Deck 9: Vietnamthe Early Years

Question 1

The US refused to grant recognition to communist China in 1949 because

A) The new Chinese communist government did not want a diplomatic relationship with a capitalist country
B) American diplomats were afraid of angering the USSR
C) The domestic political climate of anticommunism limited the government's options
D) Of pre-existing agreements with the government of Chiang Kai-shek

Answer 1

C

Question 2

NSC-68 committed the US to assist allied nations anywhere in the world that seemed threatened by Soviet aggression, and was based on the assumption that

A) The Soviet Union was engaged in a fanatical effort to seize control of governments wherever possible
B) The USSR was committed to working-class uprisings worldwide
C) The Soviets were dedicated to expanding their land-based empire in Asia
D) The Soviets were committed to becoming the most powerful economy in the world

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Truman reacted to the North Korean invasion of South Korea as if it were

A) A limited border war driven by China
B) Primarily a civil war
C) An example of Japanese dominance in the region
D) The opening battle of a third world war between the US and USSR

Answer 3

D

Question 4

The Soviets

A) Loaned troops and equipment to North Korea for the attack
B) Approved the North Korean invasion but did not participate
C) Refused to approve the North Korean invasion
D) Pushed North Korea to invade the South

Question 5

General MacArthur tried to teach North Korea that "aggression doesn't pay" by

A) Attacking the Soviet city of Vladivostok
B) Invading Inchon to catch them in a pincer movement
C) Invading the North
D) Gathering allies to send on a diplomatic mission to end the war

Question 6

_______ was elected president on the strength of a pledge to go to Korea and end the fighting.

A) Harry Truman
B) George Marshall
C) Dwight Eisenhower
D) Douglas MacArthur

Question 7

The legacy of the Korean War for American foreign policy was

A) That containment worked
B) That America could not fight communism everywhere
C) That the US needed to remove Soviet allies by making overtures to other communist countries
D) That the threat of nuclear war was a necessity

Question 8

Truman described American involvement in Korea as a police action

A) Because he had not gotten a declaration of war from Congress
B) In order to disguise the nature of American involvement
C) To maintain control over the situation without input from Congress
D) All of the above

Question 9

The US first became involved in Vietnam

A) Through military aid to the French, who were trying to hold onto their colonies in Indochina
B) When Ho Chi Minh began looking to the Soviet Union for aid in fighting the French
C) When the French failed to hold onto Vietnam
D) When Vietnam was invaded by China

Question 10

The US saw Vietnam as strategically important because

A) Of its economic ties to Europe
B) Of its historic friendship with China
C) Its oil reserves were key to fueling the war in Korea
D) Its fall to communism could begin a domino effect of communist takeovers in other Southeast Asian countries

Question 11

The US

A) Supported French efforts to maintain colonial control over Indochina wholeheartedly
B) Desperately wanted to take over the Vietnam War from the French
C) Was forced to support French military efforts in Vietnam by French threats to resign from NATO
D) Secretly worked to undermine French efforts to defeat the Vietminh

Question 12

The first Vietnam War ended with

A) The French giving up the colony to Japan after World War II
B) The temporary division of the country into a Vietminh-controlled North and US-supported South
C) A peace treaty between the Vietminh and the US
D) The fall of Saigon

Question 13

During the Eisenhower administration, the US intervened in _______ in an effort to drive out communism

A) Guatemala
B) Iran
C) Lebanon
D) All of the above

Question 14

The US felt that it could avoid French mistakes in Vietnam because

A) The US was not a colonialist power, and therefore would not be resented
B) The French were not sufficiently motivated by anticommunism
C) The US had better ties to local Vietnamese leaders
D) Ho Chi Minh had been a US ally during World War II

Question 15

Ngo Dinh Diem, with full American support, refused to allow nationwide elections in Vietnam because

A) He felt they could not be fairly held
B) He worried they would be undermined by communist sympathizers
C) He wanted to rebuild the country's infrastructure first
D) He knew Ho Chi Minh would win

Question 16

The successes of Diem's government were undermined by

A) A messianic complex that left no room for opposition
B) His refusal to promote land reform to give Vietnamese villagers a better life
C) His insistence on personally appointing provincial leaders, with no input from the people they governed
D) All of the above

Question 17

Kennedy's Cold War strategy differed from Eisenhower's in that it focused on

A) Massive retaliation, which relied on nuclear deterrence
B) Flexible response via counterinsurgency techniques
C) Diplomacy over intervention
D) Detente with both the Soviet Union and China

Question 18

The Kennedy administration chose Vietnam as the venue in which to take a stand over communism

A) After careful consideration of which area of the world was of greatest strategic value
B) Based on a thorough understanding of which communist hot spot had the highest possibility of becoming a US ally
C) After a series of losses based on which they felt forced to get a win somewhere
D) All of the above

Question 19

The trigger for Kennedy to escalate the number of US troops in Vietnam was

A) The erosion of support for Diem's regime and an increase in attacks by the Vietcong
B) An uprising in the North
C) A threatened Chinese invasion
D) Indications that the USSR was planning to involve itself in Vietnam

Question 20

-As vice-president, Lyndon Johnson, seen here in South Vietnam, went there in order to

A) Whip the Diem regime into shape
B) Advise the military on what was needed
C) Get to know potential replacements for Diem
D) Offer assurance of American support