Local Presidents Questions 2015-16

1. Local Presidents Questions2015-16 Junior/Senior Divisions #25-44

2. 32-42 #1 (6 points) My Secretary of State John Foster Dulles helped me deal with the early Cold War era. Together we advocated an aggressive stance against communism throughout the world. I was able to put an end to the fighting in Korea. I supported the French in their war in Indochina. (4 points)I initiated America’s interstate highway system and the St. Lawrence Seaway that opened up the Great Lakes to ocean going vessels. My Attorney General, Herbert Brownell, produced a civil rights bill to protect the rights of black Americans. The final bill became much watered down because of the lack of support among Democrats. (2 points) The presidency was the first political office I ever held. Alaska and Hawaii were admitted to the Union during my time in office. My wife Mamie was known as a penny pincher who clipped coupons for the White House staff.

3. 25-35 #2 (6 points) I supported bimetallism while I was in Congress, but I then opposed it when the Gold Standard Act was enacted. The Alaska gold rush made it irrelevant. (4 points) My campaign was the first to use campaign buttons. One of my slogans was, “In God we trust; with Bryan we bust.” I sent 70,000 U.S. troops to maintain order during the Phil-ippine Insurrection. One of my quotes is: “We need Hawaii just as much and a good deal more than we did California. It is Manifest Destiny.” (2 points) I fought in the Civil War with another future president, Rutherford B. Hayes. Later, I helped Hayes win the governorship of our native state.

4. #3 34-44 (6 points) In a former occupation, I testified before the House Un-American Ac-tivities Committee in its investigation of communists. During my presidency, our Navy accidentally shot down an Iranian jetliner with 290 passengers on board. (4 points) Before becoming president, I served as Governor of California. That was not my native state but the state where I lived most of my adult life. As president, I increased military spending because I believed in “peace through strength.” (2 points) I was a New Deal Democrat, but as the Democratic party became more liberal, I switched my allegiance to the Republican party. I started eating jelly beans to kick my pipe-smoking habit years before entering the White House.

5. 25-35 #4 (6 points) Thomas Miller, my head of the Office of Alien Property, was convicted of bribery and fraud for selling valuable German patents seized after the war. Attorney General Harry Daugherty (pictured) resigned due to an investigation into a bootlegging kickback scheme. He was found not guilty. (4 points)I was Lieutenant Governor of my native state but never Governor. I was elected to the presidency while serving in the U.S. Senate. My wife Florence, whom I called “the Duchess,” burned all my personal papers after my death to hide any evidence that I had done anything wrong. (2 points) I had two distinct honors involving William Howard Taft: I nominated Taft for reelection at the GOP Convention, and I appointed Taft to be Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

6. 28-38 #5 (6 points) My wife and I had six children. Her first name was Anna, but she was known by her middle name instead. The 20th and 21st Amendments went into effect during my presidency. (4 points) I served in President Wilson’s administration as Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Later, after a major health crisis, I was elected governor of my native state. (2 points) The most famous words I ever uttered came in my first inaugural address: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” I started what I called “Fireside Chats,” brief talks to the nation over the radio. I advised Ameri-cans that, “To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Ameri-cans has a rendezvous with destiny.”

7. 34-44 #6 (6 points) 250,000 people attended an anti-war protest in Washington, D.C. I referred to antiwar protestors as the “vocal minority.” I called those Americans not protesting the war the “silent majority.” Unfortunately, the National Guard killed four student war pro-testors at Kent State University during my presidency. (4 points) My campaign slogan noted that I was “the One.” The Supreme Court legalized abortion during my presidency. Pong, the first video game, was invented. I was nominated for a Grammy Award. (2 points) Here is an excerpt from one of my speeches to the nation. “In all the decisions I have made in my public life, I have always tried to do what was best for the Nation. Through the long and difficult period of Watergate, I have felt it was my duty to … make every possible effort to complete the term of office to which you elected me. In the past few days, however, it has become evident to me that I no longer have a strong enough political base in Congress to justify continuing that effort. … I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. But as President, I must put the interest of America first.”

8. 34-44 #7 (6 points) I signed the Defense of Marriage Act into law. My crime bill gave federal money to hire 100,000 police officers nationwide and outlawed certain assault wea-pons. A Major League Baseball strike caused the cancellation of the World Series. (4 points) I became the first sitting gover-nor to be elected president since Franklin D. Roosevelt. Suicide bombers attacked the USS Cole in a Yemeni port. Terrorists bombed U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The U. S. fired 75 missiles against Sudan and Afghanistan in re-sponse. (2 points)I am the second president to lose my law license due to actions I took in the White House. Since we left the White House, my wife has been much more in the news than I have.

9. 32-42 #8 (6 points) The Alliance for Progress provided funding for Latin American economies. I sent federal troops to ensure that James Meredith could attend the Univer-sity of Mississippi. (4 points) My vice president was older than I was. He and I served in the Senate together. I suffered from Addison’s disease. I was an eloquent speaker. One of my famous quotations is: “… we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” (2 points) I won the Pulitzer Prize for my book, Profiles in Courage. I had several run-ins with Cuba during my presidency, including the Bay of Pigs disaster and the Cuban Missile Crisis.

10. 25-35 #9 (6 points) President Nixon quoted me in his resignation speech. He said he took heart from what I once said about the man in the arena, “whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again because there is not effort without error and shortcoming, but who does actually strive to do the deed, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumphs of high achievements and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.” (4 points) My corollary to the Monroe Doctrine was a warning that the United States would not tolerate European intervention in the Americas, but that the U.S. had the right to intervene in the affairs of any Latin American country that was incapable of governing itself. I used this corollary to help Panama separate from Colombia. (2 points) I married my second wife, Edith, in London. Together we raised five children, including my daughter from my first marriage. President Benjamin Harrison appointed me to the U.S. Civil Service Commission.

11. 34-44 #10 (6 points) I spent $700 billion to bail out banks considered “too big to fail” through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). I also took control over mortgage agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (4 points) Before becoming a governor, I was part owner of a major league base-ball team. While I was president, Timothy McVeigh was executed for a domestic terrorist attack in Oklahoma during my predecessor’s administration. I ran for election as a “compassionate conservative.” (2 points) I created the Department of Homeland Security. Saddam Hussein was captured, tried and executed in Iraq.

12. #11 30-40 (6 points) The National Security Act created the National Security Council, the CIA, and the Department of De-fense. Up until then, the Defense Department was known as the War Department. I immediately recognized the state of Israel after it declared its independence. (4 points) I am the first president to address the NAACP and to have my inaugural broadcast on television. The phrase most often associated with me is one that I had on a sign on my desk. (2 points) I made the following announcement on the radio: “My fellow Americans, the British, Chinese and United States governments have given the Japanese people adequate warning of what is in store for them. The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. If Japan does not surrender, bombs will have to be dropped on her war industries and unfortunately thousands of civilian lives will be lost. I urge Japanese civilians to leave industrial cities immediately and save themselves.”

13. #12 33-43 (6 points) The Tet Offensive and the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution both occurred during my presidency. Race riots killed dozens of people in several large cities, including Detroit and Los Angeles. (4 points) I was the first Congressman to volunteer for service in World War II. I was the youngest majority leader to ever serve in the U.S. Senate. While in the Senate, I suffered my first heart attack. (2 points) On a TV broadcast, I told the nation: “I will not seek, and I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your president. … With American sons in the field far away, with the American future under challenge right here at home …, I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes or to any duties other than the awe-some duties of this office, the Presidency of your country.”

14. 25-44 END OF ROUND

15. #13 25-35 (6 points) I was a big promoter of commercial aviation. The Air Commerce Act placed commer-cial aviation under government regulation to help the new industry grow and to approve two airline routes: one North-South and one East-West. (4 points) Two members of my administration won Nobel Prizes while I was president. I vetoed bills that required the federal government to buy surplus crops from farmers at a fixed price and then resell them abroad, often at a loss. I thought the bill was contrary to the free market economy. While serving as governor, I sent in state troops to stop a public employees’ strike. In agreeing that the strikers would not be rehired, I noted, “There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, any time.” (2 points) After my predecessor’s death, I was sworn into office in the middle of the night in my father’s house.

16. 34-44 #14 (6 points) The Chinese military cracked down on pro-democracy protestors in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. I appointed Clarence Thomas as the second African American on the Supreme Court. (4 points) I am the last president from the World War II generation. I called for a “kinder, gentler nation.” I appointed General Colin Powell the first African American chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Gulf War. (2 points) In flying over 50 combat missions against the Japanese, I earned the Dis-tinguished Flying Cross for Bravery. As president, I attended Japanese Emperor Hirohito’s funeral.

17. 25-44 Answers • #34 Dwight Eisenhower • #25 William McKinley • #40 Ronald Reagan • #29 Warren Harding • #32 Franklin Roosevelt • #37 Richard Nixon • #42 Bill Clinton • #35 John F. Kennedy • #26 Theodore Roosevelt • #43 George W. Bush • #33 Harry Truman • #36 Lyndon JohnsonExtras • #30 Calvin Coolidge • #41 George H. W. Bush