Question 1

How did the rise of the suburbs affect American family life, community life, and race relations? Were these specific effects on American family life, community life, and race relations healthy or unhealthy for America in the long term? Defend you views with specific examples.

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Question 2

Explain the rationale for the postwar policy of containment. Show how it was applied in the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, NATO, the enactment of the National Security Act of 1947, the creation of the "Voice of America," and the resurrection of the military draft in 1948. What were the realistic U.S. foreign policy alternatives to containment, and why weren't they explored by the Truman administration?

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Question 3

Identify the factors that produced the anti-communist witch hunt, including the outrageous and ruthless actions and government purges connected to Senator Joseph McCarthy, after World War II. List some of its most important short- and long-term consequences for government and nongovernment institutions and Americans who were victims of McCarthyism and the overall postwar anti-communist witch hunt.

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Question 4

To what degree do you think each of the following contributed to the Cold War: a) President Truman's style, b) the Soviet Union's security interests, and c) American expectations for the postwar world?

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Question 5

Compare and contrast America's anti-communist containment policy in Europe and in East Asia. Why was the policy more successful in Europe than in Asia?

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Question 6

Trace the origins of the Cold War, considering the historical background of United States-Soviet Union relations, the wartime relationship, and early postwar developments.

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Question 7

Normally, divisions or a split in a major political party spells certain defeat for its presidential candidate. President Harry Truman was able to overcome a three-way Democratic split in 1948, What explains his surprising underdog victory? Would Truman have won against any Republican opponent besides Thomas Dewey?

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Question 8

Assess President Truman's response to the outbreak of hostilities in Korea in 1950. Do you think that he acted properly with regard to the United Nations, Congress, and his military commanders? Why or why not?

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Question 9

What, if any, legitimate concerns might Americans and the American government have had about Soviet spying and American communists' disloyalty in the late 1940s? Why did the hunt for spies and subversives expand into a wide-ranging political witch hunt that smeared many innocent Americans?

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Question 10

How do you assess Harry S Truman as a political leader? What were his greatest successes in foreign and domestic policy? What were his greatest failures?

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Question 11

Do you think that the Nazi and Japanese leaders should have been tried for war crimes even though their crimes were not clearly defined as such before the war began? Why or why not?

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Question 12

Explain the United States' tremendous success story in postwar Japan versus its failure in China. Who was responsible for the fall of China to the communists? Did American postwar foreign policy toward Nationalist China and its leader Jiang Jieshi play a crucial role in the fall of China? Alternatively, were the keys to the "loss of China" to be found in the shortcomings of the Nationalist government and the political and military strength of Mao Zedong and his communist armies?

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Question 13

Though he was decidedly unpopular when he left the presidency, President Truman has since come to be viewed as one of America's 10 greatest presidents. Explain why his popularity was so low in 1952 and why he is so well-rated in retrospect. What is your evaluation of President Truman as president? Defend you view with specific examples illustrating Truman's performance.

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Question 14

Why was there such strong popular domestic political support initially for Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist crusade in the early 1950s?

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Question 15

Was the Cold War inevitable? Why or why not? If so, at what point in the early post-World War II years did the Cold War become inevitable? What steps, if any, the United States and/or the Soviet Union could have taken to avoid the outbreak of the Cold War?

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Question 16

Evaluate the geo-political and military trade-offs at the Yalta conference in 1945. Should Roosevelt's concessions and agreements concerning Poland, the Balkans, and China be considered political sellouts to the Soviet Union? Why or why not?

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Question 17

Were Senator Joseph McCarthy's unsubstantiated and ruinous allegations of communist sympathies and activities against liberals, former and current government officials in the State Department and other government bureaucracies, and even members of the U.S. Army a reflection of his personal character or a manifestation of the larger American fears and anxieties about communism and social change in the late 1940s and early 1950s?

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Question 18

Should the victory of the communists in the Chinese civil war in 1949 be judged as a failure of American foreign policy? Why or why not?

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Question 19

Why did President Truman relieve General MacArthur of his military command in Korea? Was it a popular decision with the American public? Do you think that it was a wise decision? Why or why not?

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Question 20

Evaluate President Truman's strategy and conduct as Commander-in-Chief during the Korean War. Assess the realism of his goals and the propriety of his means.

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Quiz 34: The Cold War Begins