Deck 24: Arsenal of Democracy- the World at War, 1931-1945

Question 1

What aspect of American culture did Adolf Hitler admire the most?

A)its unregulated capitalism
B)the cosmopolitan character of New York City
C)its immigrant tradition
D)the Ku Klux Klan

Answer 1

D

Question 2

How did most Germans feel about the Treaty of Versailles?

A)They felt resentment over the harsh peace.
B)They felt the punishment fit their crime.
C)Germans never took the treaty seriously.
D)Most felt that the treaty was relatively generous.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Like most Americans, Franklin Roosevelt looked on events in Europe and Asia with a mix of

A)glee and delight.
B)jealousy and anger.
C)disgust and detachment.
D)humor and condescension.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Which of the following was one of Roosevelt's early noncontroversial foreign-policy initiatives?

A)the quarantine doctrine
B)the four freedoms
C)the "good neighbor" policy
D)the "gentleman's agreement"

Question 5

What message did the Neutrality Acts send the world?

A)They caused fascist aggression in Germany, Italy, and Japan.
B)They bolstered anti-fascist opposition in Spain.
C)The reassured fascist leaders that the U.S. was unlikely to intervene.
D)The fight against fascism was the responsibility of Great Britain.

Question 6

How did Germany and Italy respond to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936?

A)They both began to rearm their demilitarized zones.
B)They signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union.
C)The pulled their diplomatic representatives from Washington DC.
D)They rushed military aid to General Francisco Franco.

Question 7

What broader impact did General Franco's victory in 1939 have on events in Europe?

A)It further undermined the spirit of those who opposed fascism.
B)It boosted the morale of Soviet anti-Communists.
C)It gave Polish resistance fighters a false sense of optimism.
D)It further isolated France's Vichy regime.

Question 8

When did Japan seize Manchuria?

A)1905
B)1927
C)1931
D)1939

Question 9

Why did President Franklin D Roosevelt drop the idea of pushing aggressor states into diplomatic isolation in October 1937?

A)American businesses insisted that their relationship with Germany and Japan was too important to jeopardize.
B)Foreign diplomats descended on the State Department with protests and complaints about the Roosevelt initiative.
C)Roosevelt had been called a warmonger by many newspapers and Republican opponents.
D)The League of Nations had already moved ahead with a full economic and political embargo on Japan and Germany.

Question 10

What was the basic practical flaw Winston Churchill had noted about appeasement policy?

A)It only encouraged nations to become more aggressive.
B)Appeasement rarely held up in the court of public opinion.
C)France and Britain had nothing they could offer Hitler.
D)Adolf Hitler intended to go to war eventually.

Question 11

The nation of Czechoslovakia had originally been part of

A)Germany.
B)the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
C)the Ottoman Empire.
D)Russia.

Question 12

Why did Joseph Stalin sign a secret nonaggression pact with Adolf Hitler?

A)He feared another round of appeasement in which Germany would receive all of Poland.
B)He felt a deep sense of kinship with Adolf Hitler and his personal style of leadership.
C)He felt a sense of obligation towards the German-speaking minority on the western border of Russia.
D)Stallings was a pacifist at heart and was willing to appease Hitler to avoid war at all costs.

Question 13

Why did Franklin Roosevelt respond to the war in Europe by declaring American neutrality?

A)He did not want to give the British the impression that the US was going to fight the war for them.
B)Roosevelt was required by law to declare neutrality.
C)The president was preparing the military for war in the Pacific at the time.
D)President Roosevelt did not want to provoke a war with the Soviet Union whose Red Army he feared.

Question 14

In the wake of the rescue at Dunkirk, what did the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill promise his people for the war with Nazi Germany?

A)freedom from fear and want, freedom of worship and speech
B)a peace with honor and a war without victors
C)blood, toil, tears, and sweat
D)peace for our time

Question 15

Which American celebrity played an active role in the America First Committee?

A)Ernest Hemingway
B)Shirley Temple
C)Babe Ruth
D)Charles Lindbergh

Question 16

What sustained the English during the battle of Britain in 1940?

A)massive US arms shipments through the lend lease program
B)the massive onslaught of the red Army on the Eastern front
C)a secret technological breakthrough in decoding and radar
D)a series of sabotage attacks by the German resistance

Question 17

When did Germany invade the Soviet Union?

A)September 1939
B)May 1940
C)June 1941
D)December 1941

Question 18

How did the United States respond to the Japanese seizure of most of French Indochina in July 1941?

A)It began to withdraw troops from Vietnam.
B)It released the Philippines into independence.
C)It halted petroleum sales on which the Japanese Navy depended.
D)It pulled the Pacific Fleet into Atlantic ports for their protection.

Question 19

Why did the US Armed Forces not expect a Japanese attack on Hawaii in November 1941?

A)Hawaii seemed far beyond the effective range of Japanese power.
B)Diplomatic relations with Japan were just about to improve.
C)Hawaii did not seem to be important enough for Japanese attack.
D)U.S. intelligence had precise information that suggested a pending attack on Alaska.

Question 20

How did President Franklin Roosevelt manage to calm public fears after the attack on Pearl Harbor?

A)He promised the American people that he would not send American boys to war.
B)He assured them that the war would be fierce but brief thanks to American military might.
C)He spoke frankly about the nation's heavy losses and the strategy he would pursue.
D)He candidly admitted that victory was uncertain and that Germany was an undefeatable foe.

Question 21

Why were the nationalist leaders of China, Vietnam, and India impressed with the quick Japanese victories over European and American colonial outposts in Southeast Asia?

A)They were startled by how easily Japan had humbled the colonial rulers.
B)They themselves had tried to bring down European colonial powers with military might for decades.
C)They began to see the merit of Japan's proposed Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity sphere.
D)They began to consider a pan-Asian nation under Japanese leadership.

Question 22

What was the Japanese strategy for the battle at Midway Island?

A)They were planning on destroying the American airstrips on the island with their own Air Force.
B)They intended to block off the harbors at Midway with underwater mines.
C)They planned to destroy the Pacific Fleet when it approached Midway.
D)They intended to entrench themselves on the island's hilltops with heavy artillery.

Question 23

What did the battle over Guadalcanal reveal?

A)the Japanese were poor and timid fighters
B)combat in the Pacific had intense racial dimensions
C)the war in the Pacific would be fought and won in the air
D)nuclear bombs were essential for Japan's defeat

Question 24

Why did President Franklin Roosevelt lose faith in China under Chiang Kai-shek's leadership?

A)Chiang Kai-shek was hording US military supplies rather than fight the Japanese.
B)Chiang Kai-shek was the escalating of war against Mao's communist troops.
C)Chiang Kai-shek had begun to negotiate a separate peace with the Soviet Union.
D)Instead of fighting Mao's communists, Chiang Kai-shek had fled to Taiwan.

Question 25

Which of the following assured Adolf Hitler's doom more than any other single factor?

A)Winston Churchill
B)the German people
C)the Red Army
D)the nuclear bomb

Question 26

Why did the leaders of Jewish-American organizations not organize large nationwide protests in the US to alert the nation to the death camps in Germany?

A)They did not know about it until the end of the war.
B)They did not want the war efforts diverted from Germany's defeat on the West front.
C)They feared a backlash if they spoke out to forcefully on behalf of European Jews.
D)They played such a powerful role in American government that they did not need public support.

Question 27

Why did the rigid dictatorships of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan not develop cohesive military production policies?

A)In both nations, armed services and private industry bickered over which weapons to produce.
B)Neither of the two nations had access to the raw materials that would allow them to produce weapons during the war.
C)The leaders of both nations refused to see the reality of total war and did not want to interfere in the free market.
D)Neither nation had any significant military technology worth investing in.

Question 28

How did World War II affect the American savings rate?

A)Americans completely depleted their savings during the war.
B)Most Americans invested their savings abroad out of safety concerns.
C)Because of price controls, the war did not affect the American savings rate.
D)The American savings rate increased tenfold.

Question 29

How many people altogether worked on some part of the so-called Manhattan Project?

A)500
B)5,000
C)15,000
D)150,000

Question 30

Who produced the B-24 medium bombers during World War II?

A)Ford
B)Boeing
C)Grumman
D)Lockheed

Question 31

How did Adolf Hitler react to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941?

A)He gloated, thinking that this would make victory in Europe certain.
B)He was angry, convinced that his Japanese allies had a secret agenda.
C)He was neutral to the issue since the Pacific did not matter to him.
D)He expressed concern for the victims of the attack and issued condolences.

Question 32

The majority of the 60 million people who died in World War II were

A)uniformed soldiers.
B)civilians.
C)Americans.
D)children.

Question 33

The "Greater Germany" envisioned by Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler included

A)Great Britain.
B)the Mediterranean.
C)northern Africa.
D)central and Eastern Europe.

Question 34

How did President Franklin Roosevelt respond to the isolationist tide that dominated public discourse in 1933?

A)He withdrew the United States from the League of Nations.
B)He asked the League of Nations for patients with the American people.
C)He went along with it and cut the budget for the American armed forces.
D)He publicly challenged isolationists in Congress.

Question 35

Why did Japan quit the League of Nations in 1931?

A)The League had condemned Japanese aggression in Manchuria.
B)It wanted to express unhappiness with Hitler's election in Germany.
C)During the Depression, the country could not afford its membership dues.
D)Japan felt that the League of Nations had failed at securing peace in Asia.

Question 36

How did Adolf Hitler feel about the appeasement compromise reached with Great Britain and France in September 1938 over Czechoslovakia's border province?

A)He was relieved to have avoided war.
B)He was proud of his diplomatic derring-do.
C)He was angry since he had wanted to smash the Czech army.
D)He was skeptical that Britain and France would stick to their word.

Question 37

Under what conditions did the United States Congress permits arms sales to Britain and France in November 1939?

A)They had to pay cash and transport weapons on their own ships.
B)They had to buy with gold and use American vessels.
C)They had to promise not to use the weapons against civilians.
D)They had to hand over their foreign colonies in return.

Question 38

How did Adolf Hitler intend to defeat Great Britain after the canceled invasion in October 1940?

A)He wanted to storm the Cornwall coast in an amphibious assault.
B)He planned on massive bombing raids on English cities.
C)He threatened to defeat Great Britain with the threat of a nuclear bomb.
D)He was going to starve the British into submission with U-boats.

Question 39

Which Asian nation received aid from the United States for military purposes starting in 1938?

A)China
B)Korea
C)Vietnam
D)Japan

Question 40

How did Winston Churchill respond to the news that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941?

A)"Our fate is sealed."
B)"This is the end of the world."
C)"So we had won after all."
D)"A worse thing could not have happened."

Question 41

How did Indian nationalists respond to the outbreak of World War II?

A)They pledged allegiance to Great Britain.
B)They joined forces with German troops in central Asia.
C)They asked the United States for assistance against Great Britain.
D)They refused to support the war and instead demanded independence.

Question 42

Which military engagement in the Pacific shifted the balance of power dramatically in favor of the US?

A)the battle at Midway
B)the attack on Pearl Harbor
C)the taking of Iwo Jima
D)the battle of Okinawa

Question 43

The battle over which Soviet city turned the tide against Nazi Germany on the Eastern front in World War II?

A)Leningrad
B)Moscow
C)Stalingrad
D)Kiev

Question 44

Why did the allies decide not to bomb the rail lines that serviced death camps such as Auschwitz?

A)They lacked the resources to commit to such an attack.
B)Stalin refused to grant US planes the right to use Soviet airbases.
C)The death camps were too far into German territory to be reached by Allied bombers.
D)Military strategists thought this would divert from the central task of defeating the Wehrmacht.

Question 45

Which of the following statements best assesses the impact of World War II on the New Deal?

A)The war acted as a catalyst for social and economic changes that enshrined the New Deal in American life.
B)The heavy spending on defense ruined the Keynesian economic recovery program.
C)The surge in militarism in the United States undermined the principles of new Deal solidarity.
D)Because of the war, the Roosevelt administration suspended all New Deal programs except the Works Progress Administration.

Question 46

How did World War II affect American big business?

A)Between 1940 and 1945 the profits of the nation's large corporations doubled.
B)The defense industry favored small businesses over large corporations.
C)Out of a sense of patriotism, corporations kept their profit margins to a minimum.
D)While some corporations did well, others lost fortunes in developing new weapons.

Question 47

Why did President Franklin Roosevelt create the Office of War Mobilization?

A)Americans by and large were reluctant to accept employment in defense industries.
B)He wanted to sort out disputes between civilian and military producers over raw materials.
C)This was the only way to nationalize the nation's steel and coal industries.
D)He wanted a bureaucracy to take the blame for suppressing unions.

Question 48

Why did Josef Stalin offer a toast to the city of Detroit during the war?

A)He applauded its policies of racial integration.
B)He cheered on the community housing projects there.
C)He felt a strong sense of brotherhood with the United Auto Workers.
D)He understood that American industry there was crucial to the Allied victory.

Question 49

How did business attract skilled workers without violating wage caps during World War II?

A)They offered shorter hours.
B)They offered stock options.
C)They provided medical and other benefits.
D)They offered wage increases.

Question 50

How did American women serve in the armed forces during World War II?

A)That worked as tank personnel.
B)They volunteered as drill sergeants.
C)They were Air Force service pilots.
D)They served as sentinels.

Question 51

Under the Bretton Woods agreement, currency exchanges would take place at

A)fixed rates.
B)floating rates.
C)negotiable rates.
D)rates of one to one.

Question 52

What proportion of Americans relocated between 1941 in 1945?

A)one in 8
B)one in 10
C)one in 15
D)one in 20

Question 53

Which of these factors helps explain the shift in American public opinion about married women in the workplace?

A)German propaganda
B)the activities of the Office of War Information
C)the general recognition of sexism in American society
D)the petitions of feminist activists

Question 54

Why did social tensions flare in cities such as Los Angeles and Chicago during World War II?

A)unemployment rose dramatically
B)prices rose dramatically
C)the number of new black, white, and Latino residents rose dramatically
D)the fear of German spies in Japanese saboteurs rose dramatically

Question 55

How did US authorities treat Japanese-Americans on the islands of Hawaii after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941?

A)They deported them to Japan.
B)They sent them into internment camps on the islands.
C)Apart from a few supporters of Tokyo's policies, they were left alone.
D)They had to wear yellow ribbons on their sleeves for easy identification.

Question 56

On what grounds did the Supreme Court of the United States overturn state laws that compelled students to salute the flag in the case of Barnette v. West Virginia?

A)The flag was not a religious symbol.
B)Not all students were citizens.
C)The salute was an unconstitutional limit on free speech.
D)Not all schools could provide flags for the salute.

Question 57

The "Second Bill of Rights" that President Franklin D. Roosevelt called for in his state of the union speech in January 1944 is best characterized as

A)anti-union.
B)pro-civil rights.
C)concerned with social and economic security.
D)an effort at the regulation.

Question 58

What was New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey's main criticism of the Democrats in his run for the presidency in 1944?

A)They spent too much money on the war.
B)They had sided with the wrong party in World War II.
C)They were soft on communism.
D)There were slow in advancing civil rights.

Question 59

On what issue did President Franklin D Roosevelt and the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill disagree?

A)the future of colonialism
B)the future of capitalism
C)the political outlook of the Soviet Union
D)the dangers of fascism

Question 60

Why did critics label the Yalta Accords a sellout by President Franklin D Roosevelt?

A)He had conceded too much to Stalin's demands.
B)He had allowed Germany a conditional surrender.
C)He had released details about the US nuclear project to the Soviet Union.
D)He had given Britain's future colonization of India is blessing.

Question 61

Identify who, what, where, when, and/or why the following are important:
1. International Brigades
2. Manchukuo
3. quarantine
4. Atlantic charter
5. Pentagon
6. Final Solution
7. Willow Run
8. World Bank
9. Bracero Program
10. G.I. Bill of Rights

Question 62

What model for decolonization did the United States offer to Europeans?

A)the case of the Philippines
B)the example of Vietnam
C)the experience of Burma
D)the story of Cuba

Question 63

What was the size of the American army at the time of Roosevelt's first inauguration?

A)about 140,000
B)approximately 400,000
C)roughly 2 million
D)close to 4 million

Question 64

What did Polish forces send against the German tanks that invaded the Eastern European nation in September 1939?

A)the red Army
B)Katyusha rocket launchers
C)volunteer forces armed with Kalashnikovs
D)the cavalry

Question 65

How did the Japanese Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku assess generate prospects at winning the war against the United States?

A)It depended on Germany's victory over the Soviet Union.
B)They could only win this war with the use of nuclear bomb.
C)It depended on the evacuation of British forces from Dunkirk.
D)Japan would easily defeat the United States and the Soviet Union.

Question 66

The typical battles between US forces and to the Japanese in the Pacific were

A)long-lasting and rarely decisive.
B)relatively small and over in the course of a week or two.
C)less brutal than the war between Germans and Americans in Europe.
D)massive engagements with hundreds and thousands of troops involved.

Question 67

When did Hitler and his henchmen approve the so-called final solution?

A)in 1933
B)in September 1939
C)early in 1942
D)in April 1945

Question 68

What was the downside of defense industry jobs that provided health benefits?

A)The benefits were rarely sufficient.
B)Defense industry healthcare programs did not allow the choice of a doctor.
C)These programs reduced pressure for labor unions for a national health insurance system.
D)Defense healthcare programs work along the lines of socialism.

Question 69

How did the Navajo Indians assist US forces during World War II?

A)Thanks to their traditional lack of fear, they were excellent sentinels.
B)Through their language, they provided troops in the battlefield with a secure code language.
C)Because of their Asian appearance, they were able to sneak behind the Japanese enemy lines.
D)Partly because of their long tribal traditions, they were experts in hand-to-hand combat.

Question 70

When did the United States officially apologize for Japanese-American internment during World War II?

A)1944
B)1948
C)1964
D)1988

Question 71

Why was Joseph Stalin committed to the annexation of Poland?

A)Russia and Poland had been at odds for centuries.
B)A large group of Russian-born immigrant lived in Polish cities.
C)He considered an independent Poland a threat to Soviet security.
D)He resented the Polish cooperation with Germans against the Red Army.

Question 72

Why did the publisher of Time-Life magazine call the end of World War II the beginning of "the first great American century"?

Question 73

Why did President Franklin Roosevelt ask for a "moral embargo" against Italy in 1935?

Question 74

Why was the war so good for big business in the United States?

Question 75

How did U.S. authorities justify the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II?

Question 76

Why was the election of 1942 so disastrous for the New Deal?

Question 77

How did World War II stall or promote the cause for civil rights? Consider both events abroad as well as those on the home-front, in the workplace and in public places like city streets and diners.

Question 78

Was the Holocaust preventable? Discuss opportunities for the United States to intervene in the genocide and assess the motivations behind the decisions of U.S. authorities regarding news about the mass killings of Jews.

Question 79

Identify who, what, where, when, and/or why the following are important:
1. "Greater Germany"
2. Four Freedoms
3. Vichy regime
4. B-29 Bombers
5. Battle of the Bulge
6. Women's Army Corps (WACS)
7. Office of War Information
8. Executive Order 9066
9. Thomas E. Dewey
10. Yalta Accords

Question 80

Which country did Italy invade in 1935?

A)Austria
B)Egypt
C)Serbia
D)Ethiopia