The Peace Corps is an independent federal agency of the United States designed to
promote mutual understanding between Americans and the outside world. The Peace
Corps was established by executive order in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy and
approved by Congress as a permanent agency within the State Department later that
year. The program was an outgrowth of the Cold War designed to oppose the Chinese
and Soviet challenge to Western influence in the widely open Third World arena of
superpower competition. More than 180,000 Americans have served in the Peace Corps
since its inception.
In July 1971, President Nixon moved the Peace Corps under the umbrella agency ACTION.
Peace Corps would remain under ACTION until President Jimmy Carter declared it fully
autonomous in a 1979 executive order. This independent status would be further secured
when Congress passed legislation in 1981 to make the organization an independent
federal agency.
