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60 free Peace Corps trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Peace Corps trivia quiz covers the American volunteer agency from a late-night campaign promise in 1960 to the worldwide evacuation of 2020. The easy questions are ones anyone with a returned volunteer in the family can attempt: which president created it, who was its first director, how long volunteers serve, where they train and what the famous ask-not line has to do with it. From there it moves into the history: Walter Reuther's proposal, Hubert Humphrey's first bill, the University of Michigan speech, Executive Order 10924, the first countries, the peak year of 1966 and Nixon folding it into ACTION. The harder end is for policy wonks and returned volunteers: the Nigeria postcard incident, the Vietnam-era draft fights, Lillian Carter at 68, the Reagan-era director who brought in Republicans, the Crisis Corps that became Peace Corps Response, the CIA rules, the five-year staff limit, and the surprisingly long list of famous former volunteers from Paul Theroux and Reed Hastings to Chris Dodd, Paul Tsongas and Bob Vila. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries on the Peace Corps, its directors and its notable volunteers before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our John F. Kennedy, US government and 1960s history quizzes next.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which US president established the Peace Corps by executive order in March 1961?
John F. Kennedy
Congress authorised it the following September with the Peace Corps Act.
Q 02Who was the Peace Corps' first director?
Sargent Shriver
He was Kennedy's brother-in-law, married to Eunice Kennedy, and lobbied Congress energetically for approval.
Q 03How long are Peace Corps volunteers expected to serve in their host country after training?
Two years
They complete technical training first, and may request an extension afterwards.
Q 04How many months of training precede a volunteer's swearing-in?
Three
Training happens in-country with host-country national trainers in language and job skills.
Q 05On the steps of which building did Kennedy first float the idea in a late-night campaign speech on 14 October 1960?
The Michigan Union in Ann Arbor
A brass marker commemorates the spot where he stood.
Q 06Which union leader proposed in 1950 that young Americans be sent abroad with slide rule, textbook and medical kit?
Walter Reuther
He got Kennedy to commit to the idea at Hyannisport in August 1960.
Q 07Which senator introduced the first Peace Corps bill in 1957, to little enthusiasm?
Hubert Humphrey
He later recalled that many senators, even liberal ones, thought it a silly and unworkable idea.
Q 08Which Wisconsin congressman proposed a Point Four Youth Corps in 1959?
Henry S. Reuss
His measure won $10,000 for a feasibility study by Colorado State University researchers.
Q 09What did Richard Nixon predict the Peace Corps would become?
A cult of escapism and haven for draft dodgers
Doubters also questioned whether recent graduates had the skills and maturity for the job.
Q 10What number was the executive order that created the Peace Corps on 1 March 1961?
10924
Executive Order 12137 by Jimmy Carter later made the agency fully autonomous.
Q 11Which organisation did Kennedy acknowledge in 1962 as the progenitor of the Peace Corps?
Operation Crossroads Africa
It had been founded by the Rev. James H. Robinson.
Q 12Which two countries received the first group of volunteers in August 1961?
Ghana and Tanganyika
Tanganyika is now part of Tanzania; Ghana had asked for geologists among its first volunteers.
Q 13Which entertainer recorded radio and television announcements hailing the new programme?
Bob Hope
Recruiting began in July 1962.
Q 21Where was the early Peace Corps training camp, attended for three weeks after nine weeks at a US university?
Puerto Rico
The university phase focused on conversational language, world affairs and job skills.
Q 22Which director argued unsuccessfully in 1967 against drafting volunteers for Vietnam?
Jack Vaughn
Joining had originally secured a draft deferment, but as the war went on some volunteers were forced home early.
Q 23Volunteer Bruce Murray was dismissed in 1967 for a letter protesting the Vietnam War while serving in which country?
Chile
He sued in 1969 and won, after which the Corps quietly tolerated more protest.
Q 14A 1961 postcard from a volunteer describing squalor and primitive living conditions caused a diplomatic row in which country?
Nigeria
Margery Jane Michelmore's card never left the country, but students at Ibadan demanded the volunteers' deportation.
Q 15How many volunteers served in the Peace Corps' first year?
900
Volunteers were serving in 16 countries that first year.
Q 16In which year did the number of volunteers peak at 15,556?
1966
Budget cuts in 1989 later brought the total down to about 5,100.
Q 17As of 2015, roughly how many Americans had served in the Peace Corps?
240,000
By its 50th anniversary in 2011 there were more than 8,500 volunteers in 77 countries.
Q 18Which famous line from Kennedy's inaugural address is linked to the Peace Corps promise?
Ask not what your country can do for you
He had already sketched the programme with academics Max Millikan and Chester Bowles.
Q 19What did the Peace Corps deliberately avoid to prevent any appearance of favouring the Catholic Church?
Placing volunteers with religious agencies
Kennedy also insisted the Corps remain free of CIA influence.
Q 20Roughly what share of the first 7,000 volunteers were women?
40 percent
Shriver practised affirmative action, but racial minorities never reached five percent.
Q 24In 1971 President Nixon placed the Peace Corps under which umbrella agency?
ACTION
Carter restored its autonomy by executive order in 1979, and 1981 legislation made it an independent agency.
Q 25Which president's mother served as a Peace Corps nurse in India, having applied at 68?
Jimmy Carter's
Lillian Carter was the oldest applicant at the time; her son called it one of the most glorious experiences of her life.
Q 26Who was the oldest volunteer when she served in Armenia in 2008 at 75?
Audrey Thixton
She was from Tulsa, Oklahoma, and there is no maximum age limit for joining.
Q 27Which Reagan-appointed director, in office from 1981, brought business programmes and the first significant number of Republican volunteers?
Loret Miller Ruppe
She was later named US ambassador to Norway in 1989.
Q 28Which director created the Crisis Corps in 1996, later renamed Peace Corps Response?
Mark Gearan
It was modelled on the Emergency Response Network formed after the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Q 29Peace Corps Response deploys former volunteers on assignments of typically what length?
Three to twelve months
Applicants must have completed at least one year of regular service including training.
Q 30What did President George W. Bush pledge to do to the Peace Corps after the 11 September 2001 attacks?
Double its size within five years
Congress raised the 2004 budget to $325 million, still $30 million short of his request.