Peace Corps News

Jack Vaughn: Peace Corps Legend

Jack Vaughn: Peace Corps Legend
Jack Vaughn, a lifelong Republican, was appointed the second Director of the Peace Corps in 1966 by Democratic President Lyndon Baines Johnson and led the Peace Corps on a non-partisan basis for three years through some of the agency's most challenging times.  Vaughn at 87 is still as dedicated to the Peace Corps at ever. Read some excerpts from our profile of Peace Corps Legend Jack Vaughn:

Before joining the State Department Vaughn fought professionally under the name of "Johnny Hood." "I was bumming around Mexico one summer when I ran out of money," Vaughn said. "I decided I would take my boxing and turn pro, but I didn't know enough Spanish at the time to tell whether the agent said I would get 60 pesos for four rounds or four pesos for 60 rounds. You can guess which figure was correct." Vaughn fought 26 featherweight bouts as a professional. Vaughn tells the story that the first time he fought professionally in Mexico, the fans cheered enthusiastically but he couldn't make out what they were saying and he thought they were cheering him on. It was only later that he learned that what the fans were shouting was "Kill the Gringo!" Mata al Gringo! later became the title for Vaughn's unpublished memoirs.

Vaughn was appointed Peace Corps Director on February 16, 1966. Vaughn was in a bar at 12:30 on M Street in Georgetown when the bar telephone rang and the bartender asked, "Is there a Mr. Jack Vaughn here?" Vaughn answered yes the bartender says, "it's someone who says he's the president of the United States." "Let me finish this drink," replied Vaughn taking his time before picking up the phone and saying hello. On the line was President Lyndon Baines Johnson himself. "Vaughn," said LBJ. "How would you like to be the director of the Peace Corps?" "Mr. President," Vaughn replied calmly, "I thought you'd never ask."

When Richard Nixon became president in 1969, Vaughn found himself out of a job. One report says that Vaughn was asked by Nixon's Secretary of State William P. Rogers to stay on as Peace Corps director to emphasize the nonpolitical nature of the Peace Corps. Instead, Vaughn was informed in March, 1969, that he would be replaced after all and reports that Vaughn had been asked to stay on as Peace Corps Director in the Nixon administration were reported in the media to be untrue. "I was the first bureaucrat Nixon fired when he took office," Vaughn said. "But when he found out I was a Republican, he asked me if I'd be his ambassador to Colombia."

Vaughn opposed George W. Bush's nomination of Gaddi Vasquez to become Peace Corps Director in 2001. "As they say on the racing tout sheet for a horse that is not in the running: 'Nothing to recommend,'" Vaughn said. "He has little experience . . . and little to indicate that he understands how to run the Peace Corps or any international organization. It's clearly a political payoff, and it would be a shame to see him approved." As a Republican it pained Vaughn to have to oppose a nominee by a Republican President, but Vaughn came to Washington on his own and appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to speak out against the appointment of Vasquez. However Vasquez cleared the United States Senate Foreign Relations committee by a vote of 14-4, and was accepted in the full Senate on a voice vote.

Read the story as published on Peace Corps Online or read the scholarly version with citations on Wikipedia.

Top Photo:  Peace Corps Director Jack Vaughn meets with reporters and answers questions in fluent Spanish in Honduras in February 1969. From the Peace Corps Volunteer magazine May, 1969.

Bottom Photo: Caption: Jack Vaughn, the second Director of the Peace Corps, (center) with C. Payne Lucas, President Emeritus of Africare (left), and Hugh Pickens, Publisher and Co-editor of Peace Corps Online. The photo was taken in 2007.  Photo cannot be not be used without permission.

Peace Corps Volunteers Evacuate Western Kenya

Peace Corps Volunteers Evacuate Western Kenya
The U.S. Peace Corps is evacuating 35 of its volunteers from western Kenya because of the violence that has rocked the country since the disputed December 27 presidential election.  The relief agency says the volunteers are safe, and should arrive in the main Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam Saturday.  The Peace Corps has 144 volunteers based in Kenya, although the organization says 22 of them are currently out of the country. An agency statement says the remaining volunteers have been "consolidated in a variety of locations."  The U.S. Embassy in Nairobi is asking U.S. citizens in Kenya to remain indoors while the fighting continues, and urges them to consider leaving for their own safety.  More than 300 people have been killed in the post-election violence. Read more.

Caption:  Protesters and Police in Nairobi on January 3.  Photo:  Flickr  DSC04663 by MentalAcrobatics Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic

Peace Corps Volunteer Gillie Kehoe Details Perils in Kenya
By yesterday, Kehoe and other volunteers were out of Kenya, away from the carnage that began when President Mwai Kibaki won reelection. Peace Corps officials said 34 volunteers who were working in three western provinces would be temporarily moved to neighboring Tanzania. The Peace Corps has 144 volunteers in Kenya, 122 of whom were in the country when the unrest began, officials said. All of the volunteers have been accounted for and are safe, officials said. Safety and security are the top priorities of the Peace Corps, Amanda Beck, a spokeswoman, said yesterday, adding that the organization has emergency plans for every country and that they were engaged for Kenya. "Our plan is working. Everyone is safe and out of harm's way," she said. All of the organization's volunteers in Kenya have a cellphone and texting capabilities and were encouraged to contact their families, Beck said. The Peace Corps also checked on them twice a day, she said. "We were very closely monitoring the situation," Beck said. "I don't think anyone could have really anticipated what happened and the scale of what happened."  Read more.

Peace Corps Volunteer Hanna writes: There is this feeling of shock, defeat and injustice in the air... along with the tension that often chaperones those sentiments
We had the chance a few days ago to watch the news at a nearby hotel. In all honesty, things look MUCH worse on TV than they feel here. I mean, I'm not in Kisumu or Nairobi, but.... a lot of violence has gone down in Kericho, too.... and at least from where we sat, I NEVER would have described "how things are" as the scene that I saw on the news. It makes me sick to see it. I really am heartbroken. Perhaps the saddest thing for me is how ominous the future looks; I can't see how it will be resolved (if it can be resolved) and I certainly don't see it getting better before it gets worse. I don't think that one police officer is the only person who feels that way about justice. And it's becoming more and more apparent that there was (and remains) a lack of it.  Read more.

Caption: A riot police officer looks on as people flee the area of ethnic violence in Nairobi January 2, 2008. President Mwai Kibaki's government accused rival Raila Odinga's party of unleashing "genocide" in Kenya on Wednesday as the death toll from tribal violence over a disputed election passed 300. Photo: REUTERS/Stringer

Peace Corps Volunteer Naty writes: Young men walk up and down the roads, dragging their machetes along the concrete. It's designed to scare people. It's working.
Sitting here, inside the house, there's not much to do. Seven of us, Peace Corps volunteers together for the holidays, ate dinner in more silence than accompanied our other meals today and yesterday. Outside there is the sound of muffled voices on loud speakers and radios. There are houses on fire a little ways down the street in both directions. Young men walk up and down the roads, dragging their machetes along the concrete. It's designed to scare people. It's working. This afternoon, before the vegetable stand near the house was tear-gassed while we bought tomatoes, we saw people, presumably Kikuyus, walking towards the tea fields carrying large rice sacks stuffed with their valuables.They went to sleep in the woods, away from crowds and rioters. They were preparing for the worst. They were preparing for this. Read more.