Western Massachusetts

Peace Corps is a tool of U.S. imperialism

There is a direct correlation between Peace Corps volunteers (PCV) deployments and U.S. military interests. "National Security Action Memorandum No.132--signed by Kennedy on February 12, 1962 and sent to CIA, USAID and Peace Corps Directors--instructed those agencies to 'give utmost attention and emphasis to programs designed to counter Communist indirect aggression [through] ... support of local police forces for internal security and counter-insurgency purposes.'"

"In 1985, for example, the Philippines, home to the largest U.S. military bases outside U.S. borders, also ranked first in the number of PCVs with 399. Following close behind that same year with 379 was Honduras, a country-turned-military base in the U.S. war against Nicaragua."

Peace Corps propaganda doesn't tell you why they left Bolivia in 1971 or Peru in 1974. The truth is that "the Bolivian government expelled the Peace Corps for its alleged activities in sterilizing peasant women without their knowledge. The Peruvian government expelled the Peace Corps for similar reasons in 1974."

Laying the ground for further economic domination

The Peace Corps exists to help make Third World countries more conducive to super-exploitation by U.S. interests. Former Peace Corps director Loret Ruppe refers to the Peace Corps, the World Bank and USAID all in the same sentence. The World Bank and USAID provide "aid" in the form of loans to Third World governments on the condition that the country is opened up to further imperialist penetration. The Peace Corps provides valuable, on-the-ground public relations as well as helps to guide this political economic transformation.

Peace Corps is U.S. foreign policy

A major point behind the Peace Corps' existence is as a public relations ploy for the U.S. Former director Ruppe called the work of the PCVs "a valuable source of real aid to U.S. foreign policy." The political flexibility of PCVs is limited: volunteers have been fired for opposing the U.S. war in Vietnam, visiting an off-limits Salvadoran refugee camp in Honduras, and a volunteer in Honduras was reprimanded for writing her Congressperson that "Honduras needs jobs, education, [and] health care ... not military aid."

PCVs have been "required to collect and pass on information which, in the context of death squad politics, could result in the killing of the people whom they were supposed to assist." The CIA has been known to use Peace Corps cover to infiltrate areas. One PCV couple in Honduras "came under heavy pressure to turn over names of 'the communists' after their language classes became a vehicle for genuine community organizing." "It was clear," the couple said, "that the teachers [we trained] were interested not only in teaching skills but also addressing the real reasons their students could not learn: hunger, and the fact that young people have to work." This principled couple quit rather than talk. Other volunteers no doubt provide more subtle information to their superiors without realizing that they are serving as spies.

People who really want to help the world's oppressed lead better lives should work with RAIL, not with the pig oppressors.

Note: This flyer based on Covert Action Information Bulletin #39 (Winter 91-92) This article contains 31 footnotes and is based on "congressional documents, presidential Executive Orders and from interviews with returned Peace Corps volunteers who served in Honduras, Ecuador, and the Philippines under Reagan and Bush." The article is available from RAIL for 50¢, plus 50¢ postage if we have to ship. Send stamps, or cash.

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