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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What disturbing news increased the danger of intercepting a Russian ship?
(a) A Russian submarine approached as well.
(b) The air crafts following the ships.
(c) The Russian refusal to stop.
(d) The nuclear devices being transported were unstable.

2. What happened around 10:30, October 27th, the first day of the blockade?
(a) The Russian ships fired upon a U-2.
(b) The Russian ships stopped.
(c) The Cubans overran the U.S. embassy.
(d) The Cubans shot down a plane.

3. Who presented the United States case to the United Nations?
(a) John McCone and Robert McNamara.
(b) David Shoup and John LeMay.
(c) JFK and Robert Kennedy.
(d) Adlai Stevenson and John McCloy.

4. Who, due to his role in the government, might have been the leader of Ex Comm if he had been able to attend more meetings?
(a) John McCone.
(b) Thomas Bundy.
(c) Dean Rusk.
(d) Robert Kennedy.

5. What piece of information caused JFK to favor the blockade?
(a) No guarantee that American lives would not be lost.
(b) Russian promise to use nuclear weapons against Berlin.
(c) No guarantee of all missiles being destroyed.
(d) The Russian demand to remove bombs from Turkey.

Short Answer Questions

1. How many Americans could potentially have died within minutes of the known missiles being fired off as of October 18th?

2. What does "Ex Comm" stand for?

3. How long before the President's address to the nation did they tell the ambassador of Russia?

4. What is SAM an acronym for?

5. What type of non-fiction is Thirteen Days?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was ironic about JFK's meeting with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrea Gromyko?

2. Why is the "great danger and risk in all of this . . . a miscalculation -- a mistake in judgment" (49)?

3. Why does RFK slip the President a note saying "I now know how Tojo felt when he was planning Pearl Harbor" (25)? How do the situations compare?

4. After the blockade takes effect, RFK meets with Dobrynin again. What do they discuss?

5. What other actions did the U.S. take besides the blockade?

6. Why does JFK bring up the book The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman?

7. Why did the Intelligence Community not believe Cuba was a threat to the United States?

8. What information did the Intelligence Community have about the missiles in September, but did not inform the President about at that time? Why were they not passed on?

9. How did Ex Comm formulate their recommendations to the President?

10. What did Ambassador Dobrynin provide as evidence that USSR would not be a threat to the United States?

(see the answer keys)

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