Deck 28: Cold War and a New Western World 1945-1965

Question 1

France's Fourth Republic collapsed and Charles de Gaulle came to power in 1958 because of disastrous French defeats in Vietnam.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

The United States involved itself in the fate of Vietnam soon after the close of World War II by supporting French efforts to take back Vietnam as a colony.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

The postwar emergence of the British welfare state included a variety of social welfare policies, but the Labour Party was unable to create a program of socialized medicine.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Truman and his Western European allies responded to Stalin's blockade of Berlin in 1948 by

A)building the Berlin Wall.
B)airlifting supplies into Berlin.
C)bombing Moscow.
D)sending a UN force to reopen the access routes.
E)threatening nuclear war.

Question 5

The first area of conflict in the unfolding of the Cold War was

A)Scandinavia.
B)Western Europe.
C)North Africa.
D)Eastern Europe.
E)East Asia.

Question 6

The partition of the Indian subcontinent into the states of India and Pakistan in 1947 was accomplished with almost no violence or bloodshed.

Question 7

In 1961, the West constructed the Berlin Wall to prevent East German communists from emigrating to western Europe.

Question 8

The Truman Doctrine did all of the following EXCEPT

A)condemn the victory of the Communists in the Chinese civil war.
B)call for $400 million in aid for nations threatened by aggression.
C)assist in the defense of Greece and Turkey.
D)express America's fear of Communist expansion in Europe.
E)announce the United States' intention to support "free peoples" throughout the world.

Question 9

The Truman Doctrine was a consequence of Truman's alarm over

A)a civil war in Yugoslavia.
B)the weakness of the British in the eastern Mediterranean.
C)Soviet aggression in Czechoslovakia.
D)the failure of the Marshall Plan.
E)the slow pace of denazification in Germany.

Question 10

Eastern Europe was the first area of disagreement between the United States and the Soviet Union after the end of World War II.

Question 11

A key factor contributing to the development of the Cold War in Eastern Europe was

A)the withdrawal of victorious Russian armies from lands conquered during the campaign against Nazism.
B)raids by American troops pursuing German Nazi war criminals into areas of the former Third Reich under Russian control.
C)Stalin's desire to establish pro-Soviet governments in the countries of Eastern Europe to serve as a buffer zone against possible western attacks on the Soviet Union.
D)the domination of Austrian and Italian politics by popular pro-Communist parties.
E)the threat to continued instability by the rise of neo-fascist parties.

Question 12

A leading voice in the postwar women's liberation movement was Simone de Beauvoir, author of The Second Sex.

Question 13

The Communist military response to the formation of NATO was the

A)Moscow Alliance.
B)Warsaw Pact.
C)Eastern European Community.
D)Stalin Plan.
E)European Economic Community.

Question 14

The founding members of NATO included all of the following EXCEPT

A)Canada.
B)Iceland.
C)Luxembourg.
D)Albania.
E)Norway.

Question 15

The Berlin Air Lift was initiated by the Soviet Union to provide provisions to East Berlin after a blockade by the United States, Great Britain, and France.

Question 16

The belief that Communist aggression fed off of economic turmoil was instrumental in the formulation of

A)the Domino Theory.
B)the Marshall Plan.
C)COMECON.
D)the doctrine of neo-capitalism.
E)the Long Telegram.

Question 17

The Cold War spread from Europe with the establishment of a Communist regime in China in 1949.

Question 18

Despite World War II's devastating impact on the countries, cities, peoples, and cultures of Europe, Europe's industrial and agricultural output was 30 percent higher than prewar levels by

A)1947.
B)1950.
C)1953.
D)1956.
E)1960.

Question 19

The Hungarian revolt in 1956 resulted in political reforms and independence under the leadership of János Kádár.

Question 20

At the close of World War II, the European tradition of power politics was inherited by

A)China and the Soviet Union.
B)independent peoples everywhere.
C)the Soviet Union and the United States.
D)the United States alone.
E)the Soviet Union alone.

Question 21

In 1956 in Poland, Wladyslaw Gomulka

A)worked with the Soviets to crush a nascent independence movement.
B)declared his nation's right to follow its own socialist path.
C)tried to assassinate Nikita Khrushchev.
D)started an underground newspaper dedicated to fascism.
E)ordered the construction of a wall separating Poland from the Soviet Union.

Question 22

The origins of the Vietnam War, in part, lie in the process of decolonization because

A)the division of Vietnam into antagonistic northern and southern states occurred after Vietnamese military forces had defeated the French, former governors of the region.
B)the North Vietnamese employed mercenary soldiers from various new post-colonial African states in a local war of liberation.
C)the United Nations, seeking to establish the post-colonial principle of national self-determination, encouraged North Vietnamese radicals to break with the West.
D)the Japanese, having lost their former empire in the Pacific, now provoked unrest in continental Asia by attempting to achieve hegemony in the region.
E)the Soviets supported South Vietnam against North Vietnam, because the latter was a threat to Soviet hegemony in Asia.

Question 23

In 1949, Chiang Kai-shek transferred the Chinese Nationalist government from the mainland to

A)Shanghai.
B)Hong Kong.
C)Kuala Lumpur.
D)Taiwan.
E)Tokyo.

Question 24

The policy created in 1947 and used by the Americans against Communism was called

A)massive retaliation.
B)containment.
C)appeasement.
D)curtailment.
E)mutually assured destruction (MAD).

Question 25

The Great Leap Forward was

A)Stalin's stated philosophy for his last five-year plan.
B)the radicalization of the feminist movement.
C)Mao Zedong's effort to achieve a classless society and the final stage of communism.
D)the missile race between the United States and the Soviet Union.
E)Mao Zedong's New Economic Policy, modeled on Lenin's economic reforms in the early 1920s.

Question 26

At the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party in 1956, Khrushchev

A)pardoned Stalin for his crimes.
B)insisted that the forced labor camps must stay open indefinitely.
C)urged the Party to adopt a limited form of capitalism in order to stay in power.
D)called for a cessation of the Cold War.
E)condemned Stalin.

Question 27

The one issue on which the Arab states were united was

A)the Suez Canal.
B)equal sharing in oil revenues.
C)Palestine.
D)a sympathy for Communism.
E)the worship of Allah.

Question 28

An American-supported invasion of the Bay of Pigs in 1961 had as its mission

A)the assassination of Fulgencio Batista in Cuba.
B)the return of Chiang Kai-shek to mainland China.
C)a military coup in support of King Farouk of Egypt.
D)the overthrow of Fidel Castro in Cuba.
E)the assassination of Mao Zedong.

Question 29

Following World War II, India

A)remained firmly under British control.
B)gained its independence in a peaceful transition from British to native rule.
C)was divided into six new states on the basis of divisions within the caste system.
D)developed an empire of its own through the acquisition of Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka).
E)became two new countries, one Hindu and one Muslim.

Question 30

Khrushchev's unpopularity with the Communist Party reached its apex

A)after his rash plan to place missiles in Cuba.
B)when he ordered the execution of Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
C)when he granted Hungary its independence in 1956.
D)following his institution of forced-labor camps in the Ukraine.
E)with the food riots that stemmed from his agricultural policies.

Question 31

The economic policies of Stalin

A)completely overtaxed a war-damaged industrial plant as production of material goods long failed to surpass prewar levels.
B)were unrealistic since Russia lacked readily accessible natural resources and fossil fuels.
C)managed to produce both "guns and butter," that is, rearmed the Soviet military while providing cheap and plentiful consumer goods.
D)instituted a modified free-market capitalism in all economic areas except for heavy industry.
E)emphasized the development of heavy industry and the production of modern weapons and space vehicles.

Question 32

Yugoslavia from World War II through 1960 was characterized by

A)its close alliance with the West in the Cold War.
B)a strict adherence to Stalinist-style Communism.
C)the leadership of Tito, who asserted Yugoslavia's independence from the Soviet Union.
D)its adoption of a Maoist rather than the Stalinist model of communism.
E)its complete rejection of Marxian economics.

Question 33

Although France granted full independence to Morocco and Tunisia in 1956, it attempted to retain its dominion in

A)Algeria.
B)Botswana.
C)Egypt.
D)Niger.
E)Chad.

Question 34

The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 concluded with

A)improved communications between the US and the Soviet Union to prevent nuclear war.
B)the installation of Soviet missiles in Cuba.
C)the United States overthrowing Cuba's Soviet-supported government.
D)John Kennedy backing down to the threats of Nikita Khrushchev.
E)Fidel Castro giving up his military authority in the Cuban government, although he retained political control.

Question 35

An overall effect of the Korean War on the Cold War was

A)the Soviet Union's domination over all of Southeast Asia.
B)the end of American and Soviet involvement in Asian political affairs.
C)the reinforcement of the American determination to "contain" Soviet power.
D)a decrease in American defense spending since the capacity of the West to win the conflict outright on the battlefield demonstrated the superiority of modern weapons systems and no need to develop new war machines.
E)the continued willingness to use limited nuclear weapons in local wars.

Question 36

The Indonesian president who was suspicious of the West, sought economic aid from China and the Soviet Union, and relied at home on a native communist party was

A)Suharto.
B)Sukarno.
C)Nehru.
D)Gandhi.
E)Sukarnoputri.

Question 37

The Middle Eastern political leader who promoted Pan-Arabism and who advocated a sharing of Middle Eastern oil wealth equally among the Arab states was

A)Yasir Arafat.
B)King Farouk.
C)Anwar al-Sadat.
D)the Shah of Iran.
E)Gamal Abdul Nasser.

Question 38

The Cold War policy adopted in the mid-1950s by the Eisenhower administration was

A)containment.
B)détente.
C)MAD (mutually assured destruction).
D)massive retaliation.
E)All of these are correct.

Question 39

Due to its strong democratic traditions, the last Eastern European country to fall under Soviet, one-party domination after World War II was

A)Bulgaria.
B)Poland.
C)Hungary.
D)Czechoslovakia.
E)Romania.

Question 40

The Warsaw Pact included all of the following nations EXCEPT

A)Poland.
B)Bulgaria.
C)Yugoslavia.
D)Hungary.
E)Czechoslovakia.

Question 41

By 1950 Western Europe saw the political comeback of

A)Communist parties.
B)socialist parties.
C)monarchists.
D)moderate political parties.
E)Fascists.

Question 42

In the postwar world, Canada

A)experienced many of the same developments as the United States.
B)saw much of the economic growth financed by European investors.
C)refused to join NATO.
D)did not become a member of the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD).
E)because of fear of being dominated by the United States, refused to have any relations with its more powerful neighbor.

Question 43

All of the following is characteristic of the United States in the 1950s EXCEPT

A)an economic boom.
B)confidence in the American way of life.
C)an intensification of the "Red Scare."
D)the collapse of labor unions.
E)a commitment to the traditions of the New Deal.

Question 44

Which of the following statements concerning postwar Great Britain is FALSE?

A)The National Insurance Act and National Health Service Act made Britain a welfare state in the 1940s.
B)Britain suffered from losing its prewar colonial revenues.
C)By the Suez Canal debacle, Britain was no longer a superpower.
D)The British economy lagged behind that of several other Western European nations.
E)The Conservative party in the 1950s and 1960s revoked nearly all of the welfare legislation passed by the Labour party in the 1940s.

Question 45

One country that was NOT an original member of the European Coal and Steel Community was

A)France.
B)Britain.
C)West Germany.
D)Italy.
E)Belgium.

Question 46

Following World War II, the country that dominated the art world was

A)the United States.
B)France.
C)West Germany.
D)Britain.
E)Spain.

Question 47

The American artist Jackson Pollock was most noted for

A)a return to extreme realism in his paintings.
B)Postmodernist sculptures.
C)Pop Art, which celebrated the whims of popular culture.
D)Neo-Cubism.
E)Abstract Expressionist paintings.

Question 48

Postwar Italian politics was characterized by

A)the dominance of the Communist party.
B)the demise of the Christian Democrats.
C)the hegemony of the Christian Democrats with backing from the Catholic Church.
D)the rapid rise and fall of Communist-dominated coalition governments.
E)frequent military coups.

Question 49

American motion pictures in the postwar years have

A)been the primary vehicle for the diffusion of American popular culture throughout the world.
B)completely destroyed the avant-garde expressions of Europe's "national cinemas."
C)proven to be unpopular among European audiences.
D)done little to reflect the changing sentiments of contemporary society.
E)were successful artistically but failed commercially.

Question 50

The philosophical doctrine of existentialism, with its emphasis on God as a fiction, no preordained human destiny, and the human creation of all values

A)was dominant in the universities of Great Britain and the United States.
B)concentrated on logic and a theory of knowledge.
C)was totally at odds with the confidence and prosperity of the post-war world.
D)was best expressed in the works of the French writers Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre.
E)exemplified the spiritualism of the "Age of Aquarius."

Question 51

As president of France, Charles de Gaulle's position in the Cold War was to

A)closely align France with the Warsaw Pact nations.
B)make France the "third" nuclear power and pursue a largely independent political course.
C)let American policy guide France and other European nations.
D)make France the leading European power in NATO.
E)join the non-aligned third-world nations.

Question 52

Television did not become readily available until

A)the 1930s.
B)the 1940s.
C)the 1950s.
D)the 1960s.
E)the 1970s.

Question 53

The horrors of two world wars, the Cold War, and attendant socio-cultural upheavals have also stimulated a late twentieth-century religious revival exemplified in the works of Karl Barth, who has argued

A)that the Bible is the literal word of God and that salvation and consolation comes from accepting that "truth."
B)that the Bible, although not inherently true, still gives the best instruction for moral behavior.
C)that the sinful and imperfect nature of humans means that they can know religious truth not through reason but only through the grace of God.
D)that the mystery religions of Asia and the Middle East give humans a more transcendent sense of the divine and should come to replace Christian bigotry.
E)that a diversity of religious beliefs, including such "New Age" practices as witchcraft, the worship of healing rock crystals, and devotion to Gaia the Earth Mother, is a healthy sign of a new spiritualism in Western civilization.

Question 54

The civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s included all of the following EXCEPT

A)race riots in the Los Angeles district of Watts.
B)the Supreme Court upheld racial segregation in public schools in 1954.
C)the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
D)saw the Supreme Court approve the concept of "separate but equal" in public schools.
E)the civil rights leadership of Martin Luther King.

Question 55

Existentialism stressed

A)the need for people to create their own values and give their lives meaning.
B)a return of God to the universe.
C)the human need to find the sole and true meaning and purpose of the world.
D)a complete withdrawal from an active, involved life.
E)defeatist nihilism: there is no hope.

Question 56

The first chancellor and "founding hero" of the West German Federal Republic was

A)Helmut Kohl.
B)Helmut Schmidt.
C)Willy Brandt.
D)Konrad Adenauer.
E)Walter Ulbricht.

Question 57

The social structure of the postwar European society has been greatly affected by a dramatic increase in the number of

A)industrial workers.
B)rural, agricultural laborers.
C)government workers.
D)military personnel.
E)white-collar management and administrative personnel.

Question 58

The Common Market was

A)primarily a military alliance of certain European countries.
B)a forum of European nations founded to solve social problems.
C)founded for economic reasons, including to promote free trade among member nations.
D)established for cultural reasons to combat American materialism.
E)founded with the intent to include all the nations of Europe, including the Soviet Union, as well as the United States, in the organization.

Question 59

In her path-breaking text The Second Sex, the influential French feminist author Simone de Beauvoir argued that

A)women should renounce all contact with men and set up their own self-governing communes.
B)women were always and wrongly defined by their differences from men and consequently seen as second-class beings.
C)the Second World War had legitimated the political advantages and hegemonic power of males.
D)a "sexual revolution" was impossible and discouraged women outside of France from taking up her ideas.
E)there was absolutely no hope in improving the status of women in the near future.

Question 60

All of the following statements regarding women in the post-war era are correct EXCEPT

A)many more married women joined the work force than before.
B)working women received equal pay with men by the 1960s.
C)working-class women continued to receive less pay than men.
D)the post-war "baby boom" declined in the 1960s, in part due to "the pill."
E)much of the theoretical foundation for the women's liberation movement was found in the work of Simone de Beauvoir.

Question 61

Discuss the events that divided the world into two heavily armed camps capable of obliterating one another with nuclear weapons carried by intercontinental missile systems.

Question 62

Compare and contrast the political, social, and economic histories of Eastern Europe and Western Europe in the postwar decades.What factors account for the differences?

Question 63

How did the policies of the United States affect Western Europe in the period from 1945 to 1965?

Question 64

In what ways were Khrushchev's policies a departure from those of Stalin?

Question 65

On balance, did the decade of the 1960s constitute a constructive challenge to the institutions of European society, a destructive one, or both? Provide specific examples to defend your position.

Question 66

What were the major political developments in the history of the Soviet Union from 1945 to 1970? How did Soviet policies affect the history of Eastern Europe?

Question 67

What were the major developments in domestic politics in Western Europe, and how were they expressed in France, West Germany, and Great Britain? What efforts toward unity were made by Western European states?

Question 68

What attitudes and actions sparked the Cold War? Was one of the superpowers more responsible for its start than the other? Why or why not?

Question 69

Discuss the major social changes affecting the status, expectations, and ambitions of women that occurred in Western society from 1945 to 1970.

Question 70

How and why did the Cold War in Europe differ from the Cold War in Asia?