to promote world peace and friendship through a Peace Corps, which shall make available to interested countries and areas men and women of the United States qualified for service abroad and willing to serve, under conditions of hardship if necessary, to help the peoples of such countries and areas in meeting their needs for trained manpower.
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It was formed as an alternative to the [[peace]]time two year compulsory [[military]] service for [[conscientious objector]]s.<ref>[[Richard Nixon]], a [[Naval Intelligence]] veteran, referred to Peace Corps volunteers as "cookie pushers" and [[State Department]] Foreign Service as "faggots in stripped pants".</ref>
Kennedy launched the Peace Corps by executive order in 1961, putting his brother-in-law [[Sargent Shriver]] (b. 1915) in charge. It was not designed as a liberal antipoverty program; rather it was designed to be a powerful new weapon in the Cold War arsenal, one that could reach the people directly at the grass roots not merely their national leaders. Kennedy in the 1960 campaign promised to form the agency, saying: