256 



qualified returned volunteers in "associate, deputy or representative 

 jobs" so that their experiences and recommendations might improve 

 operations.*^*^ The Peace Corps has also sought recommendations of 

 volunteers regarding improvement of operations. All volunteer coun- 

 try teams are interviewed together a few months before their own tour 

 of duty ends. Periodic conferences of returned Peace Corps volunteers 

 in Washington have focussed on evaluation of the impact of Peace 

 Corps programs overseas and on the potential contribution that could 

 be made by returned volunteers to domestic social improvement pro- 

 grams such as VISTA and the Teacher Corps.*^' 



Nevertheless the Peace Corps has encountered increasing criticism 

 from the Congress. For instance the supplemental views of several 

 House Foreign Affairs Committee members in 1968 included the fol- 

 lowing points : 



[Because the Peace Corps consistently returns funds appropriated to it. and 

 doesn't train as many volunteers as it anticipates, there must be a lack of 

 qualified volunteers] ; 



* * * Poor administration is slowly choking the high ideals that marked the 

 inception of the Peace Corps. Retrenchment in expenditures is our most pressing 

 national need. Trimming the bureaucratic fat and the slick public relations 

 posture of the Peace Corps will make a modest contribution to a better fiscal 

 situation * * *."^ 



Textor has completed extensive research based on data obtained 

 in numerous interviews with returned volunteers and has suggested 

 that the Peace Corps has not met all of its objectives.''^ Although the 

 Peace Corps has taken steps to remedy some difficulties, its record in 

 influencing development, he says, is uneven because of deficiencies in — 



General training (some teachers are inadequately prepared, there is not enough 

 technical training) ; 



Making training more culturally relevant (the Peace Corps has begun to experi- 

 ment with training volunteers in the host country rather than in the United 

 States) ; 



Lack of in-service training in the field for volunteers in service ; 



Evaluative feedback from the field ; 



Lack of stabilized relationships with training institutions (early training 

 contracts were determined on the basis of requirements for political distribution 

 of contracts) ; 



Lack of integration of Peace Corps experience and later educational training."" 



Other deficiencies mentioned by Textor relate to the developmental 

 process in the host country itself: a socially closed society; political 

 instability; and cultural factors (the volunteer must try to relate to 

 nnd modify the attitudes of both the elite and the lower classes, who 

 often have contradictory objectives and forms of behavior). ^^ Other 

 defects cited were administrative inefficiency, brevity of the volim- 

 teer tour, underqualification of some volunteers, inappropriate assign- 

 ments, and inadequate continuity of Peace Corps programs in the host 

 country.^^ 



«<i Memo from Robert B. Textor, PDO/EE, to Franklin H. Williams, chairman, Talent 

 Search Panel, "A Plan To Keep the Peace Corps Permanently Young, Creative, and 

 Dynamic," Dec. 11, 1961, in Textor, ed., op. cit.. p. 3.50. 



"• For example, a conference was held on Mar. 5-7, 19G5, Congressional Quarterly 

 Almanac (1965), p. 491. 



"5 Supplemental views. In U.S. Congress. House. Committee on Foreign Affairs. Peace 

 Corps, Report (to accompany H.R. 15087), 90th Cong., 2d sess., Rept. No. 1519, June 

 5, 1968 (Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1968), pp. 6-7. 



<=" "Roliert B. Textor, Conclusions. Problems, and Prospects." In Textor, ed., op. cit., p. 229. 



™ Respectively, Ibid., pp. 305, 328, 329, 332, and 332-333. 



" Ibid., pp. 206-220. 



■-Ibid., pp. 320-22. 



