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Abstract
Based on primary and secondary sources, this paper assesses the impact of the Peace Corps program on the development of Ghana during the 1960s. In doing so this essay examines the broader motives behind the creation of the Peace Corps, and concludes by evaluating the volunteers ' overall performance in Ghana. It is hoped that this study will add to the understanding of the role of the Peace Corps in the Cold War, and its influence on the nature of US-Ghanaian foreign relations. The study will also add to our understanding of the role of "people to people" diplomacy in the conduct of American foreign relations.
Introduction
In April 1961, Sargent Shriver arrived in Accra, Ghana to promote the newly created Peace Corps agency to President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana. A leading nationalist and Africa's most vocal critic of American foreign policy, it was believed that Nkrumah's acceptance of the Peace Corps would encourage other nations to do the same. Accompanied by Franklin Williams and Harris Wofford, Shriver anticipated problems from Nkrumah: "We have come to listen and learn," Shriver stated upon arrival at the Accra airport (Wofford, 1992, p. 269). Nkrumah emphasized his reservations about American foreign policy especially its neocolonial practices towards Africa. Notwithstanding his suspicion, Nkrumah accepted the Peace corps, and requested that volunteers arrive in his country by the beginning of the school year in September. On August 30, fifty-two American Peace Corps volunteers arrived in Accra. Ghana became the first Peace Corps recipient nation in the world. Nkrumah's decision encouraged other nations to consider the Peace Corps agency as genuine. Despite the significance of Nkrumah's endorsement of the Peace Corps in the midst of troubled US-Ghanaian foreign relations, few studies have examined the role and performance of the volunteers in Nkrumah's Ghana (Koffman, 1998; Mahoney, 1983; Nkrumah, 1965). This study attempts to fill that gap. This paper assesses the impact of the Peace Corps program on the development of Ghana during the 1960s. In doing so this essay examines the broader motives behind the creation of the Peace Corps, and concludes by evaluating the volunteers' overall performance. It is hoped that this study will add to the understanding of the role of the Peace Corps in the...