Abstract EN:

The peace corps, a us government agency of volunteers created by john fitzerald kennedy in 1961, answers three main purposes : to help the peoples of third-world countries in meeting their needs for trained manpower, to helps promote a better understanding of the american people on the part of the peoples served and a better understanding of other peoples on the part of the american people. Should we think that its creation is linked to an authentic ideal of justice and peace or to a profound desire of expansionism on the part of the usa? the historical context in which the peace corps was created, its survival in the political history of the usa, the analysis of questionnaires sent to volonteers in service in fifteen countries, the assessment of the reactions aroused by the creation and the evolution of such an organization, within the united-states and outside the united-states, bring to light an ambivalence in the purposes of the peace corps, ambivalence so often constituent of the american nation.