Deck 7: John F Kennedy the Reality and the Myth

Question 1

Kennedy family life was pervaded by the ethos of

A) Competition
B) Public service
C) Education
D) Greed

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Jack Kennedy imitated his father in

A) Physical bravado
B) Using wealth to achieve success
C) Objectifying women
D) All of the above

Answer 2

D

Question 3

As a young congressman, Kennedy criticized Roosevelt and Truman's

A) New Deal consensus
B) Foreign policies
C) Weak support for labor
D) Weak support for the military

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Kennedy's basic problem in the fight to win the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination was

A) His weak record on race
B) His weak anticommunist stance
C) His weak liberal credentials
D) His socialist platform

Question 5

Kennedy participated fully in the liberal consensus in the sense that he

A) Believed in the expansion of social welfare programs
B) Believed that the major issues in American society could be solved by capitalism
C) Disdained the communist threat
D) Believed that the basic economic structure of American society needed to be overhauled

Question 6

Kennedy's domestic policy was centered on

A) Ending the race problem
B) Wiping out communism abroad
C) Isolationism
D) Expanding prosperity through economic growth

Question 7

Kennedy's Inaugural Address sounded a moral alarm about

A) Communism
B) Climate change
C) Segregation and racism
D) The problems of hunger and poverty worldwide

Question 8

-Images like this one, of Kennedy sailing with his wife, contributed to his image as_______

A) An intellectual
B) A leader out of touch with the American people
C) The youthful, romantic, American royal family
D) A president who spent all his time on vacation

Question 9

Walter Heller, Kennedy's chief economic advisor, wanted to use economic growth, controlled deficit spending, and targeted tax cuts to achieve

A) A reduced wealth gap
B) Full employment
C) Reduced inflation
D) Reduced interest rates

Question 10

Early in his term as president Kennedy felt constrained by

A) His lack of support from liberal Democrats
B) The enmity of conservative Republicans
C) His narrow electoral victory
D) His physical weakness

Question 11

Kennedy's waffling on the issue of _______ was the most frustrating to liberal Democrats.

A) Federal aid to education
B) An anti-lynching law
C) Communist expansion in Vietnam
D) Economic aid to Europe

Question 12

Kennedy's hesitation to adopt a more activist stance on domestic issues can be explained by

A) His narrow electoral mandate
B) His primary commitment to foreign policy
C) The absence of a coherent vision for change
D) All of the above

Question 13

The benevolent side to Kennedy's foreign policy was epitomized by his

A) Commitment to counterinsurgency
B) Development of the Peace Corps
C) Nuclear expansion
D) Intervention in Vietnam

Question 14

The Kennedy administration planned to combat the Soviet military threat via

A) An expanding nuclear arsenal
B) Economic aid and cultural programming
C) Infiltration and guerrilla warfare
D) All of the above

Question 15

The Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba was largely a failure because of

A) The lack of dissent to the Castro regime in Cuba
B) The failure of the US military to properly train the invaders
C) The lack of US air support for the invasion
D) All of the above

Question 16

-This map shows why the Cuban missile crisis nearly led to war between the US and the Soviet Union

A) Cuba's proximity to the continental US
B) The fact that the US felt Cuba was an ally
C) The threat to US ally Mexico
D) The threat to US shipping in and out of the port of Miami

Question 17

The issue that forced Kennedy to focus on domestic policy in 1963 was

A) The Cuban missile crisis
B) The feminist movement
C) The civil rights movement
D) The Vietnam War

Question 18

As a candidate, Kennedy gained Black support

A) For his long history of support for civil rights bills
B) When he was arrested at a protest in Georgia
C) When he signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act
D) After he worked to free MLK, who had been arrested at a protest in Georgia

Question 19

As attorney general, Robert Kennedy

A) Made good on a lifelong commitment to civil rights
B) Was outraged by the failure of the Justice Department to enforce existing voting rights legislation
C) Took a moderate, states-rights focused stance on civil rights
D) Worked to prevent federal enforcement of desegregation laws

Question 20

In 1963, Kennedy's attitude toward to Soviet Union changed, and he began

A) Building up US forces to attack the USSR directly
B) Working to destabilize Soviet control of satellite states
C) Working to negotiate nuclear disarmament with the Soviets
D) Building up US strength in Vietnam