Making A Difference: A Volunteer's Story of the Peace Corps Experience, An Interview with George Breznay By Amy Bachman
AP US History Mr. Haight Febmary 9, 2005 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Statement of Purpose Table of Contents Biography Table of Contents Historical Contextualization Table of Contents Interview Trmiscription Table of Contents Interview Analysis Table of Contents Appendix Table of Contents Works Consulted Table of Contents Statement of Purpose
The purpose of this Oral History Project is to show the impact of the Peace Corps through the experience of Peace Corps volunteer, George Breznay and give background on the founding
of the Peace Corps and the sixties era. This project explains why the Peace Corps was founded
and who the people were who made it happen. The interview with Mr. Breznay provides insight
into the life of a volunteer and the reasoning behind joining the Peace Corps. The interview also
provides a personal story of his own felt impact. Most importmitly it is hoped that through these
documents the impact that the Peace Corps has had on Third World countries, America and the
volunteers themselves is seen. Biography of George Breznay
George Breznay was bom in 1941, in Ashley, PA, which is a small town in the foothills of the Pocconos mountains. He was raised in this town with his older brother and his parents.
His parents grew up in the same area. His Father was the principal of his highschool and superintendent of the school district. George had a happy childhood and was a very good student. He attended Harvard University where he majored in mathematics. After college
George went to Harvard Law School. During his graduate school years, George and five other friends considered joining the Peace Corps and applied together after they graduated in 1966.
He got married to Barbara Fendrich in 1966 after his training for the Peace Corps at UCLA.
George served in Ethiopia for two years, from 1966-1968. In Ethiopia he was a legal advisor to the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs. He worked as a researcher on research projects for the
Ethiopians. He also taught some classes at the University on constitutional law. George was involved with the Ethiopian Parliament and worked on rewriting the parliamentary rules of procedure and he also got involved in constitutional issues. Aside from legal work in Ethiopia,
George assisted in creating water projects and other community projects. After his service,
George traveled around Europe with Barbara, whom he met when he joined the Peace Corps.
They came back to the United States and moved to New Jersey near his wife's parents. They then moved to Manhattan in New York City, and George took ajob at the LeBoeuf, Lamb,
Leiby & Mcray law firm, where he stayed for four years. His first marriage ended in 1973, and George moved to Washington, D.C. George met and married his current wife, Susan Phibbs and began working at the Economic Regulatory Administration, a predecessor to the Department of
Energy in Washington, D.C. He currently is the Director of the Office of Hearings mid Appeals in the Department of Energy. George is also the Vice President of his local community organization. The Palisides Citizen Association. George has three children, ages 24, 26, and 38.
He enjoys playing tennis, reading, playing piano mid traveling. George also plans to return to
Ethiopia someday. The Peace Corps Era: Spreading Peace, Love and Understanding
John F. Kennedy promised in his Inauguration Speech, "To those people in the huts and
villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery . . . We pledge our best
efforts to help them help themselves "(4 Stossel). This speech epitomized the spirit of the Peace
Corps and the sixties era. The Peace Corps' underlying goal mid intent is expressed in the
famous line, "to help them help themselves." The Peace Corps, founded by President Kennedy
on March 1, 1961, began as a way to give both purpose and memiing to the youth of America
and give aid to third world countries. Its three goals, as stated in the Peace Corps Act were: 1.
Help the people of the Third World countries by providing them with trained men and women,
2. Promote a better understanding of Americans to host countries and 3. Promote a better
understanding of people in Third World countries to Americans. The organization was formed
in a mere six weeks by Kennedy's brother-in-law, Sargent Shriver, and now serves in 138
countries. 178,000 volunteers have served overseas since the first volunteer in 1961 ("About the
Peace Corps"). The Peace Corps was America's response to the destruction of World War Two,
and the increasingly consumer minded, self-absorbed way of life that took hold in the post-wm
boom. It served as a connector between America and the Third World, and intended to create a
mutual understanding between the volunteers and citizens of the Third World. Kennedy,
Shriver, and many others galvanized the spirit of the sixties into an organization, the Peace
Corps, which would change the way Third World countries viewed America mid how we as
Americans viewed ourselves. It is important to understand the formation of the Peace Corps, its
goals mid its hopes for impact to truly understand the groundbredcing, peace-loving era that was the sixties. The idea behind the Peace Corps was not completely revolutionary; in America and
around the world, voluntary aid to those less fortunate existed in vmious forms. In the early
1800's Christian evangelists went to foreign countries to preach the Gospel but also to build
schools, educate doctors and nurses and to teach new skills (Rice, The Bold Experiment 1). In the 1900's there were many world aid institutions that reflected the miti-imperialist movement
against colonization and war. In America in 1901, after the U.S. conquered the Philippines, an
anti-imperialist movement began to grow. The leader was William James, who wrote mi essay
called, "The Moral Equivalent of War." James called for an army of young people who would
help people who, "have a life of nothing else but toil and pain and hardness and inferiority
imposed upon them"(Albertson Rice Birky 6). James stated that the youth should fight against the injustices of nature. He believed that this national service program would make the world a
better place. These movements and ideals of service to other people are early examples of the
humanitarian belief that inspired the Peace Corps.
In the 1950's many small private voluntary service organizations began, which created a
demand for a large orgmiization such as the Peace Corps. In the early 1950's Harris Wofford,
who was a founder of the Peace Corps, helped to form the International Development Placement
Association, which sent some college graduates to Third World countries to teach and to do
community development work. The American Red Cross, the Cooperative for American Relief
Everywhere, mid many more, all were voluntmy service organizations which had assistance
programs in the Third World ( Rice The Bold Experiment 4-5). Sargent Shriver, the first
director of the Peace Corps specifically notes the significance of these organizations when he
said, "it was the success of the these private efforts which led to the development of the Peace
Corps"(Rice, The Bold Experiment 6). The Peace Corps was founded in a time when the United States was the most powerful
country in the world, and the Peace Corps was created to prove the title that many people gave
America, the moral leader of the world. The idea that America is the greatest country has been
around for a long time. As early as the 1600's with John Winthrop's, "City Upon a Hill,"
America has proclaimed its destiny to be a leader to the world, that all nations should look to
America for guidmice. After World Wm II, American had grown into a huge power with a
growing military and economy. America became known as a very productive country since
American products were spreading across the globe. Historian David Potter in 1954, asserted the
view that Americans were all well-educated, pampered and consumer minded. He stated that
with the spread of Americanism to the world, "Winthrop's 'City Upon a Hill', became the
'billboard on the Hiir"( Hoffmmi 18). This raised the question both in eyes of the world and in
Americans own minds about whether America could be the moral leader for the world, when their "morals" were not ideal.
The U.S. foreign policy in the 1950's and in all of U.S. history, has claimed that all its
endeavors were for moral, unselfish reasons. This reason being to spread democracy, or "m^e the world safe for Democracy" as Wilson put it on entering World War I. This responsibility to
help the world by spreading American values has been around as long as America has. This was
illustrated in the 1890's by the poet Rudymd Kipling urging America to take up, "the white
man's burden." In 1959, Eugene Burdict and William Lederer wrote a book called the Ugly
American. This book criticized American foreign service officers as snobbish, out of touch with the locals, and ignorant to the culture of their host countries. It showed America as selfish mid
insensitive to problems of the world. The heroes of the book were the Asimi officers who lived
with natives and learned from them. The Ugly American did though have an optimistic view. which was that America can save itself from the mechanical bureaucratic machine that it was.
The Asian characters said that Americans cmi be helpful if they act like "real Americans." "Real
Americans," were people that worked hard, mid expressed the American ideals of freedom, mid
equality. "All the Americans had to do, according to the characters, was to 'Live life out here on
our lever"(Hoffman 22). The book also alluded to the idea that if Americans acted this way in
foreign countries they could get rid of communism in Asia. The American reaction to this book
was strong and the book was extremely popular because it expressed the concerns about the
national identity and its disconnection with the world. Many say that the Peace Corps is a direct
response to that book( Hoffmmi 20-22).
The most influential group of historians of the 1950's became known as the Consensus
School of American History. They said that the United States was ignorant to real poverty and
suffering of the world, since Americans had always lived in freedom, they didn't understand the
predicament of most of the world. The Consensus School argued that America could not be a
model for the world if it did not understmid other nations' experiences and that because of this the United States' ability to fight the cold war would be impaired (Hoffmmi 20). The youth of
America in the sixties understood this view point. They were a generation raised by pments of
war and did not wmit another war. They also were, "raised with the belief in perfectionism: the
United States was the 'greatest country in the world"'( Hoffman 8). They wanted to show the
world that America really was the best country and not the materialistic, world dominating
country it had become. In the 1950's people talked about the end of the frontier. This is best
stated here by Hoffman, "The frontier became a subliminal message for all that America had
lost. An untamed wilderness produced one kind of person. A mass industrialized society
produced another"(17). This can be related to Frederick Jackson Turner's thesis in 1893, proclaiming that the frontier was closed. When that happened America looked abroad and
spread American values in the world. And in 1961 abroad is just where America looked again.
During Eisenhower's presidency, in 1959 Congressman Henry S. Reuss of Wisconsin
promoted the idea of a "Point 4 Youth Corps." Reuss said he was inspired to create a voluntary
service program because while in Cambodia he met with four American teachers who said, "So
many villages want us, and we me so few" (Albetson Rice Birky 12). In 1960 he and Richard
Neuberger Ogon asked to have a non-governmental study on the possibility of such an
organization. This was funded under the Mutual Security Act of 1960. Six months later.
Senator Hubert H. Humphrey introduced a bill to establish a peace corps in Congress. He
proposed a separate government agency with a three-year enlistment.
In the Campaign of 1960, John F. Kennedy ran against Richard M. Nixon, as the
youngest person to ever run for President, mid the Peace Corps headlined his campaign. On
October 14, 1960 during the last months of his campaign Kennedy made an unexpected speech at the University of Michigmi at 2:00 A.M.. He proposed an experiment in public service in which
young people would go abroad to serve America. In this speech Kennedy asks, "How many of
you are willing to spend ten years in Africa or Latin America or Asia working for the U. S. and
working for freedom?"(Redmon 4). This question and more were responded to with huge cheers
from the crowd of students. He goes further to say that, "On your willingness to contribute part
of your life to this country will depend the answer whether we as a free society cmi compete"
(Redmon 4). This speech was the birth of the Peace Corps in Kennedy's campaign.
General James M. Gavin who retired from the army in 1957, talked in 1960 with college
students mid ROTC groups and found that many young people wmited an alternative to military
service. Gavin found that the youth were outraged at the draft and the military system, yet were still patriotic and wanted to serve their country in some acceptable, moral way. So Gavin
proposed a peacetime volunteer force. He gave a speech on October 27, 1960 at a conference of
educators and businessmen and after the prepared part of his speech he said, "I think we can do
better than to send our young men around the globe to watch over other societies in military
uniform. I know many men who would rather do something more ennobling for their country"
(Redmon 15). Gavin proposed to use the talent of the youth to help developing countries. He
had two goals, one was to channel the anger of youth with the military into community service
among the poor, and the other was to compete with communist countries in Third World
countries. He received a huge applause for his speech, mid Fritz Hollings, the governor of South
Carolina especially loved the idea and thought he should tell Kennedy about it. General Gavin
was unaware that the 'Peace Corps' idea had already been discussed by Kennedy in Michigan.
Kennedy called Gavin and asked him to write one page on his proposal. Two days after
Kennedy received Gavin's statement, he gave his speech in San Francisco proposing the Peace
Corps. Throughout the rest of his cmiipaign, Kennedy talked of this idea of an international
voluntary service organization and that played a major role in his election as President.
Kennedy made the famous speech in Smi Francisco to a huge crowd and in it he again
proposed the idea of the Peace Corps ( See Appendix 2). Kennedy spoke about the failures of the previous Republicmi administration and he connected with the cold war anxiety of the nation.
According to a New York Times article on the speech entitled, "Excerpts from Kennedy's
speech urging U.S. 'Peace Corps'", Kennedy said, "I therefore propose that our inadequate
efforts in this area be supplemented by a peace corps of talented young men willing and able to
serve their country"(New York Times). Kennedy pointed out that the Communists me already training teachers mid sending them abroad to spread communism, so the United States must confront this with Americans going overseas to spread freedom. In his speech he mentions
Gavin saying, "The combat soldiers, like General Gavin, who jumped with his division in
northern France, said that no young man today could serve his country with more distinction in this struggle for peace mound the world [applause] "(Redmon 20). While General Gavin may
have first thought of the idea, Kennedy made the idea behind the Peace Corps known across
America and to the world, and most importantly he made this idea a reality.
Kennedy was elected after a tough campaign and a close election. On January 20, 1961,
he gave his inauguration speech, which is said to be the speech that changed America. This
speech contains many famous, often quoted, phrases and; Kennedy through the speech and his
actions defined an era. Kennedy talked about the new era that the Peace Corps will bring, "Let the word go forth that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americmis"(Stossel 4).
The most famous phrase of the speech and the phrase that people connect with Kennedy is, "My
fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you- ask what you can do for your
country "(Stossel 4). Kennedy captivated the nation and the world with this speech. Novelist
Norman Mailer said that Kennedy projected the American dremii, and the idea that, "every man
was potentially extraordinary"( Hoffman 12). Kennedy was a hero of the sixties and the Peace
Corps was the answer to the growing discontentment of the youth.
The American youth did not like the country that the United States was becoming, so the
Peace Corps was formed to challenge them and change the world's view of America. In the turbulent era that young people were growing up in, the need for the Peace Corps was appment.
The rebellion against the 1950's stigma of conformity to society's standards is exemplified by
Harris Wofford, the associate director of the Peace Corps in 1966, "We do not want to stay in
our safe suburbs ... It is truly our need and our desire to Go West and East and South- to pmticipate in the great hummi adventure of world development"( Albetson Rice Birky 22). The
youth cried to connect with the world and end the isolation caused by wars ( Hoffmmi 24). The
Peace Corps answered the sixties era's desires for direct personal relationships and it embraced the ideas of love and peace which young people proclaimed (Textor 6). The Peace Corps
formation in this time period is not coincidental, it was a direct result of the people that lived in the sixties who felt the need for a nonmilitary outreach to the world. Textor writes,
"The Peace Corps idea of service was obviously tapping a deep felt need in many
people, a need for active . . . involvement in the development process overseas, a need
for personal involvement with people of other cultures- as well as a need of course, for
adventure and for various kinds of personal growth mid gain"(3).
One of the objectives of the Peace Corps was to provide fulfillment and an opportunity to m^e the world a better place.
Another objective and reason to create the Peace Corps was to counteract communism
and to help win the Cold War. In the late 50's mid early 60's, the Soviet Union and China sent
out "diplomats" to developing nations to spread communism. In Africa, the Soviet diplomats got there first to offer aid, and spread the ideas of communism. In Kennedy's speech at San
Frmicisco, he said, "missiles and arms cannot stop them- neither can American dollars, they can
only be countered by Americans equally skilled and equally dedicated"(New York Times). This
alludes that the Peace Corps was set up to fight communists and spread democracy over
communism. Kennedy later says, "I am convinced that our young men and women dedicated to
freedom are fully capable of overcoming the efforts of Mr. Khrushchev's missionmies, who are
dedicated to undermining that freedom"(New York Times). Whether the Peace Corps was created to fight the Cold War or to serve humanitarimi purposes cannot be known for sure, though it was probably a mixture of the two and many other underlying needs of the sixties.
It was on March 1, 1961 that Kennedy signed Executive Order 10924, which officially
created the Peace Corps on a temporary basis. But before Kennedy could proclaim the Peace
Corps into existence, he needed to m^e sure it could happen. So on January 21, 1961, the day
after his inauguration, Kennedy appointed Sargent Shriver, his brother in-law, head of the Task
Force to study the feasability of the Peace Corps. Shriver was very inexperienced in federal
affairs but he agreed to accept the project. Shriver looked for the best people to help with the
Task Force. To find this help he went to the heart of the Federal government foreign policy
bureaucracy, where he enlisted the aid of Warren Wiggins and William Josephson (Stossel 4-7).
Wiggins and Josephson wrote a paper on the Peace Corps called The Towering Task. This
proposed that the Peace Corps be launched on a large scale, meaning thousands of volunteers in the first months. As Shriver read. The Towering Task, he felt that its boldness matched his
original visions for the Peace Corps, so he called Wiggins to join the Task Force. The Towering
Task, became a model for the Peace Corps. On February 24 Shriver presented Kennedy with the report on the Peace Corps. And on March 1, the Executive Order was declared and two days
later Kennedy named Shriver the first director of the Peace Corps.
As director, Shriver was devoted to the cause and he dedicated all his energy to the Peace
Corps and infused that energy and idealism into all the volunteers and staff. As director, Shriver
still needed to form the organization, memiing: get countries, directors, staff, volunteers mid get
Congress to pass legislation permanently establishing and funding it. To get the Peace Corps bill
passed in Congress, Shriver mid Bill Moyer personally visited or called all but two members of
Congress to tell them about the Peace Corps. They would go door to door in the Congressional offices, to m^e sure they got to everyone (Stossel 8-10). This dedication got the bill passed easily and continued to fuel the organization. Shriver then set out to find directors for the staff.
To do this Shriver resemched to find the perfect person for each job and personally called them saying, "Come as you are." One example is Tom Mathews, who Shriver called out of a ski trip to come to Washington and be the deputy of public information (Redmon 48). In the first yems, volunteers came flooding in. The Peace Corps grew faster than any other peace time agency in history (Stossel 12). Shriver made the Peace Corps happen. This is best said by Scott Stossel from his speech on Shriver,
In retrospective, Shriver's lack of knowledge may have been one of his greatest assets in starting the Peace Corps. It memit for one thing, that he didn't know what couldn't be done. He wasn't constrained by the bureaucrat's understanding of limitations; he didn't have the politicians view of what was allowable. His boundless energy and optimism were not trammeled by miy knowledge of bureaucratic limitations. This expanded the horizons of what was possible(Stossel 10). With Shriver's dedication, the Peace Corps trmisformed within a few months, from a idea to a complete operating organization.
Shriver not only created a revolutionary organization, but he did it in record time. Peter
Braestrup, a reporter who first covered the Peace Corps for the New York Times said, "To get mi agency going takes others two or more years, Shriver did it in six weeks"( Stossel 10). Shriver created the details of Peace Corps very much out of his own mind, all he had to work off of was
Kennedy's request and three speeches, Michigan, San Francisco mid the Inaugural. Stossel again praises what Shriver accomplished, "The speed with which he conceived and threw together a new organization, the success he had in coaxing invitations from wary Third World nations, the remarkable two-man assault he and Moyers staged on Capital HiH"(10). Shriver made the Peace
Corps what is was and for the first five years he led it to become a full scale volunteer organization. In its very first years the Peace Corps was a success, and it laid down the guidelines
which would lead the Peace Corps through the twentieth century. On August 30, 1961, the first
group of 50 volunteers left for Ghana. ** In 1961, 750 volunteers went to nine countries, these
first countries were, Ghana, Nigeria, Tmizania, Philippines, Chile, Columbia, St. Lucia, India and
P^istan (Rice, Twenty Years 15). Between March and June 1961, 10,000 Americans filled out
applications to join the Peace Corps. And between June and December of 1961 there were 1,000
applications each month. In the Peace Corps first annual report to Congress, it stated its policies.
Volunteering was open to all qualified, single people over 18 and all married people with no
children under 18. A college degree was not required and volunteers were allowed to resign
anytime. Its policies stated that the Peace Corps would only go where it was invited, mid the
volunteers would work for the government of the host country and work with the citizens of that
country. Volunteers would each serve for two years mid they would lemn the language and
respect the customs of the host country(8). These policies reflected the goal of the Peace Corps to "help them help themselves" and to work alongside the citizens of the country.
After the first couple years of the Peace Corps, the demmid for volunteers was almost
greater than the supply, the Peace Corps needed a more aggressive approach to recruitment. As
of 1963, recruitment consisted of sending Peace Corps applications to all post offices. Deans at
universities, and to trade associations. Bob Gale thought this system of recruitment was very
ineffective and he had new ideas. He thought that the Peace Corps should send a temii onto a
campus get lots of publicity, and get the administration involved. Shriver loved the idea mid told
Gale to do it. He started at the University of Wisconsin with Douglas Kirker, who was the
director of public information. Gale got a team together mid went to the university, and he got
in touch with the campus radio. Gale and his team set up in the student center, spoke in classrooms and got applications to the students. When they came back to DC, they had 485
completed applications. The "Gale Method" as it came to be known spread to universities
across the country, so that the Peace Corps became a pmt of all cmiipuses and was always invited
back each year. During the 63'-64' school year, using Gale's techniques, 36,000 applications
were completed, mid during the 64'-65' school year, there were 46,000 applications. After three
years of recruiting. Gale retired but his method lived on (Redmon 230-240). Recruiting also
consisted of advertisement cmiipaigns.(see Appendix 1). Which included T.V. appearances by
volunteers and mticles about the Peace Corps appeming in magazines (Rice, The Bold
Experiment, 248).
The Peace Corps experienced a major setback in the sixties, but the staffs' dedication
pulled the Peace Corps through. This setback came on November 22, 1963 the day President
John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Once the news had spread, the Peace Corps headquarters
came to a halt, because everyone was so struck with grief. His death took away from the
idealistic, free spirit that the Peace Corps had and as Redmon put it, "Nothing and no one would
ever be the smiie again"(247). When the Kennedy fmiiily found out that the Peace Corps has
stopped running and that they canceled the New York recruiting trip, they sent the headqumters a
message. "As Gale remembers it: 'They said no, go ahead. The President would have wanted it.
The Peace Corps meant a lot to him. It is important to go on with the work' This was a sign that the Kennedy toughness, the Kennedy courage and the Kennedy magic were still at work. It was
a sign that the Peace Corps was still special, still has a purpose- was, in fact, a living
legacy"(Redmon 247). Kennedy represented the Peace Corps to mmiy Americans, and to people
of the host countries. In Africa the locals called the Peace Corps volunteers, "Wakina Kennedy,"
which memis, 'ToUowers of Kennedy," mid in Latin America the locals called the volunteers. "Hijos de Kennedy," memiing "Kennedy's Children"(Rice, Twenty Years 21). Kennedy also
inspired volunteers to join the Peace Corps, as one of the first volunteers said, "I'd never done
anything political, patriotic or unselfish because nobody ever asked me to. Kennedy asked"(Rice,
Twenty Years 20). Kennedy embodied the spirit of the Peace Corps, but thanks to good
leadership the Peace Corps did not die along with Kennedy.
In 1965, an amendment to the Peace Corps Act was passed which, "required that no
American staff member remain in the agency's employ longer thmi five years"(Rice, Twenty
Years 26). This became known as the "five year rule", and it guaranteed that the Peace Corps
always had new talent mid ideas. So Shriver resigned from his post as director on Mmch 1, 1966
and President Johnson elected Jack Vaughn as the second director (Rice, Twenty Yems 50). His
leadership brought the Peace Corps through the tough times of the Sixties. During the late
sixties as US's involvement in Vietnam escalated, and Civil rights movement strengthened, the
Peace Corps idealism and innocence began to fall, as did as the number of volunteers. In 1966 there were 15,556 volunteers, the greatest number ever. But that fell to 12,131 in 1969 (Rice,
Twenty Years 30). This fall in volunteers can be attributed to Vietnam, since many potential
volunteers went against any government program. Also the civil rights movement and VISTA, a
domestic volunteer agency, were competing for volunteers mid attention. The Peace Corps had
lost its newness mid excitement with the absence of Kennedy and Shriver. Historian Harris
Wofford questioned whether the Peace Corps could keep its idealistic identity of the first five
years, yet grow into a larger, better quality organization that President Johnson demanded. On
signing the Peace Corps Act, President Johnson said to a group of volunteers, "I wish there were
as many of you as there are soldiers, sailors and marines. The more we have of you, the less we need of them"(Wofford 136). Even though the Peace Corps lost its major leaders. Jack Vaughn
was effective in leading the Peace Corps through this turbulent time.
The impact of the volunteers in the host countries depended on the personal relationships they made. Indira Ghmidi predicted that the Peace Corps volunteers would, "create
understanding- the quality that is in short supply in the world. If we can understand one another
and see problems from the point of view of the local people, then it is much easier to realize fully the difficulties"(Rice, Twenty Years 20). This mutual understanding was reached for by most
volunteers by living and working alongside the natives. The volunteers' major impact was
changing the way the host country viewed Americans, they were a "new breed of American- who
spoke the language, lived under local conditions and were not afraid to get their hands dirty"
(Rice, Twenty Years 9). A Peruvian citizen showed this new respect, by saying to a volunteer,
Roger for years I have had a bitterness toward the United States for what they did to me years ago during the wm. I had thought all North Americans were very cold, snobbish and very overbearing, but in the two weeks that you have been with us I have been able to see the other side . . . through you I have seen the true American, a common good natured friendly citizen of the United States ( Albetson Rice Birky 20).
These relationships made the world see American differently and contributed to the impact of the
Peace Corps.
The impact that the Peace Corps has had on the world and America is hmd to judge.
John Kenneth, the former ambassador to India attempts to define the Peace Corps impact, "The test of the Peace Corps is whether it has helped some people live better in less pain- and I think it
has"(Rice, Twenty Years 12). Authors Albertson, Rice and Birky also discuss the Peace Corps
impact here, "The success of the projects carried out by these agencies is, of course, extremely
difficult to measure tmigibly, but most observers agree that not only are material gains evident,
but a spirit of mutual respect mid understanding prevails"(7). The returned volunteers bring an impact back to America, and this is the third goal in action. The returned volunteers share their
experience mid educate other Americans. Many returned Peace Corps volunteers have gone on to do amazing things. They me Congressmen, Ambassadors, and Pulitzer prize winners. The
Peace Corps experience helps volunteers lemn about their world mid their country, but it also
spreads this knowledge back home in America.
The media in the sixties glorified the Peace Corps volunteer and appealed to the rommitic
vision of the Peace Corps. People wanted to see good images of the Peace Corps because as
Hoffman stated, "The Peace Corps reassured a broad cross-section of Americans during a turbulent period that there was at least one aspect of their nations' policy that was indisputably
good"(l). An article that ran on Mmch 2, 1961, the day after the Peace Corps was established,
was entitled. Recruits Flocking to Join Corps by David Halberstam. The mlicle talked about the
positive reaction of young and old people about the Peace Corps, and the overwhelming response to join it. It quoted a young woman, Nancy Gore, who was set to join the Peace Corps she said,
". . . Its one of the few original things that's happened in a long time, mid it's something that I
can participate in, something I cmi contribute to"(2). The article listed famous people who had
already announced that they wanted to join the Peace Corps, increasing the romanticism and
alluding to the cultural popularity of the new organization. An article from the Christian Science
Monitor that also came out on March 2, 1961, was titled Peace Corps: Student Reaction Split, by
Nobuo Abiko. It stated that many Hmvard students were not that enthusiastic about the Peace
Corps because it did not offer exemption from the draft. Ads for the Peace Corps in the sixties though attempted to show the reality of life as a volunteer. One advertisement in 1964 showed a
picture of a ruler with the caption, "This how the Peace Corps measures change"(Rice, Twenty Years 30). The media overall though loved the Peace Corps and only showed Americmis heroic
images of volunteers.
One country that the Peace Corps served in the sixties was Ethiopia. Ethiopia had a
history of good relations with the United States, starting with the Emperor Selassie. He was bom
under the name Tafari Moormen in 1892. In 1916, the then Emperor's daughter, Zauditu
became the Empress. Tafari became prince mid the heir to the throne, he basically ruled the
country since it was not seen fit for a woman to rule. In 1923, Tafari brought Ethiopia into the
newly founded league of nations. In 1928, Tafari assumed the title of King, and in 1930 when
Zauditu died, he became Emperor. As Emperor he changed his name to Haile Selassie, which
means, "The might of the Trinity "(Haile Selassie 1). As Emperor, in July of 1931 he made a
new constitution, which gave him authority over the bicameral parliament. Selassie improved the development of Ethiopia by building school, roads, hospitals, and communication and public
service offices (Ethiopia, Britannica 2). Ethiopia was developing and becoming a stronger
nation.
The growing success of Ethiopia in the thirties, brought it to the attention of Mussolini, the dictator of Italy. Mussolini did not want Ethiopia to get too strong, because it would get in the way of Italian expmision in the "Horn of Africa." So he decided to strike at Ethiopia.
Emperor Selassie thought he was protected under the League of Nations Charter. In 1934,
Italimi forces invaded Ethiopia, and the seven-month Italo-Ethiopian War began. Italians used
air strikes and poison gas against the Ethiopians. Selassie's mmy was not very strong and was
easily crushed by the Italimis. On May 2, 1936, Selassie went into exile. From 1936 to 1941,
Italy combined Ethiopia with Eritrea and Italian Somaliland to form Italian East Africa. Italy
occupied Ethiopia for five years. While occupying the country the Italimis modernized Ethiopia by developing highways, mid boosting agriculture and industrialization. When Italy joined
World War Two in 1940, the United Kingdom recognized Emperor Selassie as an ally. The
British joined with Ethiopimi troops to recapture the capital, Addis Ababa. This was a success
and Emperor Selassie returned to Addis Ababa to organize a new government (Ethiopia,
Britannica 2).
When Ethiopia regained its independence from Italy, it was no longer combined with
Eritrea and Somali Lmid. Eritrea is a small country to the north of Ethiopia mid it connects
Ethiopia to the ocean. In 1945 Emperor Selassie met with President Franklin Roosevelt to plead
for help to get back Eritrea so that Ethiopia could have a sea port. In 1948 mid in 1949,
commissions by the allies and by the United Nations stated that Eritrea was too small, that it,
"lacked a national consciousness" and an independent economy. United States wanted a
communications base in Asmera, Eritrea, so they approved of the union of Eritrea and Ethiopia.
The union was made official in September of 1952 (Ethiopia, Britminica 2). In the 1950's
Selassie set out to create a new constitution, in which he gave parlimiient power, made a
separation of powers, made an independent judiciary system, and included human rights. Yet
Selassie still held imperialistic power to m^e decrees mid to appoint government officials. In
pmliament he appointed people of opposing factions. This halted the government's growth, the
economy mid bureaucratic modernization (Ethiopia, Britminica 3). The 1955 constitution limited the rights of the people, even though they were stated in the constitution they were not
guaranteed in reality. The regime of Selassie became like a dictatorship and mmiy people
opposed the regime (Ethiopia, Librmy of Congress 2). The majority of the Ethiopians were
discontent. On December 13, 1960 there was a coup d'etat, it was organized by several groups who were impatient with the rate of reform and social and political chmige. They wanted to establish a new government that would improve the economic, social and political position of the
Ethiopian people. They staged the coup d'etat when Selassie was out of the country, but they did not get enough support because the mmy mid air force were still loyal to Selassie. Emperor
Selassie returned to the country on December, 17. After the coup d'etat was contained, Selassie wanted to win back rebels by making reforms. He made land grants to the militmy mid police, which made no real change in the lives of the people. In 1960, Somalia got its independence from Italy mid this caused Somalian nationalists in Ethiopia to rebel. In February of 1963, they did rebel and the Ethiopimi army came in to crush the rebellion. Selassie sought more U.S. aid to help to end the rebellion. At the same time a revolt in Eritrea was going on. The Muslim sheep herders were unhappy with the Ethiopian government and they were joined by Christians of
Ethiopia who were upset that the government was now teaching Amhmic, which was a Semitic language, in schools. Also students in Addis Ababa, were upset with Selassie and claimed that he was joining the United States's Imperialism, the students were giving strength to Eritrean rebellion (Ethiopia, Britannica 3).
In 1966, he established a modem tax system, mid wanted to have all land registered, which would destroy land nobility. The parlimiient greatly opposed this since the members were pmt of the lmid nobility. In 1967, Parliament passed a tax, that was resisted by the land class in
Gojam and the entire province revolted. In 1969, after two yems of military action, the government finally repealed the tax and removed troops (Ethiopia, Librmy of Congress 1). The situation in Ethiopia in the late sixties was very unstable, but the United States remained a loyal ally. In the 1960's Emperor Selassie gave early support to the Peace Corps, and welcomed volunteers into Ethiopia. This helped legitimize the Peace Corps for other African countries.
Ethiopia requested secondary school teachers, so the Peace Corps sent 250 teachers in 1962. By
1965, Peace Corps volunteers counted for one third of the nations secondary teachers. Also the
Peace Corps helped lead Selassie to establish a volunteer progrmii, which required university students to teach in rugged Hinterland for one year ( Lowther mid Lucas 42). The Peace Corps
Second Annual Report to Congress in 1963, stated that in Ethiopia lawyers were needed to help draft regulations and help organize tasks of government. Also they were needed to help teach law classes at the Haile Selassie University (45). Ethiopia is one example of how the Peace
Corps aided Third World countries and "helped them help themselves."
The Peace Corps is an organization that changed the way the world viewed America and how Americmis viewed themselves. It improved the understanding between the Third World mid
America and still is providing volunteers today with miiazing experiences. The Peace Corps exemplified the values of the American youth and the sixties era. The Peace Corps made heroes out of its founding leaders, Shriver and Kennedy, but it also made heros out of the everyday people, who answered Kennedy's call to serve for peace and to strive to make the world a better place. Interview Transcription Interviewee/Narrator: George Breznay Interviewer: Amy Bachman Location: George Breznay's office at the Department of Energy in Washington, Dc. Date: December 21, 2004 This interview was reviewed and edited by Mr. Breznay
Amy Bachman: This is Amy Bachman and I mil interviewing George Breznay as part of the
American Century Oral History Project. The interview took place on December 21, 2004 at
George Breznay's office in the Department of Energy in Washington, DC.
What was your childhood like in the forties and fifties?
George Breznay: I grew up in a small town, and I really had a wonderful childhood. There were two of us, my brother and me, and we always had good times playing together, until he got about
sixteen or so and then he didn't want to play with me so much, he was two years older. But there
were plenty of kids in the neighborhood, and we didn't have a TV but I didn't miss it, because I
didn't know anything about it. It's a small town in Pennsylvania in the foothills of the Poconos
and we used to hike a lot and swim, explore the town which was very safe, I didn't have a
bicycle,, but I didn't really feel the need for one. I started playing the piano around third grade,
and I studied pretty hard, took lessons for years mid yems and used to accompmiy the school
chorus and I played for graduation, that kind of thing. My folks were also bom in the area grew
up there, my father was principal of the highschool and then superintendent of the school where I
went to school. Which was a little embarrassing sometimes If I got in trouble. Nobody said "I'm
gonna send you to your Father", but the idea was that I shouldn't mess up mid be a discipline
problem. Fortunately I wasn't, and I was a good student and I really had a lovely time growing
up. AB: How aware were you in your highschool years of world affairs such as the Cold war, and
basically the United States position in the world?
GB: That's a good questions Amy, I think I knew about Sputnik mid the Space Race which I think was happening in the fifties mid I didn't know in a daily sense about the Cold wm and I
don't think I read the newspapers on that issue. International events were of little interest to me
at the time. Cmiada mid Mexico were next door but we never visited those places, when we traveled for vacations it was usually to the New Jersey shores and the Atlantic Ocean,
Sometimes to the mountains. But back to your basic query I don't think I thought much about
international affairs when I was in highschool.
AB: During you college mid graduate school years how did you I guess view America?
GB: How did I view it?
AB: yea.
GB: I was proud to be mi American, I think we were getting in the early sixties deeper and
deeper into the war in Vietnam and it was a concern to me, I didn't want to go and fight in Asia
against a people I didn't have any personal problems with or fights with, I thought if I could
contribute something in another way I might want to do that, but I didn't really think about the
peace Corps. After college I went straight to law school, taking a cmeer in law was probably a
good idea, because I knew I was not going to go on in my major in college which was mathematics. I was good at mathematics and liked it, but at the graduate level mathematics is
really highly refined and developed, mid I don't think i have the kind of mind that went well with
reasoning in the high levels of mathematics. So I had a deferment through law school and I
wanted to go into the Peace Corps and it was an important question in 1966 whether or not the
draft bomd would let me go or would they draft me and fortunately I heard the draft board had
enough people who were either enlisting or being drafted that it was ok for me to go off.
Although they apparently look at it every year, nobody in my peace corps group was drafted
during service. Is there anything else I can speak about on that front?
AB: No that's good, when did you first hear about the Peace Corps, and what was your reaction?
GB: I think I thought about it first when I was graduating from college, the idea of going off to teach mathematics to highschool kids in a beautiful fm off country, had some appeal to me I
actually though about it enough to think that I wanted to go to Nepal because I liked the
Himalayas and thought that would be interesting. But the law school opportunity came up I took the law boards and did go and that was a good next step for me. I don't think I knew anybody
who graduated with me who went into the Peace Corps at that time, but when I was in law school there were a group of six of us who were going to be graduating in 1966, and we thought about the Peace Corps and we though about being law teachers in some fm off place mid we kind of
applied together in the Peace Corps saying we would be interested in that kind of job.
AB: What do you remember about Kennedy's inaugural address? GB: I remember it being very inspiring he was a terrific speaker I think and spoke of very large
concerns, America's leadership role, what it means to be a power in the world, it was also kind
of the idea of service and he's the one who stmted the Peace Corps so I assume he said
something in his speech close to the Peace Corps, although he probably didn't mention it itself. I thinks he did say "think not of what your country cmi do for you, but what you can do for your
country", so I still remember that.
AB: So was there a general sense of excitement on the students at Harvard for the Peace Corps?
GB: General would be too strong a word, I think some people at Hmvard Law School had
already done militmy service. We didn't have many women in the class, I think there were ten to
fifteen if you can believe it out of a class of five hundred., very small percentage that's changed
now and its almost fifty- fifty. But my group of six or seven people most of them had gone to
Harvmd College mid I think we did have thoughts of serving the country mid spreading the idea that America is a good place and getting to know people and trying to help people in other
countries that could use the help, those were all motivating factors. But aside from the six or
seven of us I don't recall talking about it with other people who had an interest. We never turned
anybody down who wanted to join our group. So I think it was a small group.
AB: How did your fmiiily and friends react when you decided to join the Peace Corps?
GB: My brother and his wife thought that I was really going off to join the CIA. They were
kidding but I think there was a little bit of seriousness there. My pments didn't know what to make of it I'm pretty sure they didn't know anything about Ethiopia or very much about Africa. I think they trusted me and my judgement, but they expected me to get on with my life in some
other way sometime soon, I suppose had they thought about it compared to military service they
would have thought that it was a better thing to do thmi to go off in the army or the marines.
AB: So how did you get connected with the Peace Corps meaning get an application?
GB: You know Amy I don't remember. It's possible that at the placement office at the law
school they had some Peace Corps literature, but I don't remember doing that. I think I probably
got an application from one of the other of our group of six and I don't remember sending it in.
But I remember being called for a physical, and I had to go down to the veterans hospital in
Boston. I remember it being a really cold day, and I did fine on the physical until they were testing me for allergies and I said I had some allergies mid I was allergic to ragweed. Well
anyway they gave me a pinprick of that and I think started to experience an allergic reaction,
sneezing. I don't think they gave me Benedryl either they just Said, "okay you're allergic", and then they filled out the rest of the form and sent me on my way. My mind was so rattled
between the time I left the examination area and got downstairs and found where I had parked the car (I had my roommate's car), I lost the car keys along the way. I still think it was because
of the allergic reaction. But anyway that all went fine. I don't remember having mi interview,
but could I have been interviewed sure.
AB: How accurate do you feel this quote, by Robert Textor from his book. Cultural Frontiers of the Peace Corps, is for yourself? , "The Peace Corps idea of service was obviously tapping a deep felt need in many
people, a need for active . . . involvement in the development process overseas, a need for
personal involvement with people of other cultures- as well as a need of course, for adventure
and for various kinds of personal growth and gain"(3).
GB: I think that is exactly right, it was not monetary gain for any of us, as you were paid only a
subsistence salary in the Peace Corps, and then there something called a readjustment allowance
which as I recall was on the order of fifty dollars a month, which was put into the bank back
home and then at the end of the two years, you were given that so called readjustment allowmice
and you could use it to, it was not enough to buy a car, it was under a thousmid dollars but you
could get a new suit to go to interviews that kind of thing.
AB: Can you tell me about your training to become a volunteer?
GB: Yes I remember that very well, the group headed for Ethiopia and my group was Ethiopia 7,
and my group had been training at UCLA in the summer, a place that was chosen I think because
it had a good African studies program, also plenty of Eucalyptus trees which are everywhere in
Ethiopia, mid it's a nice place to be - in southern Califomia. There were I think forty of us in my
group, and we had very busy weeks taking the equivalent of courses with lecturers who would talk about everything from civic lessons about how America worked, to telling us what to expect
when we got to Ethiopia, what they local diseases were, what to watch out for, those kinds of things. And we studied language intensively which was important to all of us, even if we weren't
using the language in our job. We were there for three months, some people were de-selected meaning not invited to go, there were very few of those. We eventually went home for a few
weeks, made our goodbyes, then rendezvoused in New York City. And then took a plane with
our group which went to Madrid, and then to Rome and then to Egypt to Cairo to Khartoum
(Sudan) and then to Addis Ababa. So it was a long flight, but pretty exciting. We were all
breathless with anticipation about what we were going to find there. Anything else about training that I cmi tell you?
AB: I don't think so,
GB: OK.
AB: What was your initial reaction when your first arrived in Ethiopia?
GB: I was ready for anything in a sense, cause I really wanted to go and I was not going to let
anything really stand in the way of that. I was very excited to be in a completely new country,
where some people spoke English, but where people you run into on the street would not. The
birds were different, the climate was unusual, it was up at 8,000 feet near the Equator, the air was thin; though days were sunny nights were cool, it really has a lovely climate. And the markets
were I think the most riveting things in my experience. There weren't supermarkets like we have
in America but rather you would typically shop for things in a big type of Mercato (from the
Italimi). And sometimes they were very very large markets, you could buy everything from meat to vegetables to get a hair cut or buy a bicycle or buy a bed. And we had to outfit our apartments
or houses and we usually did that by going to the markets. At night you could hear Hyenas, where my house was and that was sort of thrilling. You could also hear lions roaring, but they
weren't wild lions they were from the Emperor's compound where he also kept pet cheetahs mid they weren't really pet lions, the lions were dmigerous, but after volunteers saw that Haile
Selassie had a pet cheetah we all talked about it.
AB: Can you explain to me more about your assignment in Ethiopia?
GB: Sure, I became legal advisor to the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs. In Ethiopian it is
hizbawi nuro edgetna michaberawi guday minister. I know that's a mouthful, but it memit that
we had social programs like we would build small factories, cottage industries type things for
unemployed Ethiopians. There was an umbrella factory, we had a project to teach young
widows skills because once a women's been married in Ethiopia and her husbmid dies it's hard
for her to get by. We had water projects all over the Empire some in really far off places, mid I
went on some of those to, well it was mi education for me. What the ministry tried to do and this
was smart, was get local people to take over the project, don't just install and then leave but
rather get them involved. To have a good functioning well, you have to get people to appreciate the fact that not having it has contributed to disease. And having good water is something that is
really good to try to maintain and improve. And then when you get them onboard, you get some
community association to take over the project and call it their own. So that after my ministry
left, there would be local support and the project would continue. And I worked like a researcher
behind closed doors a lot on research projects like any lawyers does I think for a few years when
he or she is starting out in ajob. What's unusual was that it was in a far off country, and
Ethiopia has the civil law like Italy and France, whereas in the United States we are a common law country stemming from Englmid originally. So even though I wasn't trained in the civil law,
I had teach myself how to operate in a country which had the civil law. It also had a Constitution
which was important because I did some work on teaching constitutional law at the law school
and for some reason I got involved with a project of the Ethiopian Parliament, we were working
on rewriting the parliamentary rules of procedure, but we also got involved in Constitutional
issues, and I've forgotten precisely why. The Ethiopimi Constitution was most similar to the
Japanese Constitution which also had an Emperor or a Head of State who was the head of the
church as well or who was believed to be divine in some respects. And in Ethiopia Haile Selassie
was, the Constitution states, descended from King Solomon mid the Queen of Sheba, mid the
head of the Ethiopimi church. So unlike the United States where we have the separation of the
church and state, in Ethiopia they went hand in hand at least at the very highest level. But they
did have a bill of rights, and the Ethiopimi government respected the United States, mid that's
why I think they bill of rights was in their Constitution. John F. Kennedy as President gave a
small destroyer I believe it was, to Haile Selassie and Haile Selassie used it to create the
Ethiopian Navy which never existed before, and they had that one ship. And Haile Selassie
made his grmidson, Eskinder Desta, Admiral of the Ethiopian Navy and put him in charge of that
ship.
AB: So what would an average day consist of for you?
GB: I lived up on a hill called Entoto mid it wasn't nem downtown, it was like a village, in the
morning you could hear roosters crowing and there were sheep around and there were streets but they were cobblestone streets or mud streets sometimes, I didn't have a car so it wasn't a huge problem to me but during the rainy season the roads became almost impassable by vehicle so you
had to jump over little rivers and things like that. We lived near a place called Jon Hoy Meda,
which was a parade ground for the Emperor where some of his protective force would train, but
on religious holidays assemblies would convene there from pmlicular churches. Tn Ethiopia there were a lot offcast days with observances. At the time it was a Christian country, connected to Eastern Orthodox Christian or Coptic Christian church, anyway these religious gatherings
were wonderful, there would be colorful umbrellas and drums beating and music playing, mid typically after people would gather there would be some dmicing. And then there would be a
procession, if it was to a particular church like the feast of Haile Marimii, the Virgin Mary, there
was a particular church the procession would go to. Some times these gatherings would take
place mid last for all day and all night, so it was interesting to go and smell the fires and listen to the music. It was a very safe country, nobody ever did any crime to me when I was in Ethiopia.
When I came back to the United States, I was mugged twice in the city of New York. So, getting
back to mi average day, you would wake up to roosters mid whatever, we had running water
which wasn't drinkable, but you could bathe in it. And if you needed a bath you had to turn on an
electric heater like six hours before to have enough water to bathe. You had propane tmiks for the stove and the house was unhealed, but you really didn't need it. Occasionally when the rains
came there would be hail and it would make a terrific racket on the corrugated aluminum roof.
We always had pets, a dog and a cat. But after breakfast a typical day would mean my wife
would go off to teach at her school, and I would go off and t^e the bus to Aral Kilo, where I had to switch again to go to an area called Casa Inches, which is where my ministry was and I would join the other Ethiopians generally dressed in coats and ties at my ministry mid have a day of
work. People would come home to lunch with me, sometimes I would do that, but home was a relatively long distance for me, so usually I'd just stay in the mea. And then in the evenings, we
were pretty sociable there were lots of other volunteers to do things with and play sports with.
But I especially liked getting to know the Ethiopians better, so whenever there was a chance to
meet and talk to neighbors or people from my ministry or people from my wife's school, we
would try to do that. And there would be marriages and weddings or things to go to, birth of a
child. My neighborhood was ajolly jolly place. People had very little money, but generally
sunny dispositions maybe because the weather was so good. They didn't seem to need doctors
very often. I had a housekeeper, her name was Mulunesh (it means "you are full"), and I
honestly didn't know that Moolumesh was pregnmit but just before she was about to give birth.
She came and asked if she could have the following day off to have her baby and I said certainly
and she said "and please can you take me after I have the baby and keep me as your
housekeeper?", and I said "I fully intend to do that, why?" Appmently there's some foreigners
who worry about the relatively strict law in Ethiopia which says that if someone in your
employment has a child then you are responsible for the medical expenses if there me
emergencies connected with the child. So some people would just fire their housekeepers so that they wouldn't incur these expenses. But I wouldn't do that, it seemed hemtless. While we were
sort of talking about it she bent over mid reached down mid tried to kiss my foot. Which made
me feel embarrassed and sort of horrified. I know she didn't mean anything bad by it, but I
wouldn't let her do it. She could make a very good apple pie and some other things that we had taught her along the way, so she was quite skillful. Anyway we would usually cook for ourselves
in the evening, but Mulunesh would keep the house and do the shopping and make other kinds of
meals. And on weekends often we'd travel so that was sort of a typical week. AB: How did most Ethiopians respond to you being there, it sounds like most of them were
happy?
GB: I think so, the Vietnam War was rmiiping up mid I think the feeling about that was mixed
from the Ethiopians. There wasn't a good feeling about the Vietnam war but they still trusted
America and really liked President Kennedy. Sometimes you'd go into a room in someone's
house and they wouldn't have very many pictures around but if they had some, typically one
would be a picture of President Kennedy. It was especially painful when I was there in 1966-67
when Bobby Kennedy was shot and also Mmtin Luther King Jr. was killed. Two people who
Ethiopia knew a lot about and cared about. The people I knew felt very badly about it, and I felt
badly about it too. But especially so when a friend who was mi Ethiopian named Demisee came to me and said, "Could you get me a gun?", mid I said "well what do you need a gun for?", he
said, "Well I would like to have one for security here in Ethiopia," and I said, " I understand but
why do you think I can help you get you a gun?" And he said, "Well in America everyone has
guns." and he pointed to these two assassinations as examples of how dmigerous it was in
America and how many guns there were. That made me feel badly for America that people had I think the wrong idea, guns were certainly not that common in the US. So I told him "I would
have no idea how to get a gun in Americmi for you Demisee," But we were still friendly after that, mid I think he understood better after talking to me what it was really like in America. It
wasn't like the Wild West, sometimes they would see cowboy movies in Addis Ababa, they
would come through and have Ethiopian subtitles or be dubbed in Amhmic and as you know if
you tried to get an understanding of what America was like from watching cowboy movies it
would be a pretty strange idea. AB: so what were your living conditions like?
GB: There was electricity in the house, it was a one bedroom house, there was running water,
sometimes the water would stop running. And generally we kept bottled water around for those
occasions. Anyway it was perfectly adequate, it was not fmicy. I ate a lot of tuna fish, because it
came in cans and they were safe. The Ethiopian refrigeration was primitive, if you went to the
store to but some meat, typically it would be hanging on a hook in the store under no
refrigeration. And that always gave me the willys. We would occasionally but that kind of stuff
for our dog however, who always thrived and didn't seem to mind miy of it. [pause] It was a little
bit unsafe in terms of property crime in Ethiopia. And my house had kind of a compound, with a
gmden and fences and a gate. This was very very common in Ethiopia and we had a watchman
who would come and close the gate at night, the idea being people would if they wanted to come
in and steal something, would be discouraged by the fact that there was a fence around the
property. I always felt very safe there. I didn't experience hostility towards America. Although the University students were demonstrating the last year I was there. And I think they were upset
about Vietnam War and there was some miti-Americmi feeling connected with that miiong the
University students.
AB: You told me you visited some really poor towns, can you tell me more about those visits?
GB: I can try, the most remote place I went too was a town called Gambela, which is in the
southwestern part of the country on the Brno River. There was a tiny airport in town and that
was how we got in, because the roads were not good in that mea. Gambela was a jumping off place for hunters who would go off to shoot prey and get trophies. We didn't do any of that but
we took photos and it was interesting to see lots of crocodiles in the Baro River mid hippos and
Colobus (long tailed, black and white) monkeys in the trees. But people were not of the same
ethnicity as Ethiopians typically they were more like the people in the Sudan, very very dark,
inky black and they tended to be tall. They weren't Christian. They did have ceremonies that we
saw some of. I think I traveled there twice mid took canoes out to the river, we were warned
away from some particular places where the crocodiles were, I think if the crocodile was giving
birth to little crocodiles they get very antsy and don't like people around so that's dangerous.
And we didn't have a problem, but the yem before I visited there was a volunteer who was
swimming and he was bitten in half by a crocodile it was a rather notorious episode and we knew
about that so we tried to keep our distance from the crocs. It was always a chance in Ethiopia
whether you'd swim in particular waters, cause there was a very common parasite called
schistosomiasis which is common in Ethiopia mid it's awful, it burrows in your skin mid can stay
in there for years and then does bad things over the long term to your body. So we were sort of a
little leery about going for a swim, but sometimes it would be so hot you'd just have to do it.
Lets see miother place that I went to, this was a business trip with my ministry, one of these
water projects. We drove and drove, off the main route between Addis and Gondar, and the
roads were ok, we had a caravmi I think it was more than the Imidrover that I was in. And we
were working with one of these local water projects. And I was along seeing what I could do, see
if I could offer miy advice. And I don't think advice was needed, they needed more money to
complete the well project. But I can remember little children who were dazzled by the fact that there was a person with white skin and they would come around mid they would point their
finger at me and say firenge or they'd want to pull on my hair cause my hair was different from people in Ethiopia. So that was strange, being around kids who'd never seen a white face
before. Sometimes we'd go off to the countryside to visit other volunteers. And they lived a
much harder life I thought than I did in Addis Ababa. Sometimes they'd not have running water, they'd have cmidles at night and live in very small towns with not a lot of other people to
socialize with mid things to do . So I found that interesting to go out and visit and I thought it tookalot of character and maybe more than I had to do one of those jobs. My job was at a
ministry which was pretty highly developed and plenty of people spoke English and so on.
AB: The Peace Corps advertisements in the sixties attempted to show the reality of life as a
volunteer versus the glorious heroic image that the media portrayed, how did you feel about the
media's portrayal of the Peace Corps?
GB: I think that's true, volunteers very rarely were heroes, mostly we did our jobs and tried to
help the country and the people we were working with. I think our biggest contribution though
was not often in our jobs, although the jobs were important, but in letting local folks get to meet
an American mid get to understand more about America. And likewise I got to know Ethiopians
firsthand and understood more about our world because I met some people from a far off place.
AB: One ad of the Peace Corps showed a ruler with the caption, "this is how the peace corps
measure change", do you feel that was true for your experience?
GB: I'm sorry the peace corps message chmiged? AB: There was one advertisement that shows a ruler and the caption says this is how the Peace
Corps measure change.
GB: Oh measure chmige, in very small increments, you memi that kinds of thing. Yea, change
doesn't happen overnight, it t^es a really long time, you cant expect to build a dmii or save lives
and do really major stuff in your daily work, you just have to plug away and to do the job you're there for. And in the process the help to the country is significant but also you're getting those
folks to learn what America is like and I always felt the biggest thing the Peace Corps did for me
was teach me about another culture, another people and I wouldn't have had a chance to do it in
any other way.
AB: When you returned to the United States after two years of living in a foreign country, how
did you feel?
GB: I felt a little strange like I was a different person. I wasn't ready for supermmkets, I wasn't
ready for 90 degree angles in you know the buildings, I wasn't ready for superhighways or tall
skyscrapers. It took a lot of getting used to, to be in a big city and in fact I came back to live in
New Jersey and work in New York City so that was pretty extreme. I was like a real tourist in the
big city I would look up at the tall buildings and they would be very very different from what I
was used to.
AB: Do you feel that your opinion of America changed after your service in Ethiopia? GB: It did, we always felt like Americans, but we weren't Americans that hung around the US embassy or only had friend that were Americmi. We tried to be close to the Ethiopimis, we never went to the Embassy to play tennis or to Embassy parties. So it helped to give us some distance from America to be away for that long and to learn about another culture. And I think our opinions of the United States did change. Some of it was just better understanding that the
United States was like, mainly one of the very richest countries in the world with very high standards of living, and we were all lucky to be Americmis. But the difference between being
Ethiopian and being an Americmi is enormous, so I lemned what that was like.
AB: What impact do you think you had on the people that you served?
GB: I think they understood better what Americmi were like. I think they liked getting to know me, I certainly liked getting to know them and we learned a good deal from each other.
AB: The third goal of the Peace Corps it to, "Helping promote a better understmiding of other peoples on the pmt of all Americans." How do you think you have accomplished this goal?
GB: I think I have added personal knowledge about another country to miy discussion that I'm in, mid provided a perspective which is different from the average American, and useful. It's good to have someone around who knows there are many different ways of building a society and making a society work. The American way is not the only way, and we can lemn from other countries just as they cmi lemn from us. AB: Do you have miything else you wish to add that we might not have talked about?
GB: I didn't ever get to meet Haile Selassie, which I would have liked to do. But I saw him up
close and waved as he rode by in his limo. President Tito from Yugoslavia came to visit, mid the
Shah of Iran came to visit and each time I was there watching him in his car, escorting the visitor
from the airport. I haven't been back to Ethiopia but I fully intend to do it sometime. That's all.
AB: Well thank you.
GB: Your very welcome Amy. Those were good questions.
AB: Thank you
GB: You really asked some probing questions.
This is the e-mail that George Breznay sent to me on December 12 2005
Hi Amy,
I had this uneasy feeling there was something important missing as I replayed in my mind my
feeble responses to your excellent questions in the interview yesterday. I couldn't think of what it
was until today. It is this. During two years of living with Ethiopimis, I learned that after you get to know them they're not so different from us. We have much more in common with them than
we have differences. They work hard, they cme about family, they nurse their children, they are very patriotic, they give birth, they bleed when injured and they die when they get old or sick just they way we do. All done. Best wishes for a great holiday season, George. Interview Analysis
President John F. Kennedy in his Inauguration speech presented America with this
demand, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your
country "(Stossel 4). Hundreds of volunteers responded to this call to serve their country by joining the Peace Corps. In doing so, they became a part of history. History is the study of the
events and times of the past, and it can be interpreted mid studied mmiy different ways.
Historimi Arthur Schlesinger wrote, "... a nation denied of a conception of its past will be
disabled in dealing with its present"(52). As a nation and as an individual, one must have a good
understanding of the past to avoid repeating the same mistakes. Howard Zinn wrote that it is not
possible for historians to be objective, ". . . because all history is a selection out of our infinite
number of facts"(13). Historians have biases, so it is importmit to look at as many different
perspectives and interpretations of the event as possible. An effective way to uncover what
really happened in history is to compare many accounts of a single event. Oral history is a great
way to gain vmious views on a specific event. Oral history is the interpretation of the past by a
person who actually lived through it. As Studs Terkel wrote in his book. My American Century,
"My turf has been the arena of unofficial truth- of the noncelebrated one on the block, who is
able to articulate the thoughts of his/her neighbors, inchoate, though deeply felt"(16). Through
oral history a person is exposed to new sides of the event they are studying that me not included
in textbooks. Oral histories make past events real for the historian and give them a personal touch. It expresses the thoughts and experiences of everyday people during historical events.
Volunteers of the Peace Corps were ordinary people who strove to do something extraordinary.
Each volunteer's story is truly unique and reveals the spirit of the era that was the sixties. George
Breznay talks about his experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ethiopia from 1966 to 1968. It is difficult to judge the Peace Corps' impact through statistics or general data, but his story
reinforces what mmiy have said about the Peace Corps' impact and a volunteer' motivation for joining, yet the interview exposes the realities of life as a volunteer, much of which was
overlooked by the media.
In the interview, Mr. Breznay talks about his experience with the Ethiopians and the
impact that they had on him. Mr. Breznay is a lawyer mid worked in Addis Ababa as a legal
advisor to the Minister of Labor and Social affairs, which had progrmiis that would give jobs to
unemployed Ethiopians. Mr. Breznay learned a lot from his experience and felt that the best pmt
of it all was working with the Ethiopians. He said.
During two yems of living with Ethiopians, I learned that after you get to know them they're not so different from us. We have much more in common with them than we have differences. They work hmd, they care about their family, they nurse their children, they are very patriotic, they give birth, they bleed when injured, and they die when they get old or sick just the way we do ( Bachman 44).
In the interview he explains about the culture he experienced in Addis Ababa and the small towns he visited. Breznay said that being in Ethiopia and being immersed in the culture, made
him feel like a foreigner when he returned to the United States. He said that he wasn't ready for
chaotic mid impersonal big cities. Breznay also talked about the differences between Ethiopian
and American culture, he said, "It was a very safe country, nobody ever did crime to me when I
was in Ethiopia. When I cmiie back to the United States, I was mugged twice in the city of New
York"(Bachman 35). His experience changed the way he viewed America.
In the interview Mr. Breznay explained how he got into the Peace Corps and what
motivated him to do so. He explained the training process mid his excitement upon arriving in
Ethiopia. After his service he said that he got a better understanding of the United States and
realized that he was very lucky to be an American. Mr. Breznay talked about being involved in another culture and how that affected him. He said, "I always felt the biggest thing the Peace
Corps did for me was teach me about another culture, another people and I wouldn't have had a
chance to do it in any other way"(Bachman 41-42). The interview gave insight into the life of a
Peace Corps volunteer and how the people of the host countries reacted to them.
The interview with Mr. Breznay has historical value because it shows the mind set of the
volunteer in the sixties, and explains the reasoning behind joining the Peace Corps. Historimi
Robert Textor explained that with the Vietnam war going on, the youth in the sixties wanted a
way to help the world in a nonmilitary way. Breznay also reflected on that need, he said, "I
didn't want to go and fight in Asia against a people I didn't have any personal problems with or
fights with, I though if I could contribute something in another way I might want to do that. . ."
(Bachmmi 27-28). Elizabeth Cobbs held the view that the volunteers, "wmited to show the world that America really was the best country and not the materialistic, world dominating country it
had become"(Bachman 9). Breznay provides a personal insight to that, when he talks about
planning to join the Peace Corps,
"I think we did have thoughts of serving the country and spreading the idea that America is a good place and getting to know people mid trying to help people in other countries that could use the help, those were all motivating factors "(Bachman 29).
This interview is valuable in this sense in that it shows why people joined the Peace Corps.
This interview also showed how people of the host countries responded to Americans in their country mid showed how the volunteers helped change their views of America. Ethiopians
for the most part enjoyed having the Peace Corps volunteers there with them and the volunteers
helped shape their views of America. Breznay said, "There wasn't a good feeling about the
Vietnam Wm but they still trusted America and really liked President Kennedy. Sometimes
you'd go into a room in someone's house and they wouldn't have many pictures around but if they had some typically one would be a picture of President Kennedy "(Bachman 37). This was
common in many of the host countries, because Kennedy represented the Peace Corps to people.
"In Africa the locals called the Peace Corps volunteers, 'W^ina Kennedy,' which means,
'followers of Kennedy,' mid in Latin America the locals called the volunteers, 'Hijos de
Kennedy,' meaning 'Kennedy's Children'(Rice, Twenty Years 21)"(Bachman 18). While Mr.
Breznay was in Ethiopia, both Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. were assassinated, the Ethiopians were affected by their deaths because they were people they knew about and
respected. Breznay describes a conversation he had with an Ethiopian,
A friend who was an Ethiopian nmiied Denisee cmiie to me and said, "Could you get me a gun?", and I said "well what do you need a gun for?", he said, "Well I would like to have one for security here in Ethiopia," and I said, " I understand but why do you think I can help you get you a gun?" And he said, "Well in America everyone has guns." He pointed to these two assassinations as exmiiples of how dangerous it was in America and how mmiy guns there were. That made me feel badly for America that people had I think the wrong idea, guns were certainly not that common in the US ( Bachmmi 37-38).
The purpose and impact of the Peace Corps are hard to pinpoint but many historimis as
well as Mr. Breznay agree that it is in the personal relationships formed between the volunteers
and the host country. On the topic of what the Peace Corps would accomplish, Ghmidi said that the volunteers would, "create understanding- the quality that is in short supply in the world. If
we can understand one another and see problems from the point of view of the local people, then
it is much easier to realize fully the difficulties "(Rice, Twenty Years 20). Historian Gerard Rice
felt that, "The volunteers' major impact was changing the way the host country viewed
Americans . . . "(Bachman 19). Breznay agreed with this, when he said,
I think our biggest contribution though was not often in our jobs, although the jobs were important, but in letting local folks get to meet mi American and get to understand more about America. And likewise I got to know Ethiopimis firsthmid and understood more about our world because I met some people from a far off place (Bachman 41). Mr. Breznay's testimony of the impact he felt shows what the Peace Corps impact was in the
countries it served.
The impact a Peace Corps volunteer has is never clearly visible to the volunteer. Mr.
Breznay gives insight into how he felt he helped the Ethiopians, which is in contrast with how the sixties media portrayed volunteers. The media glorified the volunteers as heroes, and
promoted the romantic image of the volunteer living in a mud hut. Hoffman stated that people
wanted to see this glorified image of the Peace Corps because, "The Peace Corps reassured a
broad cross-section of Americmis during a turbulent period that there was at least one aspect of their nations policy that was indisputably good (Hoffman l)"(Bachman 20). Breznay said,
"volunteers were rarely heroes, mostly we did our jobs and tried to help the country and the
people we were working with"(Bachmmi 41). Change did not happen quickly in the life of a
volunteer. In the interview George was told about a Peace Corps Advertisement that shows a
ruler with the caption: "This is how the Peace Corps measures change." He responded to this
saying,
". . .change doesn't happen overnight, it takes a really long time, you can't expect to build a dam or save lives and do really major stuff in your daily work, you just have to plug away and to do the job you're there for. And in the process the help to the country is significant but also you're getting those folks to lemn what America is like . . . "(Bachman 41).
The third goal of the Peace Corps is, "to help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of all Americans "(Bachman 6). On being asked how he accomplished that goal, Breznay said,
I think I have added personal knowledge about miother country to any discussion that I'm in, and provided a perspective which is different from the average American, and useful namely. It's good to have someone mound who knows there me mmiy different ways of building a society mid making a society work. The American way is not the only way, and we can learn from other countries just as they can lemn from us (Bachman 43). The historical value of what was said by Mr. Breznay is that it shows the impact of a Peace Corps volunteer mid what the Peace Corps experience is like.
Through my interview with George Breznay I have learned that each person has a unique story to tell mid that oral history is a very importmit tool to fully understmid an event and era. The
Peace Corps is the perfect example of this because each volunteer's story is different. The Peace
Corps as an orgmiization can be studied in textbooks but the accounts of people who lived it make the Peace Corps come alive. Understanding the view point of a volunteer also has helped me better understmid the sixties era. The whole project has shown me the importance of hearing people's stories to understand events, so that you get the full perspective. I have lemned that through organizations such as the Peace Corps ordinary people can make a change in someone's life and impact the world in a positive way. This interview has taught me that America must spread peace and understanding instead of violence mid, that mutual understanding is the key to overcoming differences. Appendix 1
THE umm iMm PACMGE MAKE AMERICA A BETTER PLAGL Then a t nan K»nei4wrc *tiv> hii mnlungr M«ybe you'd like ta give htm snmaiiing.
SMUJ him patience. He'll appreciate it for ^ KM chilis life. Send him undcrjtanding. It's some LEAVE THEGOUNTRY. thing he on use. Send him kindnrts. TKat's something thai'l! never go out of sTy!e. Send htm the one thing only you f«n give hjm. Send htm you The Peaa CorpiiWashingtom D.C
t^^^i^^^ytMr ^•
Young & Rubicam, a Madison Avenue advertising firm working for freCj created most Peace Corps piiblicitj' in the 1960s. They sought to show an America that cared. In the process thej' gave the Peace Corps a name recognition that vied with Sinokcy the Bear. (Tonm & RubiMm, Inc.)
Hoffman, Elizabeth Cobbs, All You Need is Love: The Peace Corps and the Spirit of the 1960's Appendix 2
Presidenrial candidate John F, Kennedy formally announces plan for Peace Corps at the Cow Palace, San Francisco, November 2, I960.
Rice, Gerard T. The Bold Experiment: IFK's Peace Corps Works Cited
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