Address on the Peace Corps Persuasive Speech
I therefore propose that our inadequate efforts in this area be supplemented by a Peace Corps of
talented young men and women, willing and able to serve their country in this fashion for three
years as an alternative or as a supplement to peacetime Selective Service.
They would be well qualified through rigorous standards, well trained in the languages, skills, and
customs they will need to know, and directed and paid by the appropriate agencies.
This would be a volunteer corps, and volunteers would be sought among not only talented young
men and women, but all Americans, of whatever age, who wished to serve the great Republic and
serve the cause of freedom.
Men who have taught, or engineers or doctors or nurses, who have reached the age of retirement,
or who in the midst of their work wished to serve their country and freedom, should be given an
opportunity and an agency in which their talents could serve our country around the globe.
I hope that the Congress will give this proposal serious consideration. We must find new ways to
use the talents and energies of our people in the service of peace and freedom.
We have an opportunity to make a contribution to the developing nations of the world and, at the
same time, to strengthen our own country through the service of our citizens.
