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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who wrote the letter responding to Khrushchev's first letter?
(a) Robert and Sorensen.
(b) The Joint Chiefs of Staff.
(c) The State Department.
(d) JFK and Robert.

2. Robert tells that JFK felt that if what had happened could be considered a triumph, it was only one for who?
(a) The Soviet Union.
(b) The next generation.
(c) Cuba.
(d) America.

3. Who said, "I am not in an American courtroom, sir, and therefore I do not wish to answer a question that is put to me in the fashion in which a prosecutor puts questions" (58)?
(a) Adlai Stevenson.
(b) Don Wilson.
(c) Andrei Gromyko.
(d) V. A. Zorin.

4. How many Russian submarines were in the Caribbean after the blockade took effect?
(a) 2.
(b) 12.
(c) 5.
(d) 6.

5. How many passengers were on the East German Passenger ship that approached the blockade?
(a) Fifteen hundered.
(b) Fifty.
(c) One thousand.
(d) One hundered.

6. Whose plane was shot down while flying reconnaissance over Cuba?
(a) General McNamara.
(b) Secretary Rusk.
(c) John Kennedy, Jr.
(d) Major Rudolf Anderson, Jr.

7. Where did JFK say, "Above all, while defending our own vital interests, nuclear powers must avert those confrontations which bring an adversary to the choice of either a humiliating defeat or a nuclear war" (97)?
(a) Harvard University.
(b) American University.
(c) Princeton University.
(d) Cornell University.

8. What do men have the power to do today that they did not in past war making?
(a) Fight without killing anyone.
(b) Destroy mankind.
(c) Save the world.
(d) Start wars without involving other countries.

9. Who said "war is impossible . . . there is no alternative to peace" (104)?
(a) Thomas Schelling.
(b) Theodore Sorensen.
(c) Dwight D. Eisenhower.
(d) Robert McNamara.

10. What "committed American ground forces to what has become the longest war in our history" (102)?
(a) The Tonkin Gulf Resolution.
(b) The Bay of Pigs.
(c) The Cuban Missile Crisis.
(d) The invasion of Cambodia.

11. Who was Tommy Thompson?
(a) Chief of Staff.
(b) Former Ambassador to the Soviet Union.
(c) Former Ambassador to Cuba.
(d) Secretary of State.

12. According to all of the discussions of removing missiles from Cuba, who would oversee the removal to be sure it was done?
(a) The OAS
(b) The U.S.
(c) The U.N.
(d) Britain.

13. What possibility does JFK say everyone must accept if there is an invasion of Cuba?
(a) A missile may be fired at the U.S.
(b) The U.S. may be unsuccessful.
(c) The Cubans may surrender immediately.
(d) The Russians may immediately fire nuclear weapons.

14. Who was JFK communicating with on a daily basis?
(a) The OAS.
(b) Khrushechev.
(c) U Thant.
(d) Robert.

15. In a conversation between JFK and Robert, how far did JFK say that he wanted to push the Russians?
(a) To the brink of war.
(b) He did not want to push them at all.
(c) To the precipice of no turning back.
(d) Not one inch farther than required.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which country does Robert identify that originally doubted the U.S.'s position regarding Cuba?

2. When JFK says, "this is the night I should go to the theater" (84), what famous historical figure is he referencing?

3. Who wrote the Afterword for Thirteen Days?

4. According to Khrushchev, who are the only people who would provoke war in today's nuclear world?

5. Why does Khrushchev claim the Soviet Union has placed missiles in Cuba?

(see the answer keys)

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