Deck 29: From Camelot to Watergate: 1961-1975

Question 1

In April 1961, the CIA-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba

A) led to direct involvement of American troops in Cuba.
B) was unable to land because of bad weather.
C) failed because the Cuban people did not aid the invaders and the invaders were forced to surrender.
D) ousted Castro's government for a short time.

Answer 1

failed because the Cuban people did not aid the invaders and the invaders were forced to surrender.

Question 2

In 1962, Soviet Premier Khrushchev precipitated "the most dangerous confrontation of the Cold War" by

A) starting the Berlin Blockade.
B) threatening a military takeover of West Berlin unless the United States left Cuba alone.
C) sending Soviet forces to help Castro defeat the Bay of Pigs invasion.
D) moving guided missiles to and building launching pads in Cuba.

Answer 2

moving guided missiles to and building launching pads in Cuba.

Question 3

During the Cuban missile crisis, President Kennedy ordered a

A) walkout at the United Nations.
B) naval blockade of Cuba.
C) plot to assassinate Castro.
D) secret invasion of Cuba.

Answer 3

naval blockade of Cuba.

Question 4

One indication of decreasing Soviet-American tensions was a treaty

A) agreeing to submit future conflicts to the World Court.
B) prohibiting the sale of nuclear weapons to non-nuclear nations.
C) banning the testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere.
D) granting "most-favored-nation" trading status to each other.

Question 5

From the 1950s until his death in 1963, the United States backed the South Vietnamese regime of

A) Ngo Dinh Nhu.
B) Ho Chi Minh.
C) Bao Dai.
D) Ngo Dinh Diem.

Question 6

Kennedy's initial approach to the race question was

A) daring, because he integrated the National Guard.
B) exceedingly cautious.
C) focused on the grass roots level of voting rights.
D) concerned primarily with electing black members of Congress.

Question 7

Bus boycotts, lunch counter sit-ins, and freedom rides were all attempts to promote

A) racial integration.
B) black separatism.
C) academic freedom.
D) racial segregation.

Question 8

The leader of the nonviolent civil rights movement was

A) James Farmer.
B) Malcolm X.
C) Stokely Carmichael.
D) Martin Luther King, Jr.

Question 9

Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X of the Black Muslims urged solving racial turmoil by

A) practicing Christian nonviolence.
B) supporting the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Great Society.
C) rejecting white American society.
D) returning to Africa.

Question 10

"When you take a cross-country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading 'white' and 'colored'; when your first name becomes 'nigger' and your middle name becomes 'boy'…then you will understand why we find it so difficult to wait." This passage is from jailhouse correspondence from which civil rights activist?

A) Malcolm X
B) Thurgood Marshall
C) Stokely Carmichael
D) Martin Luther King, Jr.

Question 11

The Warren Report on the assassination of President Kennedy did not end charges of a conspiracy because it

A) protected information about CIA assassination attempts against Fidel Castro.
B) denounced conspiracy theorists as "kooks."
C) concluded that there was evidence of more than one gunman.
D) failed to investigate the possible role of the mafia.

Question 12

Racial discrimination by employers and formal racial segregation of all sorts were outlawed by the

A) Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.
B) Twenty-third Amendment.
C) Civil Rights Act of 1964.
D) Civil Rights Act of 1957.

Question 13

The federal government and President Johnson declared "war" on poverty during the

A) New Deal.
B) Great Frontier.
C) Great Society.
D) New Frontier.

Question 14

One cause of poverty after 1945 was that

A) the percentage of the population with disabling mental, physical, or emotional conditions increased dramatically.
B) white racism became increasingly entrenched in both the North and the South.
C) many white ethnic groups in America were traditionally opposed to wage labor.
D) technological advancements raised job requirements and made it harder for those without educational or special skills to earn a living.

Question 15

How does the text evaluate the overall impact of the Great Society?

A) It was a remarkable outpouring of important legislation, but its achievements were far short of what it had promised.
B) Because President Johnson persuaded Congress to pass only a few of his projects, it was a considerable success under those circumstances.
C) It resulted in major new legislation, which significantly lowered unemployment by job training for the poor.
D) It succeeded in its goal of reducing the size and scope of the federal government's domestic programs.

Question 16

Which event transformed 1960s student activism into a mass political movement?

A) the publishing of Jack Kerouac's On the Road
B) the fight for black rights at the University of California at Berkeley
C) Lyndon Johnson's escalation of the Vietnam War
D) Martin Luther King's March on Washington

Question 17

In the ________ Resolution of 1964, Congress gave President Johnson a blank check for the war in Vietnam.

A) Hanoi
B) Mekong River
C) Gulf of Tonkin
D) My Lai

Question 18

The ________ Trail was the major supply route from North to South Vietnam.

A) Ngo Dinh Diem
B) Mao
C) Gulf of Tonkin
D) Ho Chi Minh

Question 19

What was the response of the Soviet Union and China to the increasing number of American ground forces in Vietnam?

A) an equally large increase in Soviet and Chinese troops in the region
B) an offer to broker a peace agreement
C) willful blindness
D) an increase in aid to North Korea

Question 20

In 1968, the low-key senator from Minnesota who challenged Lyndon Johnson for the Democratic party's nomination for the presidency was

A) George McGovern.
B) Hubert Humphrey.
C) Eugene McCarthy.
D) Robert Kennedy.

Question 21

The Vietcong ________ offensive in January 1968 caught the U.S. totally by surprise and caused great chaos throughout South Vietnam.

A) Iron Triangle
B) Pleiku
C) Tet
D) My Lai

Question 22

In 1968 ________ was assassinated just after he won the Democratic primary in California.

A) Martin Luther King, Jr.
B) Hubert H. Humphrey
C) Eugene C. McCarthy
D) Robert F. Kennedy

Question 23

George C. Wallace ran for the presidency in 1968 on a platform that included

A) federal ownership of bankrupt railroads.
B) busing to achieve desegregation of schools.
C) an end to forced desegregation of schools.
D) withdrawing American troops from Vietnam.

Question 24

While millions of Americans watched on television, police used force against unruly protesters at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in

A) Kent, Ohio.
B) Miami, Florida.
C) Chicago, Illinois.
D) Washington, D.C.

Question 25

During his first term, President Nixon thought his chief task was

A) solving the problem of the Vietnam War.
B) reducing urban crime.
C) balancing the federal budget.
D) reassuring civil rights leaders that progress would continue.

Question 26

President Richard Nixon's principal plan for ending the American commitment in the Vietnam conflict was

A) threatening to invade China unless the North Vietnamese forces withdrew.
B) withdrawing American troops unilaterally.
C) ordering a naval blockade of the port of Haiphong.
D) building up the South Vietnamese army in order to withdraw American troops.

Question 27

Early in 1970, Americans learned of a massacre by U.S. forces of defenseless villagers in

A) Hue.
B) My Lai.
C) Quang Tri.
D) Pleiku.

Question 28

The demonstrations at Kent State and Jackson State in which six students were killed were a response to Nixon's decision to

A) call up the National Guard to serve in Vietnam.
B) invade Cambodia to attack North Vietnamese sanctuaries.
C) bomb Hanoi.
D) abolish student draft deferments.

Question 29

As a result of the nationwide condemnation of the invasion of Cambodia,

A) Nixon initiated a series of "fireside-like" chats with the American public to gain their understanding and endorsement.
B) Nixon quickly pulled American ground troops out of Cambodia.
C) Nixon ordered curfews on all college campuses.
D) Nixon was required to increase the draft in order to have enough troops to fight a two-front war.

Question 30

Richard Nixon relied heavily on the judgments of National Security Adviser

A) Dean Rusk.
B) Elliot Richardson.
C) Henry Kissinger.
D) John Dean.

Question 31

Nixon's new policy of trying to relax tensions with the Chinese and the Soviets was called

A) constructive engagement.
B) entente cordiale.
C) peaceful coexistence.
D) détente.

Question 32

In February 1972, Nixon dramatically reversed previous American policy by visiting and establishing relations with

A) China.
B) Albania.
C) Libya.
D) Cuba.

Question 33

Nixon and Kissinger's May 1972 trip to Moscow resulted in

A) increased tensions between the two superpowers over their inability to reach any agreement.
B) disagreement over the pace and direction of Soviet Union's nuclear program.
C) an agreement to stop production of nuclear ballistic missiles and to permit large sales of American grain to the Soviet Union.
D) an agreement to reduce all nuclear weapons in their armaments and a promise by the U.S. to disengage in Vietnam.

Question 34

Under the terms of the January 1973 peace settlement, the North Vietnamese

A) agreed to cut off all military and economic ties to the Soviets and Chinese.
B) guaranteed the future security of a pro-American government in South Vietnam if the United Nations would send an international peacekeeping force.
C) were promised massive postwar aid to rebuild their country.
D) retained large portions of South Vietnam in exchange for releasing American prisoners of war within 60 days.

Question 35

The major economic problem facing President Nixon when he took office in 1969 was

A) large-scale employment.
B) an increasing trade deficit.
C) runaway inflation.
D) a deepening recession.

Question 36

In 1971, President Nixon tried to control inflation by

A) freezing wages and prices for 90 days.
B) spurring investment through major tax cuts for the wealthy.
C) increasing the supply of money in the economy.
D) returning the dollar to the gold standard.

Question 37

The Watergate scandal began on June 17, 1972 when burglars from the Committee to Re-elect the President were arrested while

A) placing eavesdropping devices in the secret meeting rooms in the Pentagon.
B) destroying records of illegal campaign contributions to President Nixon.
C) placing illegal wiretaps on telephones of journalists critical of the Nixon administration.
D) installing eavesdropping devices at the Democratic party headquarters.

Question 38

President Nixon's lawyer who provided key testimony against him during the Watergate scandal was

A) John Dean III.
B) Richard Kleindeinst.
C) L. Patrick Gray.
D) H. R. Haldeman.

Question 39

The first Watergate special prosecutor whom Nixon fired in the Saturday Night Massacre was

A) Elliott Richardson.
B) Peter Rodino.
C) Archibald Cox.
D) Sam Ervin.

Question 40

The key evidence in the Watergate Affair, several pieces of which were deliberately erased or disposed of, were Nixon's

A) letters offering to pay the burglars to keep quiet.
B) nightly memos that detailed all the directives he gave to "the plumbers."
C) secret tape recordings of White House conversations and telephone calls.
D) extensive diaries which detailed the many illegal acts he authorized.

Question 41

When Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned because of charges of income tax evasion in 1973, he was replaced by

A) Nelson A. Rockefeller.
B) Gerald R. Ford.
C) Howard H. Baker, Jr.
D) Henry Kissinger.

Question 42

The edited transcripts of the presidential tapes

A) portrayed Nixon as decisive.
B) gave the American public faith in Nixon's leadership abilities despite providing evidence of some presidential wrongdoing.
C) were almost completely undecipherable.
D) shocked the American public with the way Nixon conducted himself in private.

Question 43

In July 1974, the Supreme Court ruled that President Nixon had to give the subpoenaed tapes to the special prosecutor because

A) the doctrine of executive privilege was unconstitutional.
B) failure to do so was a clear violation of the constitutional mandate of a separation of powers.
C) no person could withhold evidence that was demonstrably relevant in a criminal trial.
D) all materials generated by the Office of the President were public property.

Question 44

The key felony committed by Richard Nixon, which the Watergate tapes revealed, was

A) planning the Watergate burglary.
B) obstructing justice by instructing the CIA to persuade the FBI not to follow up its leads in the case.
C) violating the constitution by waging war secretly and illegally against both Cambodia and Laos.
D) ordering the Internal Revenue Service to harass his political enemies.

Question 45

Ultimately, President Nixon

A) was impeached.
B) resigned from office.
C) was impeached by the House but found not guilty by the Senate.
D) ended his full second term in office with the cloud of Watergate over his head.

Question 46

In describing the fall of Richard Nixon, his

A) resignation marked both the beginning and the end of an era.
B) easygoing personality did not fit the demands of the office.
C) resignation revealed his deep remorse and sorrow for his transgressions against the country.
D) unquestioning self-confidence and blinding pride led to his downfall.

Question 47

"The most dangerous confrontation of the Cold War" happened when President Kennedy established a naval blockade of Cuba during the missile crisis.

Question 48

As presidents, both Kennedy and Johnson focused their energies on social welfare legislation.

Question 49

President Johnson refused to support the Voting Rights Act of 1965 because it would destroy the Democratic party in the South.

Question 50

As the result of urban riots linked to racial unrest, many whites moved to the suburbs.

Question 51

Despite huge losses, the Tet offensive was a psychological victory for the communists.

Question 52

Richard Nixon chose Gerald Ford, an obscure politician, for his running mate in 1968.

Question 53

In the presidential election of 1972, Richard Nixon easily defeated the Democratic candidate, George McGovern.

Question 54

During the Watergate crisis, the phrase "expletive deleted," became identified with President Nixon.

Question 55

After the Supreme Court ordered Nixon to give the subpoenaed secret tape recordings to Congress and the special prosecutor, it became evident that the president would be impeached by the House of Representatives and convicted by the Senate.

Question 56

What themes, moods, and trends are captured by the chapter title "From Camelot to Watergate"? Provide specific examples that support your conclusion.

Question 57

Compare and contrast the goals and the achievements of the civil rights movement and of the Great Society.

Question 58

Summarize the major events in the Vietnam War under President Johnson. Explain the assumptions on which his policies were based. Evaluate the domestic, political, and economic impacts of his policies.

Question 59

Summarize the major events in the Vietnam War under President Nixon. Explain the assumptions on which his policies were based. Evaluate the domestic, political, and economic impacts of his policies.

Question 60

Describe the Watergate scandal. Explain its causes and implications. Evaluate the major constitutional issues that were involved.

Question 61

What is the definition of the following key term:
-beat school :

Question 62

What is the definition of the following key term:
-Cuban missile crisis :

Question 63

What is the definition of the following key term:
-détente :