[1] 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.

"[6] 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.

[7] 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.

[2] 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.

[8] 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.

[10] "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.

"[6] 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.

[14] According to a May 1989 Washington Post story by Marci McDonald, the incident prompted Nixon to joke that he should send Agnew into then-war-torn Cambodia armed with a tennis racket.

At the same time, the restriction on travel to countries such as the US and Europe is undesirable because it discourages Volunteers from assuming full responsibility for important personal decisions relating to Peace Corps service," said the new policy.

"[6] The New York Times reported on September 23, 1969, at Blatchford's first press conference that the Peace Corps intended to recruit 500 union craftsmen, farmers, and vocational educational specialists.

[18] In his first press conference held on September 23, 1969, Blatchford outlined his plans to place 200 families overseas in a pilot project to attract married technicians.

Although Blatchford succeeded in attracting marginally more technically trained people, they were never enough to greatly alter the Peace Corps profile or to fulfill the expectations that New Directions aroused abroad.

[20][23] The New York Times reported on June 3, 1970, that Blatchford received petitions protesting the war signed by hundreds of volunteers serving in South Korea, Panama, Dominican Republic, and Guatemala.

"[21] A Peace Corps spokesman said that Blatchford told the volunteers that he approved of their form of protest and promised to refer their petitions to the White House.

"[21] Blatchford just like Director Vaughn before him believed that volunteers had every right to protest through the media at home as long as they did not publicly identify themselves with political issues in their host countries.

[20] Blatchford sent a private memorandum to Republican members in Congress explaining that he had "inherited a very difficult situation resulting from Volunteers just out of college with strong, liberal views.

"[24] In a special memo to staff members and volunteers, Blatchford praised Nixon's announcement as "another step in the effort to bring the American citizen into the solution of public problems through long-term service.

[27] Opposition to the merger was led by liberal Democrats who thought the reorganization would diminish volunteer interest in the various programs and permit the Administration to dismantle VISTA which had been under the Office of Economic Opportunity.

[26] Blatchford dashed off a memo to John Ehrlichman, special assistant to the President on domestic affairs pleading for preservation of the Peace Corps at its current budget level.

[26] "It will be quite evident to most Congressmen and to the public that the president's expansion of service opportunities has begun with a 30 percent cut over last year's request for the largest of the merged agencies," wrote Blatchford.

[26] Blatchford cleared the diplomatic cables with the State Department and arranged to send them one minute past midnight on March 7, 1972, for volunteers to return home by April 1, 1972.

[26] According to Historian Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman, Blatchford never suspected that his problems came from the White House and remained convinced that President Nixon was a friend of the Peace Corps.

[11] On November 15, 1971, the New York Times reported that Blatchford had made the decision to rigorously enforce a 1965 rule that staff and volunteer service in the Peace Corps be limited to five years.

[11] "The loudest and most outraged of political partisanship came in 1971 when Blatchford used an important Peace Corps policy, generally ignored by his predecessor, to terminate nearly one hundred staff members, including twenty-seven country directors.

The rule was instituted to ensure that the agency would never suffer the fate of other government bureaucracies: premature calcification resulting from an aged and spent permanent staff.

[11] Blatchford's remaining tenure as Action Director was uneventful; except for one unusual opportunity to present the Peace Corps through mass media to the American people that occurred on February 16, 1972.

We find if we stay in a town or village overseas and really remain there, we become acculturated to them, and they to us, and we start working together, whether we’re building a school or putting in a water main, or training someone in a job, the cultural barriers start breaking down, and in the long run that’s maybe the way we’re going to find world peace.” Another guest on the same show with Blatchford was one of Lennon's idols, Chuck Berry, who dueted with Lennon on Berry's big hit "Memphis Tennessee" during the two hour program.

[11] He had resisted pressure to bust heads when the Committee of Returned Volunteers had occupied Peace Corps Headquarters in 1969 and Nixon's Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman considered Blatchford "soft" in dealing with dissent.

[37] Blatchford has represented "flower growers in Costa Rica, cement and toy balloon producers in Mexico, leather handbag exporters in Colombia, school ring binder makers in Singapore, and petrochemicals firms in Argentina.

Blatchford was also the co-founder of Caribbean/Latin American Action (CLAA), which fosters trade and economic growth development in the Caribbean Basin, and was the Deputy Undersecretary of the Department of Commerce.