Joseph Blatchford (June 7, 1934 – October 7, 2020) was the third Director of the United States Peace Corps succeeding Jack Vaughn. Blatchford was appointed Peace Corps Director in 1969 by President Richard Nixon.
Early life and education Blatchford was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on June 7, 1934. His family moved to California when Blatchford was ten years old and Blatchford grew up in Beverly Hills, California where his father dealt with motion picture finances.New York Times. "Hopeful Head of the Peace Corps" January 14, 1971. Blatchford attended Christian Science Sunday School growing up; however, in a profile published in the New York Times in 1970 he said that he is no longer a practicing Christian Scientist. Blatchford attended the University of California at Los Angeles where in 1956 during his senior year he was captain of the University of California's tennis team.New York Times. "Vaughn Will Leave Peace Corps Post; Successor Chosen" March 18, 1969. Blatchford went on tennis tours of Europe and competed in the British tennis championships at Wimbledon in 1956. Blatchford was defeated by Neale Fraser of Australia in the second round 6–1, 6–1, 6–4.New York Times. "Two Youths Oust Seeded Players" June 28, 1956. Blatchford then attended Berkeley Law and completed his JD.
Founding of Accion
Good Will Tour In 1958, vice-president Richard Nixon was charged by a mob in Venezuela.New York Times. "New Peace Corps Head Joseph Blatchford" May 5, 1969. This started Blatchford, then a student at University of California, thinking about what could be done to restore the traditional friendship in the hemisphere. Blatchford's first venture in South America would be a good-will tour of the continent with four of his friends who were jazz musicians using tennis exhibitions and jam sessions as an entree into student communities. Blatchford organized the tour with Ronald K. Dunton, a trombone player, who had organized jazz groups that toured Europe and Mexico while an undergraduate at Dartmouth. Blatchford and Dunton decided to take a year off from school to organize the Latin American tour. The plan was to give afternoon tennis exhibitions and jazz concerts in the evening without admission charges that would be followed by discussions with young people. Blatchford and Dunton did not want any assistance from the government so they canvassed private companies, foundations, and individuals to raise $13,000 of the $15,000 they need for the tour.
On March 19, 1959, Blatchford left on a 120-day goodwill tour covering thirteen countries with their first stop in the Dominican Republic. The other members of their tour were Michael Payson, Toshio Nagatani, Donn Dhickering, Robert Shechteman, and Juan Elac.New York Times. "Youths Organize a Goodwill Tour" by Robert Alden. November 20, 1959. "Playing tennis exhibitions, trying to use sports and music as a door opener, handles as they say, to get to know students, politicians, labor leaders. We came back rather critical of American foreign policy and American ways of doing things in these countries," said Blatchford. "I saw the conditions and I saw the feeling of frustration that young people in Latin America had about not being able to forge their own futures."
Returning from the goodwill tour, Blatchford made the acquaintance of Eugene Burdick, author of the best seller The Ugly American (1958) that stressed the need for "personal" aid overseas.New York Times. "Student Recruits Own 'Peace Corps'" March 26, 1961. Burdick became an advisor to Accion. Burdick suggested that Blatchford obtain financial assistance from private enterprise to make a survey of the needs of various countries in Latin America. Arthur K. Watson, president of IBM, financed another trip to South American where Blatchford talked to politicians, labor leaders, and students. The US State Department arranged appointments with officials and the Institute of International Education, a private agency that administers government student exchange programs also provided assistance to Blatchford.
Accion sends volunteers to South America In the fall of 1959, Blatchford started rounding up money and volunteers to serve in South America, where he started Accion International, six months before Sargent Shriver started the Peace Corps. The New York Times reported on March 26, 1961, that Accion was sending volunteers to Colombia in a program designed to provide technical aid to urban centers and rural communities. Blatchford said that over 400 students had applied for the program and that screening would soon begin at the University of California, Stanford University, and the University of California at Los Angeles. After selection has been completed, the group would leave for another course of three months at the University of the Andes, then break into two-man teams to serve their communities. Blatchford said the cost of the program would be $125,000 for the first year, with half the money already raised and that under the program each volunteer would receive basic expenses plus a stipend of about $1,100 for fifteen months of duty. Blatchford placed his first volunteers in Venezuela in September 1961. By 1964 Venezuela became the testing ground for Accion's first major project which was to help an urban slum in Venezuela become a self-reliant community. Blatchford first recruited thirty college graduates willing to volunteer overseas. The volunteers lived with families in the barrios, improving their Spanish while familiarizing themselves with problems in the community. The volunteers helped organize projects such as laying water mains, building schools and community centers and starting small businesses. One of their most successful projects was helping a bakery organized in Isaias Medina by twenty women who wanted better and cheaper bread. By 1965 the bakery had become self-supporting. Accion also helped a construction company in the model city of San Tome de Guayana build ten houses as an experiment to increase housing and provide employment for 27 workers.New York Times. "Private Peace Corps, Proving Self-Help in Venezuela Leads to Self-Reliance, Moves Toward a World Operation" January 28, 1966.
The New York Times reported on January 28, 1966, that Blatchford had been invited by business leaders in Rio de Janeiro to help organize activities in Brazil based on the Venezuelan model. The businessmen had raised $100,000 and formed a "Centro para Accion" (center for action) in the barrios to be known as CARE after its Portuguese initials. Over the next four years, Accion placed more than 1,000 volunteers and staff members on projects in four countries.
In 1973, Accion staff in Recife, Brazil, began to focus their efforts on helping informal businesses. If these small-scale entrepreneurs could borrow capital at commercial interest rates, they wondered, could they lift themselves out of poverty? An Accion organization in Recife called UNO coined the term “microenterprise” and began issuing small loans. Accion states that, "To our knowledge, these were the first loans that launched the field of microcredit."
Blatchford ran Accion for nine years and at one time during his tenure had 300 volunteers in Latin American and an annual budget of $2 million.
Charges of CIA sponsorship retracted On May 23, 1969, Washington columnists Drew Pearson and Jack Anderson charged that the CIA had partially financed Accion and that founding Peace Corps Director Sargent Shriver had issued orders in 1962 to Latin American country directors not to associate with anyone from Accion because it was operating under the guidance of the CIA. Fifty Peace Corps staff members in Washington signed a statement asking Blatchford to "do whatever is necessary to dispel even the spectre of CIA involvement in the Peace Corps." Blatchford replied that he and Accion had never had any association whatever with the CIA or any other intelligence agency and that former Peace Corps directors Sargent Shriver and Jack Vaughn had both stated that the allegation of the 1962 order for Peace Corps to avoid contact with Accion was groundless. On May 31, 1969, Pearson and Anderson admitted in their column that their charge had been in error and retracted their charge. "The inference was based principally on the fact that Accion, founded by new head of the Peace Corps, Joe Blatchford had received $50,000 from the Donner Foundation, a reported CIA conduit," said the article. "We now find that there are two Donner Foundations, and that the William H. Donner Foundation, which contributed to Accion has never been a CIA conduit. We regret the error and further state that we are convinced the Peace Corps has no connection, direct or indirect, with the CIA."
Peace Corps Director
In 1968 Blatchford won the Republican nomination for the House of Representatives from the Los Angeles harbor district but lost the general election in a heavily Democratic district to Glenn M. Anderson in a very close race losing with 48.1% of the vote to Anderson's 50.7%.Join California. Congressional District 17. November 7, 1968.
In May 1969 Blatchford was appointed Peace Corps director by President Richard Nixon. At Blatchford's confirmation hearings he was questioned closely on his partisan political ambitions but there was no challenge to his qualifications for the post of Peace Corps Director. Blatchford was sworn in on May 5, 1969. "Joe Blatchford, throughout his private career, has had a tremendous interest in this kind of activity, particularly in Latin America," said President Nixon at the swearing in ceremony. "I am very privileged to have him as a member of the administration in this vitally important function. He has the responsibility, despite his very young years, to come up with new ideas. He has the opportunity to develop new programs and those programs will receive the very highest priority within the administration.""Remarks at the swearing in of Joseph H. Blatchford as Director of the Peace Corps by President Richard Nixon" May 5, 1969.
Serving in the Nixon administration Blatchford was an unusual Nixon appointee. He "lives in Georgetown among Democrats instead of at the Watergate with Administration Republicans" said a profile in the Peace Corps Volunteer magazine in June 1970. "He rides a motorcycle, does impersonations of famous people and has a great nostalgia for San Francisco and its "beat" period. The three most prominent hangings on his office walls are: a photograph of his swearing-in by President Richard Nixon; a copy of the earth-rising. over-moon picture taken by the Crew of Apollo 8 in 1968; and a psychedelic poster of Bob Dylan. A unique office, but one gets the impression he would rather be out in the field." News photographs showed Blatchford riding a black 180cc Yamaha motorcycle into the lobby of Peace Corps headquarters just a few blocks from the White House.The Peace Corps Experience: Challenge and Change, 1969-1976 by P. David Searles. University of Kentucky Press. 1997.
Blatchford had the confidence and support of President Nixon as Peace Corps Director. "I was appointed by the President, and serve at the pleasure of the President. But he has given me a free hand to develop the ideas for making the Peace Corps a vital and exciting means of carrying out its original mission in the 1970's," said Blatchford in 1970. "He has given me plenty of backing on this: He has met with all our county directors, He met the other day with members of our national advisory group, some of our staff. He's spent a good deal of time with us emphasizing the importance of the Peace Corps, and he's particularly emphasized the importance of having returned Volunteers go to work on the problems of American society. In much of the criticism we've received from members of Congress, he's backed me up."