“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill,” President-elect John F. Kennedy said in his inaugural address, “that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” The success of liberty in his view depended on American involvement in developing the economies of friendly third-world countries. Kennedy noticed that Soviet professionals lived and worked in many allied nations abroad as part of Moscow’s policy of communist influence. He decided there should be a similar program at home.

On this day, March 1, in 1961, an executive order signed by President Kennedy established the Peace Corps, led by his brother-in-law R. Sargent Shriver. Several countries including India, Ghana and Burma invited Peace Corps volunteers, and the African nations of Ghana and Tanganyika (modern-day Tanzania) were chosen.

The Corps’ popularity waned following the Vietnam War, but it was rekindled by President Ronald Reagan, who updated the focus to include business and computers. Reagan saw correctly that the path to self-sufficiency in African nations was no longer in agriculture, but rather through information and trade.