Deck 31: New Frontiers: Politics and Social Change in the 1960s

Question 1

The Tet offensive marked a turning point in public support for the war in Vietnam.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

President Johnson was not as adept at handling Congress as President Kennedy had been.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Richard Nixon:

A) had limited political experience when he ran for president in 1960
B) had a reputation for hard-line anticommunism and rough campaign tactics
C) like John F. Kennedy, came from a wealthy family
D) did not have the intellectual depth to be president
E) was politically damaged by his service as vice president due to Eisenhower's unpopularity when his presidency ended

Answer 3

had a reputation for hard-line anticommunism and rough campaign tactics

Question 4

Barry Goldwater said, "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice."

Question 5

Johnson's Great Society programs helped reduce the number of people living in poverty.

Question 6

Nikita Khrushchev was Soviet premier while Kennedy was president.

Question 7

The Viet Cong were the rebel army in South Vietnam.

Question 8

John F. Kennedy was careful to conceal from the public during the 1960 campaign his:

A) Roman Catholicism
B) wife
C) family wealth
D) war record
E) personal health

Question 9

From the beginning of his presidency, Kennedy vigorously supported black civil rights.

Question 10

Had Kennedy lived, he would certainly have removed U.S. troops from Vietnam.

Question 11

The Black Panthers organization was formed in 1961.

Question 12

Lyndon Johnson's domestic program was called the Great Society.

Question 13

Jack Ruby was charged with assassinating President John
F. Kennedy, but doubts about his guilt linger.

Question 14

Hubert Humphrey was Lyndon Johnson's running mate in the presidential race of 1964.

Question 15

In the 1960 presidential race, John F. Kennedy:

A) appeared nervous and unknowledgeable in a televised debate
B) promised to use the White House to promote religion
C) promised to get the country "moving again"
D) promised to provide health care to all Americans
E) opposed civil rights

Question 16

By 1966, Martin Luther King Jr. had become a leading spokesman for "black power."

Question 17

The person most persuasive in getting President Kennedy to endorse civil rights would have been:

A) his vice president, Lyndon Johnson
B) his brother, Robert
C) his wife, Jackie
D) FBI director J. Edgar Hoover
E) Chief Justice Earl Warren

Question 18

Volunteers in Service to America was a group of Republican young people who campaigned for Nixon and other conservative candidates in 1960.

Question 19

Congress narrowly defeated President Johnson's request in 1964 for authorization to "take all necessary measures" to prevent further aggression in Vietnam.

Question 20

By the time of the 1960 presidential race, Kennedy had far more experience in national politics than did Richard Nixon.

Question 21

The protest tactic initiated by black students in Greensboro, North Carolina, was:

A) the sit-in
B) the occupation of campus administration buildings
C) the March on Washington
D) street theater
E) the freedom ride

Question 22

The Cuban missile crisis:

A) led to a U.S.-backed invasion of Cuba
B) showed Kennedy's tendency to back down in a tense confrontation
C) ended the cold war
D) brought the United States and the Soviet Union close to nuclear war
E) saw the United States destroy some missile sites with surgical air strikes

Question 23

In its controversial Miranda v. Arizona decision, the Warren Court:

A) required that an accused person be informed of certain basic rights
B) made abortion legal
C) banned prayer in public schools
D) protected job rights for homosexuals
E) gave police more power to search without a warrant

Question 24

Student civil rights activists in the South would likely experience all of the following EXCEPT:

A) mass arrests
B) mob violence
C) extreme verbal abuse
D) Kennedy's public encouragement
E) growing public admiration

Question 25

When Alabama governor George Wallace was ordered by federal marshals to stand aside from the doorway at the University of Alabama so that black students could enter, Wallace:

A) provoked a riot
B) stood aside
C) got himself arrested
D) unleashed a torrent of racist language
E) refused to budge

Question 26

The result of the 1960 election:

A) was likely determined by African American votes in a few southern states
B) was a popular vote landslide victory for Kennedy
C) saw Democrats regain control of the South
D) was determined when Kennedy swept the West Coast
E) was challenged in the courts by the Republicans

Question 27

The major purpose of the Soviet missiles placed in Cuba was to:

A) deter another American-supported invasion of Cuba
B) show hard-liners in the Soviet military that Khrushchev was sufficiently tough
C) launch an attack upon the United States
D) make Castro more dependent upon the Soviets
E) get Kennedy to let the Soviets have West Berlin

Question 28

In South Vietnam in the early 1960s:

A) Diem's land reforms were undercutting the Communists
B) Kennedy was increasing the number of American military advisers
C) American troops were regularly involved in combat
D) the Viet Cong captured several major cities
E) the French had returned to assist the South Vietnamese

Question 29

The Cuban missile crisis led to all of the following EXCEPT:

A) the removal of the Soviet missiles from Cuba
B) the installation of a "hot line" between Moscow and Washington
C) the removal of American missiles from Turkey
D) an easing of cold war tensions
E) a U.S.-Soviet agreement to scrap nuclear weapons

Question 30

Violence erupted in 1962 when James Meredith attempted to integrate:

A) the University of Alabama
B) Louisiana State University
C) Georgia Tech
D) the University of Mississippi
E) Texas A&M

Question 31

Tensions escalated in Southeast Asia by 1961 with increasing Communist influence in:

A) Hong Kong
B) Burma
C) Cambodia
D) Thailand
E) Laos

Question 32

In 1961, Khrushchev escalated tensions over Berlin by:

A) imposing another Soviet blockade of West Berlin
B) sending spy planes over West Germany
C) putting nuclear missiles in East Berlin
D) erecting the Berlin Wall
E) walking out of a summit conference in Vienna

Question 33

The Bay of Pigs invasion:

A) was Kennedy's original idea
B) was thoroughly bungled by the CIA
C) proved Kennedy's competence in foreign policy
D) weakened the Castro regime
E) inspired the United States and the Soviet Union to improve relations

Question 34

All of the following are true of the Kennedy assassination EXCEPT:

A) the primary suspect was Lee Harvey Oswald
B) Jack Ruby shot and killed the suspected assassin
C) the Warren Commission concluded there may have been multiple gunmen
D) it occurred in Dallas on November 22, 1963
E) so many of the related events were watched on television

Question 35

President Kennedy's cabinet was dominated by:

A) men from the most radical wing of the Democratic party
B) old-school politicians from the Truman administration
C) men with new ideas and fresh thinking
D) his fraternity buddies from Harvard
E) Catholics and racial minorities

Question 36

Kennedy's inauguration is best remembered for:

A) the flatness of his delivery
B) the record cold in Washington that day
C) the large and friendly crowd
D) the list of promises in his speech
E) his elegant and inspiring rhetoric

Question 37

Early in his presidency, Kennedy accomplished all of the following EXCEPT:

A) support for space exploration
B) the creation of the Peace Corps
C) the Trade Expansion Act of 1962
D) the passage of a large tax cut
E) increases in Social Security benefits and the minimum wage

Question 38

The city that described itself as "too busy to hate" was:

A) Atlanta
B) New Orleans
C) Memphis
D) Charlotte
E) Houston

Question 39

In his Letter from Birmingham City Jail, Martin Luther King:

A) expressed his admiration of activists Ross Barnett and Bull Connor
B) announced that he was abandoning nonviolent tactics
C) expressed anger at being locked up
D) declared his willingness to break unjust laws
E) explained why he hated racist whites

Question 40

The strongest and most visible opposition to Diem's government was led by:

A) Buddhists
B) Socialists
C) Muslims
D) American diplomats
E) French-speaking Vietnamese elites

Question 41

By 1966, black leaders like Stokely Carmichael and H. Rap Brown were proponents of what they termed:

A) passive nonviolence
B) black communism
C) massive integration
D) black capitalism
E) black power

Question 42

In the 1964 campaign, Republican nominee Barry Goldwater:

A) promised to manage New Deal programs more effectively than Democrats had
B) said he would use diplomacy to settle the conflict in Vietnam
C) offered a sharply conservative alternative to Johnson's policies
D) endorsed Johnson's achievements on civil rights
E) represented Eisenhower-style "moderate Republicanism"

Question 43

By the mid-1960s, Martin Luther King had decided to:

A) emphasize the need for economic uplift for the black urban poor
B) adopt much of the rhetoric and tactics of the militant blacks
C) retire so that younger leaders could move to the forefront
D) focus on his opposition to the war in Vietnam
E) declare that the fight for black equality was largely won

Question 44

Kennedy's successor as president, Lyndon Johnson:

A) had a humble and modest character
B) was a fairly typical southern conservative
C) may have been involved in the assassination
D) like Kennedy, had been born into wealth and privilege
E) genuinely cared about the disadvantaged in society

Question 45

Malcolm X:

A) said blacks should be proud of their African heritage
B) was killed by a white racist during a speech in Harlem
C) headed the Black Panthers
D) supported the nonviolent tactics of Martin Luther King Jr.
E) was a militant black Christian

Question 46

Johnson's Medicare program provided medical benefits to:

A) the unemployed
B) all Americans
C) those over age sixty-five
D) single mothers and their children
E) the handicapped

Question 47

The Tonkin Gulf resolution:

A) was in response to a Viet Cong attack upon an American military base
B) deeply divided Congress
C) was used by Johnson as a substitute for a declaration of war
D) authorized American naval aggression off the coast of North Vietnam
E) led Johnson to de-escalate the Vietnam War

Question 48

Beginning with Watts, the major race riots of 1965 and 1966:

A) occurred largely outside the South
B) started when white mobs attacked blacks
C) resulted from blacks being denied the vote
D) were led by the Black Panthers
E) proved the increasing irrelevance of Martin Luther King

Question 49

The Equal Employment Opportunities Commission was created by the:

A) Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965
B) Redevelopment Act of 1961
C) Civil Rights Act of 1964
D) Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965
E) Trade Expansion Act of 1962

Question 50

Michael Harrington's book, The Other America, influenced President Johnson to declare war on:

A) racism
B) teen pregnancy
C) illegal aliens
D) poverty
E) drugs

Question 51

President Johnson labeled his overall program of domestic reform the:

A) True Deal
B) New Frontier
C) New Beginning
D) Great Society
E) New America

Question 52

In retrospect, Johnson's war on poverty:

A) practically eliminated poverty
B) generated middle-class resentment that benefited the Republicans
C) kept the United States from devoting sufficient funds to the war in Vietnam
D) had practically no effect on poverty levels
E) proved that government was incapable of improving society

Question 53

Changes in immigration law in 1965:

A) favored immigration from Europe as compared to other parts of the world
B) removed quotas based upon national origin
C) removed annual limits on how many could enter the United States
D) decreased foreign immigration
E) were designed to increase American access to cheap labor

Question 54

The purpose of Kennedy's proposed tax cut was to:

A) reduce the size of the federal government
B) help the economy by stimulating consumer spending
C) give rich Americans even more money
D) reduce the government's budgetary surplus
E) win Republican support for civil rights legislation

Question 55

The legislation passed by Congress at Johnson's urging in 1965 included all of the following EXCEPT:

A) Medicare
B) funds for urban renewal and public housing
C) anti-poverty aid to Appalachia
D) government guarantee of full employment
E) massive federal aid to education

Question 56

The Civil Rights Act of 1964:

A) outlawed segregation in public facilities
B) strengthened the Democratic party in the South
C) was reluctantly supported by Johnson
D) passed Congress with minimal opposition
E) ended racism in the United States

Question 57

President Johnson's first priority on the domestic front was to:

A) balance the federal budget
B) give more power to the states
C) get Kennedy's legislative program through Congress
D) redistribute wealth and income
E) reduce the bloated power of the executive branch of government

Question 58

One of Johnson's major goals in Vietnam was to:

A) kill as many Vietnamese as possible
B) keep the Soviets and Chinese from attacking elsewhere in Asia
C) use nuclear weapons to end the war as quickly as possible
D) use the war to unite the country at home
E) avoid losing it to communism

Question 59

In the 1964 election:

A) Republicans continued to make gains in the Deep South
B) Republicans made gains in both houses of Congress
C) voters approved Johnson's pledge to escalate the war in Vietnam
D) Goldwater lost but did better than expected
E) voters expressed their desire for even more radical domestic reform

Question 60

The Voting Rights Act of 1965:

A) was passed by Congress over Johnson's opposition
B) ended black protest movements
C) dramatically expanded black votes in the South
D) made the South more strongly Democratic
E) was successfully resisted in the Deep South

Question 62

What were the main domestic achievements of the New Frontier and the Great Society? Which accomplished more? Why?

Question 63

The year 1968 has been called the most turbulent year of the 1960s. Explain why some people believe this.

Question 64

On June 5, 1968, Sirhan Sirhan shot and killed:

A) Martin Luther King
B) Malcolm X
C) George Wallace
D) Robert Kennedy
E) Eugene McCarthy

Question 65

Compare the philosophies and styles of Martin Luther King Jr. and the leaders of the black power movement.

Question 66

All of the following became critical of Johnson's Vietnam policy EXCEPT:

A) Senator Robert Kennedy
B) General William Westmoreland
C) Senator J. William Fulbright
D) Senator Eugene McCarthy
E) George Kennan

Question 67

Discuss, in detail, Martin Luther King Jr.'s "militant nonviolence." How did this philosophy inspire others to challenge segregation in the South?

Question 68

The Tet offensive of early 1968:

A) was the American attempt to destroy the Ho Chi Minh Trail
B) was a major victory for the Viet Cong
C) resulted in Saigon's fall to the Communists
D) inspired Johnson to dramatically raise troop levels in Vietnam
E) dramatically affected public support for Johnson's war policy

Question 69

"American military intervention in Vietnam was . . . a logical culmination of the assumptions widely shared by the foreign-policy establishment and leaders of both political parties since the early days of the cold war." Explain this statement.

Question 70

All of the following are true of the 1968 presidential election EXCEPT:

A) Richard Nixon won a very close popular vote victory
B) George Wallace appealed to social conservatives, even outside the South
C) Nixon made a remarkable comeback from earlier political defeats
D) Wallace made one of the strongest third-party showings in history
E) Hubert Humphrey lost because he refused to alter Johnson's Vietnam policies

Question 71

In early 1968, increasing opposition to the war within his own party:

A) only increased Johnson's determination to win in Vietnam
B) ultimately forced Johnson out of the presidential race
C) led to Johnson's clear defeat in the New Hampshire primary
D) caused Johnson to end the war on poverty
E) caused most Americans to rally around Johnson

Question 72

Describe the major trends in the cold war in the 1960s.

Question 73

The 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago:

A) boosted the candidacy of Hubert Humphrey
B) showed the patience of Mayor Daley and the Chicago police
C) resulted in massive rioting in the streets
D) was dull and uninspiring
E) successfully appealed to the values of "middle America"

Question 74

Trace the early foreign-policy setbacks during the Kennedy administration.

Question 75

Describe the candidates, issues, and results of the presidential elections of 1960, 1964, and 1968.

Question 76

Discuss the rise of Malcolm X and his influence on the black power movement in America.

Question 77

Describe the Warren Court's impact on American domestic life in the 1960s.

Question 78

MATCHING
Match each description with the item below.