The Kennedy Quiz
How much do you know about the Kennedy administration and the assassination?
Take the History Challenge and find out.
When did the Bay of Pigs invasion take place?
1959
1960
1961
1962
Programs of anti-Castro covert action had been in the works since March 1960 when President Eisenhower had approved a CIA proposal for what became known as the Bay of Pigs operation. During the 1960 election, candidate Kennedy advocated that the United States openly aid anti-Castro forces inside and outside Cuba. On April 16, 1961, newly elected President Kennedy approved the final plans for the Bay of Pigs invasion, which would be launched the next day. The beach on which the CIA-trained Cuban brigade would land was known as Zapata, and it featured an airstrip that was suitable for B-26 bombing operations against Castro's military. Operation Zapata, i.e., the Bay of Pigs invasion, was a military and political fiasco, and it seriously eroded Kennedy's confidence in the CIA and its director, Allen Dulles.
What was the Strategic Hamlet Program?
A counterinsurgency plan implemented in Vietnam by the Kennedy administration.
A U.S. government-sponsored housing program for Cuban exiles residing in Florida.
A counterinsurgency program conducted by French forces before their defeat at Dien Bien Phu.
A communist program to undermine the Diem regime sponsored by the Soviet Union.
In an attempt to mitigate the increasingly complex nature of U.S. involvement in Indochina, President Kennedy dispatched a team of experts to South Vietnam on a fact-finding mission in 1961. After much debate over the proper course, either a large-scale military buildup or a negotiated settlement between the Diem regime and the National Liberation Front (NLF; also known as the Viet Minh), Kennedy decided to pursue a limited accord with the anti-communist Diem. The United States would increase its level of military involvement by providing more machinery and advisers, and to counteract the NLF's success in the countryside, Washington and Saigon launched the Strategic Hamlet Program. The plan called for villagers to be rounded up and placed in "safe hamlets" constructed by Diem's government, thereby isolating the NLF from the people. It failed.
In September 1962, President Kennedy dispatched troops to quell a disturbance at which university?
University of Alabama
University of Mississippi
Tulane University
Rice University
Kennedy dispatched troops to the University of Mississippi ("Ole Miss") on Sept. 30, 1962. A segregationist mob was rioting over the Supreme Court-ordered admission of a black student, James Meredith. Mississippi Gov. Ross Barnett sought to defy the court, proclaiming on statewide television and radio, "I have said in every county in Mississippi that no school in our state will be integrated while I am your governor. I shall do everything in my power to prevent integration in our schools." In the face of such blatant disregard for the rule of law, Kennedy sent the Federal Marshals to Oxford, Miss., to provide safe conduct for Meredith. In his televised address to the nation on the matter, Kennedy emphasized that while citizens were free to disagree with the law, no one was permitted to defy any order of the courts. Kennedy's support of civil rights stemmed from his belief that institutionalized racism hindered the development of democracy. He also stated later in his presidency that racism represented a moral crisis for the American people.
What precipitated the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962?
The Bay of Pigs invasion.
The U.S. deployment of missiles to Turkey.
A CIA assassination attempt against Fidel Castro.
The preparation of offensive missile sites in Cuba by the Soviet Union.
On Oct. 16, 1962, President Kennedy was shown U-2 reconnaissance photographs of Soviet ballistic missile installations under construction in Cuba, just 90 miles off the coast of Florida. On Oct. 22, after an intense, gut-wrenching week of debates and diplomatic exchanges — during which chief Soviet diplomat Andrei Gromyko denied that the installations were anything but defensive in nature — Kennedy announced to the world in a televised address the discovery of the installations and declared that any missile attack from Cuba would be considered an attack by the Soviet Union and would be responded to accordingly. The United States imposed a naval quarantine on Cuba to prevent further Soviet shipments of weapons and construction materials from arriving there, and demanded that Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev remove all the missile bases, their contents and personnel from the island. In response, Krushchev authorized his field commanders in Cuba to launch their tactical nuclear warheads if invaded by U.S. forces. On Oct. 28, Soviet supply ships turned away from a likely naval confrontation with U.S. warships enforcing the blockade, and the crisis ended with the Soviet Union agreeing to dismantle the missiles and the United States providing its assurances that it would not invade Cuba.
How long had Kennedy served as president when he was assassinated?
10 days
100 days
500 days
1,000 days
John F. Kennedy had served 1,000 days in his first term as president of the United States. During that time, he had made formidable enemies within government and the private sector, including FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, CIA Director Allen Dulles and the anti-Castro community. Also, the president and his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, were waging an intense war on organized crime. The president's decision not to invade Cuba a second time ensured that the mob's highly profitable Cuban operations, which Castro had shut down upon coming to power, would remain defunct.
Which four U.S. presidents were killed by assassins?
Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy
Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy
Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan
Abraham Lincoln, William McKinley, Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy
Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth while attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. He died the following morning without ever regaining consciousness. James A. Garfield was shot by Charles J. Guiteau, a crazed office-seeker who had been harassing him for a job, at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station. Garfield suffered for 10 weeks before succumbing to bronchopneumonia on Sept. 19, 1881. William McKinley was shot by Leon Czolgosz, a fanatic anarchist, while hosting a public reception in New York on Sept. 6, 1901; he died eight days later from gangrene poisoning and his vice president, Theodore Roosevelt, assumed office. Last, John F. Kennedy was fatally shot in Dallas, Texas, presumably by accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, a pro-Castro ex-Marine.
Lee Harvey Oswald was tried and convicted for the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the murder of patrolman J.D. Tippit.
True
False
Lee Harvey Oswald was taken into custody under suspicion for the president's murder within 80 minutes of the fatal shooting at Dealey Plaza. He was arraigned 18 hours after his arrest on the charges of murdering President Kennedy and Dallas Police Department patrolman J.D. Tippit, who was shot to death near the boardinghouse where Oswald lived with his Russian-born wife, Marina, 45 minutes after the assassination. On Sunday, Nov. 24, Oswald was fatally shot by Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner, in the basement of the Dallas Police Department, in full view of millions of television viewers.
The purpose of Kennedy's Nov. 21-22, 1963, trip to Texas was to:
visit Vice President Johnson's Texas ranch to go horseback riding.
arrest the Dallas Mayor for the rough treatment meted out to Adlai Stevenson.
improve relations within the state's Democratic Party and bolster support for the 1964 election.
coordinate an assassination attempt against Fidel Castro.
Kennedy decided to make the trip to Texas in concert with Vice President Lyndon Johnson and Gov. John Connally in June 1963. Though Johnson was a Texan, votes for Kennedy in the upcoming election were by no means assured. Kennedy had made only brief visits to the state since the 1960 election, and because the Democratic Party in Texas was engaged in a factional controversy, he hoped his visit would reconcile the liberal and conservative elements within the party. In addition, he looked forward to learning about the issues that concerned Texas' citizens during the public appearances that were planned for him.
How many shots may have been fired in Dallas on that fateful day?
One
Two
No more than three
At least four
While subscribers to the "magic bullet" theory substantiated by the Warren Commission adhere to the belief that only three shots were fired that day in Dealey Plaza, the subsequent investigation by the House Select Committee on Assassinations used acoustics experts to analyze a Dallas police officer's dictabelt recording from Nov. 22, 1963. They were able to isolate and identify at least four gunshot impulses - with 95 percent certainty.
What type of weapon was found on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository?
An American .30 caliber M-1 carbine.
A 7.65-millimeter German Mauser.
A 6.5-millimeter Mannlicher-Carcano Italian carbine.
A PPSh41-7.62-millimeter Soviet burp gun.
A Mannlicher-Carcano carbine owned by Lee Harvey Oswald was found behind a stack of cardboard boxes on the sixth floor of the book depository, along with the makeshift brown paper sack Oswald used to carry it into the building on the morning of Nov. 22. Three empty shell casings were found near the "sniper's nest" at the easternmost window of the sixth floor, which overlooked Elm Street and Dealey Plaza. On the wooden stock of the gun, forensics experts found fibers from the blanket that Oswald had wrapped the carbine in while storing it in his garage.
Who was Alek J. Hidell?
The notorious "Umbrella Man," who was seen in photographs standing on the grassy knoll.
No one; it was an alias used by Lee Harvey Oswald.
A Secret Service agent.
An amateur photographer.
Lee Harvey Oswald used the name as an alias. The Italian carbine used in the assassination was sent to Oswald's post office box under the Hidell name, and when Dallas police officers arrested him at the movie theater in Dallas on Nov. 22, they reportedly found a selective service card with a photograph of Oswald bearing the name "Alek James Hidell." In addition, while living in New Orleans, Lee Harvey Oswald had formed the so-called New Orleans Chapter of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. He served as secretary for the group, and A.J. Hidell was named as its president. Oswald was the only member of the committee.
Which investigative body was created by President Johnson to ascertain the facts of the Kennedy assassination?
House Select Committee on Assassinations
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Warren Commission
On Nov. 29, 1963, President Johnson signed Executive Order No. 11130, establishing the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, commonly known as the Warren Commission. The chairman of the commission was Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren. In its report, the commission concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald had fired the shots that killed President Kennedy and wounded Gov. Connally from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository using his Mannlicher-Carcano carbine, and that Oswald acted alone. While the report affirmed that only the assassin himself could divulge his motives, it stipulated the factors that contributed to Oswald's decision to kill the president were his avowed commitment to Marxism and communism, his abiding hostility toward every society in which he had lived and his established capacity for violence.
Correct
Don't quit your day job.
Correct
Not too shabby. You're on the verge of becoming a Kennedy expert.
Correct
Great job. You're quite the Kennedy expert!
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