Chapter Chronology

Quiz for Seeking the American Promise: “From the Fall of Saigon to the House of Representatives”

Select the best answer for each question. Click the “submit” button for each question to turn in your work.

Question

1. What put Anh (Joseph) Quang Cao’s family in particular danger as North Vietnamese forces headed for Saigon in 1975?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is b. Anh’s father was an officer for the South Vietnamese army, which meant that he and his family—along with anyone else who had fought against North Vietnam or sympathized with the American forces—were in extreme danger when the North Vietnamese forces descended on Saigon in 1975.
Incorrect. The answer is b. Anh’s father was an officer for the South Vietnamese army, which meant that he and his family—along with anyone else who had fought against North Vietnam or sympathized with the American forces—were in extreme danger when the North Vietnamese forces descended on Saigon in 1975.

Question

2. Why did the United States help thousands of Vietnamese people escape to the United States from South Vietnam in the late 1970s?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is d. As the final assault on Saigon by the North Vietnamese grew more imminent, tens of thousands of South Vietnamese people tried to escape the country. Anyone who had aided or worked for the Americans during the war was particularly at risk for North Vietnamese retribution. The United States helped thousands of these people escape from South Vietnam because it was American cooperation that put them in such a vulnerable position.
Incorrect. The answer is d. As the final assault on Saigon by the North Vietnamese grew more imminent, tens of thousands of South Vietnamese people tried to escape the country. Anyone who had aided or worked for the Americans during the war was particularly at risk for North Vietnamese retribution. The United States helped thousands of these people escape from South Vietnam because it was American cooperation that put them in such a vulnerable position.

Question

3. In which of the following ways did the U.S. government help Vietnamese refugees like Anh (Joseph) Quang Cao get settled and integrated into the United States in the late 1970s and 1980s?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is c. After physically moving Vietnamese refugees to military bases in Guam and then to the continental United States, the U.S. government relied on charitable organizations to sponsor and pay for refugees to settle permanently in the United States. The government itself provided the refugees with very few resources: typically basic English language training and $500.
Incorrect. The answer is c. After physically moving Vietnamese refugees to military bases in Guam and then to the continental United States, the U.S. government relied on charitable organizations to sponsor and pay for refugees to settle permanently in the United States. The government itself provided the refugees with very few resources: typically basic English language training and $500.

Question

4. Anh (Joseph) Quang Cao ran for Congress as a Republican in 2008 because

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is d. Although Joseph Cao had previously run for office as an independent (and lost), when the Republican Party approached him to run for Congress in 2008, he agreed to run as a Republican because he felt he owed a debt of gratitude to John McCain and his experience in Vietnam. McCain had survived five and a half years in a prisoner-of-war camp in North Vietnam during the Vietnam War, and was, in 2008, running as the Republican candidate for president.
Incorrect. The answer is d. Although Joseph Cao had previously run for office as an independent (and lost), when the Republican Party approached him to run for Congress in 2008, he agreed to run as a Republican because he felt he owed a debt of gratitude to John McCain and his experience in Vietnam. McCain had survived five and a half years in a prisoner-of-war camp in North Vietnam during the Vietnam War, and was, in 2008, running as the Republican candidate for president.

Question

5. This essay supports which of the following historical arguments about how the Vietnam War changed the United States in the years that followed the end of the war in 1975?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is a. This essay uses the story of one Vietnamese immigrant, Anh (Joseph) Quang Cao, to illustrate just how many Vietnamese people immigrated to the United States after the war. Between the official evacuations via plane, helicopter, and U.S. ships, and the dangerous exodus of “boat people,” hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese people arrived in the United States after 1975, altering the nation’s demography.
Incorrect. The answer is a. This essay uses the story of one Vietnamese immigrant, Anh (Joseph) Quang Cao, to illustrate just how many Vietnamese people immigrated to the United States after the war. Between the official evacuations via plane, helicopter, and U.S. ships, and the dangerous exodus of “boat people,” hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese people arrived in the United States after 1975, altering the nation’s demography.