and blight the future for more than 180
million men, women, and children south of
the border.
These people want an end to semi-feudal
conditions with 5 percent of the people own-
ing 90 percent of the land?with a handful
of fabulously wealthy families living in lux-
ury while the vast majority live in squalor
on the thin edge of starvation. Many thou-
sands of Latin Americans have risked exile,
imprisonment, torture, and death to achieve
responsible government, responsive to the
needs and the hopes of a better life for
their people.
In the midst of this social upheaval, the
United States too often has appeared callous
and indifferent to Latin America. In our
eagerness to stop the spread of Communist
subversion and tyranny, we have too often
in past years appeared unconcerned about
such home-grown despotism as the Trujillo
regime in the Dominican Republic. Cuba
was ripe for revolution when the Castro coup
toppled Batista?and now the Communists
are twisting the revolution to their own pur-
poses. But all over Latin America the same
sources of discontent and revolution threaten
to interefere with democratic political, econ-
omic, and social development.
After World War II our concern with prob-
' ms in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia
STATsulted in neglect of our 20 fellow American
republics. We gave billions of dollars?gen-
erously and wisely?to restore the economy
of Western Europe. But the cumulative 14-
year total of economic aid to Latin America
under mutual security comes to only $564
million. We told the Latin American na-
tions; desperately seeking aid to modernize
their primitive economies, that they should
seek private investments and private enter-
prise to develop their economic potential.
Now we in the United States like our sys-
tem of free enterprise. It has worked well
for us, although not in the pure way that
some people like to pretend. But Latin
Americans still have bitter memories of
"robber baron" exploitation which we long
ago refused to permit in the United States.
Furthermore, private enterprise usually is
reluctant to make the long-term, low-return
investments in a foreign country's economic
'infrastructure,' the . roads, powerplants,
schools, hospitals, and sanitation facilities
which are essential for sound economic de-
velopment. Latin Americans tell us they
cannot stop their revolution of rising ex-
pectations while waiting for trickle-
down prosperity.
After almost 8 years of indifference
and inaction on the needs of Latin America,
the President recently requested Congress
to authorize $600 million in economic aid
for Latin America. For 8 years re-
sponsible citizens and Members of Congress
have been calling for a genuine, realistic,
adequate, long-range program of assistance
for economic development in Latin Amer-
ica?but the light seems to dawn in the
White House only when Cuba is well down
the Communist path.
I believe the President's request shows
a basic misunderstanding of the way to ap-
proach Latin America's economic develop-
ment problems. Senator FULBRIGHT, chair-
man of the Senate Foreign Relations Com-
mittee, calls it frankly a stopgap measure,
designed to bolster our diplomats at the
September economic conference in Bogota,
Columbia. The Washington Post called it
vague to the point of despair. I voted
for this authorization?not because I want
to give this administration a blank check
for reckless spending, but rather with the
thought that the next resident at the
White House will know what is needed.
And what is really needed at this stage
in Latin America is not money?but plan-
ning. The success of the Marshall plan in-
Europe was due largely to cooperative plan-
ning by the nations which were to receive
economic aid. We need the same kind of
cooperative regional planning for economic
development in Latin America. We must
encourage the countries of Latin America
to cooperate?and we must join them not
as the boss, not as "Mr. Moneybags," but as
a partner and good neighbor. The mecha-
nism for this kind of cooperative effort exists
already in the Organization of American
States.
A coordinated program along the lines of
the Marshall plan would give Latin Ameri-
cans new hope of achieving bread and free-
dom, a better life with new dignity as human
beings. We should not be ashamed of hu-
manitarian motivations. We should not be
ashamed of our interest in helping down-
trodden peoples break out of the vicious cir-
cle of hunger, disease, poverty, and ignorance.
Nor should we be embarrassed when our hu-
manitarian interests coincide with our na-
tional interest in strengthening the underde-
veloped countries of Latin America to resist
the tempting promises of the Communists.
As population expands, as industrial de-
velopment spreads, as hope and impatience
mingle, Latin America will be a cauldron of
competing ideologies. We should welcome
this development, not fear. it. We should
prepare for it wisely, not expect blank check
gifts or loans to buy friendship.
? Last year in Puerto Rico I outlined a
9-point program to improve relations be-
tween the United States and Latin America.
Here are the points I made:
1. We must step up economic aid to Latin
America. These countries must speed their
economic development?or misery and dis-
content will make them Communist camping
grounds. We must encourage cooperative,
coordinated planning through the Organiza-
tion of American States.
2. We should speed and strengthen techni-
cal assistance in agriculture, health, educa-
tion, vocational training and public admin-
istration. When President Truman first an-
nounced this "bold new program" of point 4
aid, he got a tremendously enthusiastic re-
sponse from our Latin American friends.
This program pays big dividends in good
will and progress for a relatively small in-
vestment of money and manpower.
3. We should support moves to establish
regional markets in Latin America, thus
broadening markets for new low cost mass
production and encouraging healthy diversi-
fication in the Latin American economies.
4. We should review our trade and tariff
policies to see how they affect Latin America.
It is a waste of time to give economic aid and
then nullify the good effects by shortsighted
trade restrictions. Of course, if American
industries are injured, we must help the
people and the communities affected. I
have sponsored a Trade Adjustment Act for
just this purpose.
5. Investment in health is the cheapest,
most effective way, we can help build for the
future in Latin America. Disease is an eco-
nomic loss as well as a human tragedy. We
must give more support to the work of the
Pan American Sanitary Organization which
carries out activities along the lines of my
health for peace proposals.
6. We must step up studeht and cultural
exchange with bold and imaginative pro-
grams. Too often we exclude just those
young Latin Americans who would benefit
the most?the so-called leftists or thcise who
doubt our good intentions. '
7. American press, radio, and TV should
give broader and better-balanced news cov-
erage to Latin American affairs. These coun-
tries have tremendous, complex problems in
pulling themselves up by their bootstraps.
361
They need understanding as well as economic
aid and technical assistance.
And we must step up our own information
program to Latin America. Red China and
the Soviet Union are pouring five times as
much radio broadcasting into Latin Amer-
ica?and their transmitters are four times
stronger than ours. We are falling behind
in the war of words to win the hearts and
the minds of the Latin American peoples.
8. We must reappraise our military assist-
ance program in Latin America. We should
not promote an arms race among these
countries?and we should not give arms to a
dictator to intimidate or tyrannize his own
people. Castro still reminds the Cubans
that the United States supplied arms to
Bastista.
9. We should press for regional disarma-
ment in Latin America. The Organization
of American States already provides fine
machinery for peaceful settlement of dis-
putes. I believe Latin America can be an
international showcase of disarmament?
with clear evidence that transfer of resources
from weapons of war to economic develop-
ment contributes to world peace.,.
With our food abundance, with 'Mir tech-
nical knovt-how, with our rich, productive
economy, with our sympathy and under-
standing, we can help our Latin American
friends put an end to the ancient enemies
of mankind?hunger, disease, poverty, an
ignorance?and we can build an atmosp
in which peace and freedom flourish
YOUTH PEACE CORPS.
1 Mr. HUMPHREY. Mr. President, I
ask unanimous consent to have printed
in the RECORD an article entitled "Youth
Corps Panel Asks Rigid Tests." The ar-
ticle was written by Carroll Kilpatrick
and appears in the Washington Post of
today.
I now read part of the article:
Rigid standards should be established for
selecting young men and women for the
Peace Corps, which President-elect Kennedy
proposed in the campaign, and they should
be paid salaries in local currencies at going
rates in the countries where they serve, a
task force report today said.
Prof. Max F. Milliken, of the Massachu-
setts Institute of Technology, delivered the
report to Mr. Kennedy in Washington Satur-
day, and it was released here today.
Mr. President, one point about the ar-
ticle to which I wish to call the attention
of the Senate is that in making public
the report, there was an indication of
some change in earlier thinking in re-
gard to the draft status or selective serv-
ice status of the young men who may be
included in this corps. Some of the orig-
inal proposals had included a suggestion
that these young men be exempt from
selective service, but eligible for the Re-
serve requirements, and, of course, eligi-
ble for universal military training and
recruitment in case of national emer-
gency or war.
The Millikan report does not suggest
exemption from selective service; but,
rather, it suggests deferment. I am very
much pleased, Mr. President, first of all,
that the President-elect, Mr. Kennedy,
appointed the task force to study this
worthy proposal; and second, that
the task force report has been made
available.
As the Senate will recall, part of the
Mutual Security Act of last year called
or the government to make a study of
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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD ? SENATE
the possibilities and feasibility of a so-
called Youth Peace Corps. That study
is supposed to be available not later than
March 31 or April 1. I hope the study
will be received early enough so it can
be carefully studied by the Congress
itself.
I mention this point because it is my
hope that once the administration has
decided upon the policy it wishes to pur-
sue in connection with this matter, at
least I shall be given the privilege of
being one of the sponsors or at least a
cosponsor of this particular measure, be-
cause I am strongly in support of it, and
back on June 16, 1960, I introduced a bill
which provided for a very modest pro-
gram for the so-called Youth Peace
Corps, limited to 500 young Americans
who would become the first enrollees in
the first year of the Youth Peace Corps,
which would be designed to expand our
technical assistance program.
I aslumanimous consent that excerpts
from tife article published on. January 9
in the Washington Post and a release I
submitted in the Senate, dated June 16,
1960, be printed at this point in the
RECORD.
There being no objection, the excerpts
from the article and the release were
ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as
follows:
YOUTH CORPS PANEL Ass RIGID TESTS
(By Carroll Kilpatrick)
NEW Yonic, January 8.?Rigid standards
should be established for selecting young
men and women for the Peace Corps,
which President-elect Kennedy proposed in
the campaign, and they should be paid sal-
aries in local currencies at going rates in the
countries where they serve, a task force re-
port today said. Prof. Max F. Milliken of
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
delivered the report to Mr. Kennedy in
Washington Saturday and it was released
-here today.
In making it public, the President-elect
had no comment about the recommendation
that his proposal for draft exemption for
persons serving in the Peace Corps be ?
abandoned.
The lengthy document said extreme care
should be exercised in starting the program,
that it should be begun on a modest scale
and that universities should be responsible
in part for carrying it out.
The Milikan report recommended the
establishment of an international youth
service agency to administer the Peace
Corps. The agency should operate mainly
through contracts with private nonprofit
organizations such as universities, the report
said.
The agency itself should not administer
programs in the field. "The program should
be launched on a limited pilot basis with no
more than a few hundred members employed
on tasks now known to be clearly vital to the
recipient countries," the report said.
"Tough criteria of both academic and
personality qualifications should be required
by international youth service administra-
tion; participants should be required to
commit themselves for at least 2 years, and
should all have at least a bachelor's degree."
Youth Corps members should work for
the country to which they are assigned but
be under the general supervision of a senior
American official. In no country should
more than a limited number of members be
assigned, for they should be spread in
small numbers in the host country, the
report said.
In discussing the draft problem, the report
recommended draft deferment rather than
exemption.
"There is abundant evidence that draft
exemption is not required as a bait to in-
duce an adequate number of applications to
permit the selection of a first-class group,"
the report said. Moreover, the numbers to
be selected will be small in the early years
of the program.
The report warned that unless the whole
program were carried out with the greatest
care it could be brought into disrepute in
the early stage.
"It should be recognized from the be-
ginning that there will inevitably be some
failures and some mistakes," it said. "These
will not be fatal if they are limited to parts
of the program and counterbalanced by some
notable successes.
"It is esse'ntially for this reason that we
recommend a variety of differing contracts
with private organizations each of which will
bear principal responsibility for its own
program rather than a massive centrally
organized Government effort."
?
HUMPHREY CITES PEACE CORPS AS MAJOR
CONTRIBUTION TO AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY
Under legislation introduced Wednesday
by Senator HUBERT H. HUMPHREY, Democrat,
of Minnesota, 500 young Americans would be-
come the first enrollees next year in a Peace
Corps designed to greatly expand our techni-
cal assistance program overseas.
The Humphrey bill calls for an eventual
corps of 10,000 volunteers, enlisted for 3-year
terms, to teach basic agricultural and indus-
trial techniques, literacy, vocational educa-
tion, the English language, and sanitation
and health procedures in Asia, Africa, and
Latin America. One year of the first enlist-
ment would consist of an intensive language-
and area-study program.
Citing the experience of the International
Voluntary Service, a private nonprofit organ-
ization which has pioneered in the use of
young American men in technical assistance
programs under contract with the Interna-
tional Cooperation Administration, Senator
Humphrey pointed out "these idealistic, tal-
ented young men, oriented toward the peo-
ple-to-people approach, have enjoyed ex-
traordinary success."
The Minnesotan gave as an example of
IVS successes the work of a team of eight IVS
specialists who set up an experimental sta-
tion in Laos. The IVS men developed a fiber
that would bring in $1,500 per acre, in a coun-
try where per capita annual income is less
than $100 per year. The Laotian Govern-
ment, Humphrey said, was so impressed that
It has requested 11 more teams-1 for each
Laotian province.
In Egypt, Senator Humphrey pointed out,
one of the first requests made to the U. S.
Government by the Egyptians after the Suez
crisis had subsided was to send back two IVS
men who had been operating a 33-acre ex-
perimental farm?"and another 10 just like
them."
Humphrey said that the IVS experience
demonstrates the "particular value" of util-
izing young men without families, able to
spend most of their spare time with the local
populace and to participate in community
cultural affairs.
"They can be real 'grass-roots ambassadors'
in the villages and towns," he said, "and can
give a tremendous impetus to our people-to-
people effort,"
"We need many more such young men?
far more than any private organization can
manage," Senator Humphrey declared.
"There is a great body of idealistic and tal-
ented young men in this country who are
longing to work for their country in con-
structive ways. The Peace Corps would tap
those vital resources."
Senator HUMPHREY pointed out an added
dividend in the Peace Corps investment: "the
January 9
development of a large pool of experienced
men, trained in some of the more remote
languages and with detailed knowledge of the
emerging areas of the world?a pool from
which our Foreign Service, ICA and USIA can
profitably draw."
The Minnesotan said that service in the
Peace Corps at a modest rate of pay, under
his bill would be considered the equivalent
of 3 years of active duty with the armed
services, although upon discharge from the
corps the young men would still be liable
under mwr to be called to military service in
times of war or national emergency.
MEDICAL CARE FOR THE AGED
Mr. HUMPHREY. Mr. President, one
of the most important gatherings of re-
cent years takes place in Washington
this week. Twenty-eight hundred dele-
gates, from every State of the Union, as
well as the District of Columbia, Puerto
Rico, and the Virgin Islands, will parti-
cipate in the White House Conference on
Aging. Three hundred national volun-
tary organizations will be represented.
I should like to take this opportunity
? to welcome all the distinguished persons
who are to take part in this significant
conference, and to express to them my
wishes for a productive and successful
meeting. I wish to extend a special wel-
come to the Minnesota delegation and its
Chairman, Dr. Arnold M. Rose.
The White House Conference is a de-
vice that has been used successfully in
the past to bring into the national spot-
light subjects deserving widespread dis-
cussion and debate. Unfortunately, the
work done at these meetings has not al-
ways been followed up, and the useful-
ness of some of the conferences has
therefore been dissipated.
The able Representative from the
State of Rhode Island, Mr. FOGARTY, who
introduced in the other body the legisla-
tion initiating the Conference, has
stressed that:
The Conference was not intended to be a
goal in itself, but a "launching platform"
for new, strengthened and expanded pro-
grams.
The purpose of the White House Con-
ference is to bring together lay individ-
uals interested in the field of aging, as
well as professionals and experts, to al-
low them to meet and talk. The Con-
ference should facilitate an exchange of
views and a cross-pollination of ideas.
Out of it should come new plans, new
goals, and new directions. It should be
looked at as only a starting point in
building up on every level of govern-
ment solid programs on aging.
DEMOCRATS TOOK INITIATIVE
Mr. President, the fact that this Con-
ference is taking place in the waning
days of the present administration has
led some persons to believe that it is a
"lameduck" conference. The idea for
this meeting, however, came from Demo-
crats who were concerned that the Eisen-
hower administration was taking insuffi-
cient action in this area. The legisla-
tion setting up the Conference was
passed by a Democratic Congress. It is
unusual, moreover, for Congress to ini-
tiate a White House Conference; nor-
mally the executive branch takes the
lead in proposing such a meeting.
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