ABSTRACT
"Community development" appealed to many early Peace Corps generals as the essence of the crusade. For thousands of ill-fated volunteers it was an elusive concept, but to staff such as Frank Mankiewicz, the philosopher-king of community development, it was a revolutionary means to a revolutionary end. Not all community development theory and practice had political overtones. The director of community development in a Caribbean nation agreed that pure community development is pure fantasy. Volunteers could help identify people's needs, perhaps, and could sometimes organize them to work toward a solution. The Peace Corps staff who wrote the job descriptions for community development volunteers were sincere. In selecting volunteers for community development projects the Peace Corps placed a premium on an outgoing personality, leadership initiative, and determination. For the volunteers then carrying the banner of community development in Colombia—many of them idle and frustrated—there was some consolation in a research report based on data gathered by Colombian interviewers.
