Q 01/05

The 1961 Peace Corps Act set the agency the mission of promoting world peace and what else?

A) Friendship

B) Prosperity

C) Free trade

D) Literacy

Answer · why

A) Friendship

Friendship. Congress wrote the phrase into the law that made Kennedy's six-month-old agency permanent, and the Peace Corps still describes its purpose...

Q 02/05

Who was the Peace Corps' first director?

A) Robert McNamara

B) Chester Bowles

C) Robert F. Kennedy

D) Sargent Shriver

Answer · why

D) Sargent Shriver

Sargent Shriver, President Kennedy's brother-in-law, turned a line from a campaign speech into a working agency and had its first volunteers overseas ...

Q 03/05

How long are Peace Corps volunteers expected to serve in their host country after training?

A) Six months

B) One year

C) Two years

D) Five years

Answer · why

C) Two years

Two years, after about three months of training. Students took to the idea at once, and would-be volunteers were writing in as soon as the agency exis...

Q 04/05

Who mostly trains new Peace Corps volunteers today?

A) Host-country staff

B) University professors

C) Retired diplomats

D) Embassy officials

Answer · why

A) Host-country staff

Host-country staff. The first volunteers were prepared on American university campuses, but the agency later moved training to the countries where the...

Q 05/05

On the steps of which building did Kennedy first pitch the Peace Corps idea in 1960?

A) The State House in Boston

B) Widener Library at Harvard

C) The Michigan Union in Ann Arbor

D) The Lincoln Memorial in Washington

Answer · why

C) The Michigan Union in Ann Arbor

The Michigan Union in Ann Arbor. Kennedy arrived at 2 a.m. meaning only to sleep, found some 10,000 students waiting up for him, and asked how many wo...