Adventures and Misadventures Trivia Quiz

Answer: Calvin Coolidge

The World War Adjustment Act was passed by Congress in 1924, but was vetoed by President Coolidge who was quoted as saying, "Patriotism, bought and paid for, is not patriotism." Congress overrode his veto. The House passed but the Senate defeated a bill to speed up the payments. The resulting protest by the Bonus Army caused the DC police to take action, which ended with 2 police officers and 2 veterans dead.

In the summer of 1932, 17,000 veterans of WWI and their families (for a total of 45,000 men, women, and children) marched to Washington, D.C., to demand payment of promised military service bonuses. The bonuses were due on each veteran's birthday in 1945. The marchers named their campsite, located across the river from the Capitol, "Hooverville."

President Hoover ordered the U.S. Army to disperse the protestors from "Hooverville". General MacArthur was in overall command, with Major George Patton in command of the tanks, as the troops cleared the Bonus Army from the Capitol grounds. President Hoover then ordered General MacArthur to cease operations, but when MacArthur saw that the veterans had not crossed the river he disobeyed his orders and launched a second attack. The Washington Daily News, called it "A pitiful spectacle," to see "the mightiest government in the world chasing unarmed men, women, and children with Army tanks. If the Army must be called out to make war on unarmed citizens, this is no longer America."

In 1936, Congress passed the Adjusted Compensation Payment Act appropriating $2 billion for the immediate payment of all World War I veterans' bonuses. President Roosevelt vetoed the bill, but Congress immediately overrode the veto. Almost four years after they had been driven from Washington by Gen. MacArthur, the Bonus Army veterans finally prevailed.

Answer: Haiti

The U.S. occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934. By 1929, the U.S. occupation began to result in numerous protests. One such protest took place in Les Caynes. The U.S. Marines opened fire on 1,500 protesters, killing 12 and wounding 23.

Answer: Good Neighbor Policy

The Good Neighbor Policy was established in 1933 by President Roosevelt. Its primary goal was to ensure mutual friendly relations between the U.S. and the nations of Latin America. The Good Neighbor Policy stressed non-intervention rather than military force. The policy was abandoned after WWII with the onset of the Cold War.

Answer: Spain

The Abraham Lincoln Brigade (1936-1939) of about 2,800 from the U.S. was one of many volunteer "brigades" from over 50 countries to fight against fascism in Spain. Fighting alongside them were many communists and communist sympathizers. Because they were seen as "leftists", those that returned to the USA did not fare well during the "red scare" and McCarthyism.

Answer: U.S., Britain, France, Italy, Japan

The Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, also known as The Five Powers Treaty, was designed to place limits on naval shipbuilding and avoid a naval arms race after WWI. The USA, Britain, France, Italy, and Japan were signatories to the treaty. All were especially concerned about Japan's expansion in the Pacific, particularly in Manchuria and Mongolia.

The U.S. representatives were aided by intelligence provided by the Black Chamber. The Black Chamber was a cryptoanalysis unit tasked with intercepting and decoding diplomatic communications and was the forerunner of the National Security Agency.

Answer: Warren Harding

The Teapot Dome Scandal took place during the brief (1921-1923) administration of Warren Harding. Teapot Dome was a rock formation that resembled a teapot spout in Wyoming under which was an extremely valuable oil field, one of the U.S. Navy's strategic oil reserves. Albert Fall, a senator from New Mexico was appointed Secretary of the Interior by Harding.

He arranged for the Navy to transfer its control of Teapot Dome to the Interior Department. Fall then arranged for some of his oil company friends to lease the sites for drilling.

The oil companies would kick-back money to Fall.

Answer: Huey Long

Huey Long, aka "Kingfish" was the governor of and senator from Louisiana. With much of the nation suffering from the fallout from the Great Depression, Long started the Share Our Wealth Society. The Society proposed to confiscate all individual annual income over $1 million and any accumulated individual wealth over $5 million.

The money thus seized would provide every American with a house, car, radio, and a guaranteed annual income. Long was hugely popular with the masses and was widely thought to be a challenger to Roosevelt for the Democratic nomination in 1936 until he was assassinated by the relative of a political rival in 1935.

Answer: Munitions

The Nye Committee, officially called the Special Committee on Investigation of the Munitions Industry, held hearings to determine if the real cause for the United States entering World War I was purely for profit. The munitions and banking industries were labeled "Merchants of Death". The committee was headed by Gerald P. Nye, U.S. senator from North Dakota. As a result of the Nye Committee hearings more Americans became isolationists. That notion was still on the minds of many Americans when a second war in Europe broke out in 1939.

The Nye Committee hearings and the mood of the country resulted in the passage of several laws, called the Neutrality Acts, that implied that the U.S. would not get involved in foreign conflicts.

Answer: Ferdinand Pecora

Ferdinand Pecora, a district court judge, was the chief investigator of a Senate committee charged with investigating the stock market crash of 1929. In a series of sensational hearings, Pecora exposed the deeds of people like Charles Mitchell, head of the largest bank in America, National City Bank (now Citibank), who made more than $1 million in bonuses in 1929 but paid zero taxes. National City Bank, testimony uncovered, had taken on bundles of bad loans, packaged them as securities and unloaded them on unsuspecting customers.

Meanwhile, a top executive of Chase National Bank (a precursor of today's JPMorgan Chase) had gotten rich by short-selling his company's shares during the 1929 stock market crash. In testimony from financier J.P. Morgan, the public learned that Morgan had issued stocks at discounted rates to a small circle of privileged clients, including former President Calvin Coolidge.

The Glass-Steagall Act effectively separated commercial banking from investment banking by preventing commercial banks from investing customer's deposits in securities.

The committee became known as the "Pecora Committee".

Answer: True

The Kellogg-Briand Pact is an international agreement signed by 57 countries between 1928-1929. The pact declared that its signers would not use war as a way to settle their disagreements. Italy and Germany were among the original signers. The Pact is named for U.S. Secretary of State Frank Kellogg and French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand.

The pact has been severely criticized because it has no enforcement provision and it failed to prevent WWII. The pact remains in effect.