THE PEACE CORPS

Charles Wingenbach's The Peace Corps is a short work but not a slight one; though never very exciting it has exuberance and a certain immediacy; as, presumably, first in its field it should provide a popular apologia for the Kennedy cause, as well as discerning democratic propaganda. The book details many of the project's controversies or conundrums: who are to be the trainees, what standards of selection reign, how shall control apparatus affect the host country and home base, whence the end of ""ugly American"" emissary types, and what determinants for term and tenure? By far the most illuminating chapter records actual case histories of previous efforts: letters home from an IVS Indochina worker, a study of the CRS in Vietnam and the diary of a Negro Crossroader's Nigerian experiences. These person-to-person evaluations, cultural clashes and everyday economic hardships movingly portray both the malheurs of depressed nations, the strivings of their peoples and the humanitarian rationale for Western service. A tale hopefully written to inspire the young and instruct the old.