The Bold Experiment traces the political and practical steps that turned a striking idea into an organization of worldwide importance. Author Gerard Rice captures the spirit and talent of the people who launched and shaped the Peace Corps - John F. Kennedy, Sargent Shriver, Warren Wiggins, Harris Wofford, Bill Josephson, Bill Moyers, LBJ, Hubert Humphrey, and thousands of volunteers. Tossed out by JFK in the heat of the 1960 presidential campaign, the idea immediately appealed to a generation of Americans eager to answer the call to do something for their country. By the time of Kennedy's death, 7,000 volunteers were teaching in the classrooms and working in the fields of forty-four countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Drawing on newly declassified documents in the JFK Memorial Library, the Peace Corps library and archives, and hundreds of interviews with leaders, volunteers, and politicians, Rice chronicles the Peace Corps' transformation from idea into political reality. In the process, he provides insight into the dynamics of establishing and sustaining a government institution. the bold Experiment describes the agency's struggle for support on Capitol Hill and for autonomy from the State Department and CIA; its handling of such domestic issues as race and women's rights; the selection and training of the first volunteers and their reception by newly independent Third World nations. Rice argues that the agency was not only a significant contribution to the cause of peace, but also a far more penetrating policy idea than most Americans have realized. its proponents saw that the struggle for independence in developing countries was one of the great historical movements of the 20th century, and, with the Peace Corps, sought to put the U.S. on the right side of that momentous force. The Bold Experiment puts into historical perspective the role of the real "best and brightest" Americans on the New Frontier - those who formed an organization dedicated to raising the living standard of poor peoples in the third World and raising America's consciousness of other countries and cultures. In this, Rice identifies Kennedy's real and lasting contribution to world peace. - Dust jacket.