Deck 36: The Cold War Begins

Question 1

The Taft-Hartley Act delivered a major blow to labor by

A) outlawing strikes by public employees.
B) requiring that workers' votes on unions be by secret ballot.
C) banning labor's political action committees.
D) outlawing the "closed" (all-union) shops.
E) forbidding union organizers to enter workplaces.

Answer 1

outlawing the "closed" (all-union) shops.

Question 2

One sign of the stress that the rapid growth of post-World War II geographic mobility placed on American families was the

A) redistribution of income.
B) popularity of advice books on child-rearing.
C) increasing reliance on television as a "baby sitter."
D) increased number of long-distance telephone calls.
E) dramatic rise in divorces.

Answer 2

popularity of advice books on child-rearing.

Question 3

The post-World War II prosperity in the United States was most beneficial to

A) African Americans.
B) labor unions.
C) women.
D) Hispanics.
E) farmers.

Answer 3

women.

Question 4

Americans feared that the end of World War II would bring mainly

A) renewed racial tensions.
B) a return of the Depression.
C) serious inflation.
D) Communist takeovers of France and Italy.
E) a new war with the Soviet Union.

Question 5

A primary factor fueling the long economic boom from World War II to the 1970s was

A) low energy costs.
B) reduced military expenditures.
C) low inflation.
D) sound government economic planning.
E) cooperation between business and labor.

Question 6

Post-World War II American workers made spectacular gains in productivity owing to

A) the passage of the Taft-Hartley Law.
B) more efficient factory organization.
C) the continued growth of unions.
D) the destruction of Europe's industrial machine.
E) their rising education levels.

Question 7

A primary motive behind the Servicemen's Readjustment Act (GI Bill) was to

A) enable colleges and universities to fill empty places in their classrooms.
B) bring skills learned in the military to the civilian economy.
C) encourage technically oriented students to study the liberal arts.
D) keep millions of returning soldiers from flooding the job market.
E) provide funds so ex-GIs could marry and support families.

Question 8

Since 1945, population in the United States has grown most in the

A) Northeast.
B) Midwest.
C) Sunbelt.
D) Frostbelt.
E) Pacific Northwest.

Question 9

Much of the prosperity of the 1950s and 1960s rested on

A) increased savings for capital investment.
B) a rising stock market.
C) a dramatic increase in foreign trade.
D) a thriving automobile industry.
E) the underpinnings of colossal military budgets.

Question 10

The feminist revolt of the 1960s was sparked by

A) the continued exclusion of most women from the workplace.
B) growing domination of the service sector of the economy, where most women were employed, by the industrial and manufacturing sectors.
C) Congress's failure to pass the Equal Rights Amendment.
D) a clash between the demands of the traditional role of women as wives and mothers and the realities of employment.
E) dismay at the image of women in advertising.

Question 11

The refusal of the Federal Housing Authority to grant home loans to blacks contributed to

A) the growth of savings and loan institutions exclusively for blacks.
B) driving many blacks into public housing.
C) the development of exclusively black suburbs.
D) a decline in black migration to the cities.
E) all of these.

Question 12

By 1960, the proportion of Americans who lived in areas classified as metropolitan suburbs was approximately

A) three out of four (75%).
B) one out of four (25%).
C) half (50%).
D) one out of ten (10%).
E) four out of ten (40%).

Question 13

All of the following encouraged many postwar Americans to move from cities to the suburbs except

A) development of fuel-efficient automobiles.
B) home-loan guarantees from the Federal Housing Authority and the Veterans' Administration.
C) federal and state highway construction.
D) tax deductions for interest payments on home mortgages.
E) white flight from racial change.

Question 14

In an effort to forestall an economic downturn, the Truman administration did all of the following except

A) create the President's Council of Economic Advisers.
B) sell war factories and other government installations to private businesses at very low prices.
C) pass the Employment Act, which made it government policy to promote maximum employment, production, and purchasing power.
D) pass the Servicemen's Readjustment Act, known as the GI Bill of Rights.
E) continue wartime wage and price controls.

Question 15

The rapid rise of suburbia in post-World War II America can be attributed to

A) the baby boom.
B) government mortgage guarantees.
C) new highways.
D) white flight.
E) all of these.

Question 16

Population distribution after World War II followed a pattern of

A) movement into the Northeast and out of the South.
B) mass migration of blacks from the West to the Midwest.
C) movement of Hispanics from the Southwest to the Pacific Northwest.
D) segregation in the inner cities and integration in the suburbs.
E) a segregation of whites in the suburbs and blacks and Hispanics in the cities.

Question 17

On the home front in 1946, postwar America was characterized by

A) lengthy retention of wartime price controls.
B) a slow demobilization of military forces.
C) an epidemic of labor strikes.
D) maximum federal action to guarantee full civil rights for blacks.
E) severe unemployment of returned GIs.

Question 18

The continued growth of the suburbs led to

A) increased school integration.
B) better entertainment opportunities in the cities.
C) an increase in urban poverty.
D) cities becoming primarily places of entertainment and culture.
E) more efficient transportation.

Question 19

Much of the Sunbelt's new prosperity was based on its

A) tremendous influx of money from the federal government.
B) policy of low state-tax rates.
C) planned economic growth.
D) construction of gated communities.
E) attention to environmental issues.

Question 20

The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 was passed to check the growing power of

A) the army and navy departments.
B) blacks.
C) labor unions.
D) the federal bureaucracy.
E) leftists and communists.

Question 21

When the Soviet Union denied the United States, Britain, and France access to Berlin in 1948, President Truman responded by

A) creating West Berlin as a separate city from East Berlin.
B) denying the Soviets access to West Germany.
C) declaring that an "iron curtain" had descended across Central Europe.
D) organizing a gigantic airlift of supplies to Berlin.
E) sending an armed convoy to Berlin.

Question 22

President Truman's Marshall Plan called for

A) military aid for Europe.
B) substantial financial assistance to rebuild Western Europe.
C) economic aid for Japan.
D) foreign aid for Third World countries to resist communism.
E) an alliance to contain the Soviet Union.

Question 23

In regard to postwar Germany, the Big Three allies agreed that

A) Germany should pay economically crippling war reparations.
B) high-ranking Nazis should be tried and punished for war crimes.
C) occupied Germany should be reunited as soon as possible.
D) a united Berlin should remain the capital of Germany.
E) Germany should be divided into East and West Germany.

Question 24

Truman's defenders argue that he exaggerated the Soviet threat because he

A) was pressured to do so by other Democrats.
B) received bad intelligence from the CIA.
C) was being politically challenged by former Vice President Wallace.
D) it was necessary to justify renewal of the draft.
E) feared a revival of isolationism.

Question 25

Liberal Protestant clergyman Reinhold Niebuhr raised a Christian voice against fascism, pacifism, and communism by arguing that the world was divided between ____ and ____, and Christian justice required an active response (including force if necessary).

A) capitalist, communist
B) liberals, conservatives
C) light, dark
D) right winged, left winged
E) Catholic, Protestant

Question 26

Which of the following was not a cause of the Cold War?

A) American capitalism and Soviet communism were historically hostile social philosophies.
B) The Soviet Union sought spheres of influence while the United States pursued Wilsonian ideals of open, democratized international relations.
C) Neither the United States nor the Soviet Union had experience as a dominant global great power.
D) Both the United States and the Soviet Union believed in spreading their "revolutionary" ideals to peoples everywhere.
E) America and the Soviet Union had historically competing national interests.

Question 27

Joseph Stalin's postwar security concerns focused primarily on

A) Japan and East Asia.
B) the Mediterranean.
C) the Middle East.
D) Eastern Europe.
E) the Baltic and Scandinavian countries.

Question 28

Harry Truman possessed all of the following personal characteristics except

A) willingness to admit mistakes.
B) few pretensions.
C) willingness to accept responsibility.
D) honesty.
E) courage.

Question 29

The postwar policies adopted by the Truman administration toward the Soviet Union were based on the assumption that the Soviet Union was relentlessly

A) paranoid.
B) a traditional nationalist empire.
C) communist.
D) conciliatory.
E) expansionist.

Question 30

Soviet specialist George F.Kennan framed a coherent theory for American foreign policy that was called

A) détente.
B) Wilsonianism.
C) containment.
D) flexible response.
E) mutual and assured destruction (MAD).

Question 31

At the Yalta Conference, the United States was eager to have the Soviet Union participate in the projected invasion of Japan because it believed that

A) turning Soviet attention to East Asia would prevent their expansion in central Europe.
B) without Soviet help, the Japanese could not be defeated.
C) Soviet assistance could reduce the number of American casualties.
D) Soviet Siberia would be an ideal base for launching the invasion.
E) the Soviets could help control the Chinese Communists.

Question 32

The huge baby boom reached its peak in the

A) late 1940s.
B) early 1950s.
C) late 1950s.
D) mid-1960s.
E) early 1970s.

Question 33

The Truman Doctrine was originally formulated to prevent threatened Communist takeovers of

A) Iran and Iraq.
B) Greece and Turkey.
C) China and Korea.
D) Czechoslovakia and Hungary.
E) Berlin and Vienna.

Question 34

President Truman's strong support for the establishment of the state of Israel encountered strong domestic opposition from

A) the U.S.State and Defense Departments.
B) evangelical Christians.
C) Congress.
D) the Catholic church.
E) the Arab oil countries.

Question 35

Under the Truman Doctrine, the United States pledged

A) never to negotiate with the Soviet Communists.
B) to organize a military alliance against the Soviet empire.
C) to send American forces to fight Communist revolutionaries wherever they appeared.
D) to support nations anywhere who were resisting subjugation by armed minorities or outside pressures.
E) to liberate the "captive nations" of Eastern Europe.

Question 36

The origins of the Cold War lay in a fundamental disagreement between the United States and the Soviet Union over postwar arrangements in

A) North Africa.
B) East Asia.
C) the Middle East.
D) Germany and Italy.
E) Eastern Europe.

Question 37

The earliest and most serious failure of the United Nations involved its inability to

A) deal with the conflict between India and Pakistan in Kashmir.
B) provide humanitarian assistance to underdeveloped nations.
C) control the manufacture and spread of nuclear technology and weapons.
D) prevent the Soviet Union from exercising its veto power in the Security Council.
E) establish a Jewish homeland in Israel.

Question 38

Match each postwar American foreign policy initiative with its primary purpose.

A) A-4, B-1, C-3, D-2
B) A-2, B-3, C-1, D-4
C) A-1, B-2, C-4, D-3
D) A-3, B-4, C-1, D-2
E) A-4, B-3, C-2, D-1

Question 39

The Marshall Plan finally passed Congress largely because it was perceived there as

A) a way to block communist takeovers in western Europe.
B) a humanitarian necessity.
C) not that expensive.
D) promoting American-style capitalism in Europe.
E) economically beneficial to the United States.

Question 40

The number of children born in the peak baby-boom years of 1946 to 1957 was approximately

A) 10 million.
B) 25 million.
C) 50 million.
D) 75 million.
E) 100 million.

Question 41

Jiang Jieshi and the Nationalist government lost the Chinese civil war to the communists and Mao Zedong mainly because

A) their corruption and incompetence lost the support and confidence of the Chinese people.
B) the United States failed to give Jiang enough aid.
C) they controlled only the countryside while Mao Zedong seized the cities.
D) American communists inside the Truman administration undermined Jiang's efforts.
E) the communists were closer to the Confucian values of traditional Chinese culture.

Question 42

By 1945 the Soviet Union had reason to be suspicious of the United States because the

A) United States had refused to recognize the Soviet government until 1933.
B) British and Americans had delayed opening a second front in Europe during the war.
C) British and Americans had not informed the Soviet Union of the A-bomb project until it was completed.
D) the United States abruptly terminated lend-lease aid.
E) the United States had begun installing anti-Soviet leaders in Germany and Italy.

Question 43

President Harry Truman relieved General Douglas MacArthur from command of United Nations troops in Korea when

A) MacArthur began lobbying for his policies directly with Congress.
B) MacArthur crossed the 38th parallel and entered North Korea.
C) the Chinese entered the Korean War after MacArthur said they would not.
D) MacArthur began to publicly defy presidential policies by threatening to expand the war to China.
E) MacArthur began to mock Truman for being only a captain in the army.

Question 44

Match each person below with his or her role in the domestic anticommunist crusade of the late 1940s and early 1950s.

A) A-1, B-3, C-2, D-4
B) A-4, B-1, C-3, D-2
C) A-4, B-2, C-1, D-3
D) A-1, B-4, C-3, D-2
E) A-2, B-3, C-4, D-1

Question 45

Under the North Atlantic Treaty, the United States

A) assumed a commitment to aid any member nation attacked by the Soviet Union.
B) guaranteed to maintain permanent military presence in western Europe.
C) assumed military command of the armies of Britain, France, and Italy.
D) pledged not to form alliances with any other nations.
E) was required to consult with its NATO allies before taking any military action.

Question 46

In 1948, many southern Democrats split from the party because

A) the leftist Wallace progressives had gained power in the party.
B) they felt that Truman's weakness had "lost China" to the communists.
C) President Truman took a strong stand in favor of civil rights.
D) Truman refused to select a southern vice presidential candidate.
E) Truman appointed an ambassador to the Catholic Vatican.

Question 47

The fundamental purposes of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization included all of the following except

A) to guarantee that an attack on any member nation would be treated as an attack on all.
B) to prevent the rise of another aggressive German state.
C) to pressure neutral European nations to side with the U.S.
D) to keep American forces committed to the defense of western Europe.
E) to contain militarily any further Soviet expansion in Europe.

Question 48

Arrange the following in chronological order of their appearance: (A) Marshall Plan, (B) Truman Doctrine, (C) NATO.

A) A, C, B
B) B, A, C
C) C, B, A
D) B, C, A
E) A, B, C

Question 49

The imperious and insubordinate commander in Korea who was fired by President Truman was General

A) Dwight Eisenhower.
B) George Patton.
C) "Bull" Halsey.
D) Matthew Ridgeway.
E) Douglas MacArthur.

Question 50

Arrange the following events in chronological order: (A) Berlin airlift, (B) Korean War, (C) fall of China.

A) A, C, B
B) B, C, A
C) A, B, C
D) C, A, B
E) C, B, A

Question 51

In the presidential campaign of 1948, President Harry Truman defeated

A) Richard M.Nixon.
B) Thomas A.Dewey.
C) Dwight D.Eisenhower.
D) J.Strom Thurmond.
E) Henry A.Wallace.

Question 52

In its early years, the United Nations was successful in

A) preserving peace in several hot spots like Iran and Kashmir.
B) guiding several former colonies to independent nationhood.
C) establishing international control over atomic technology and weapons.
D) helping to create the new Jewish state of Israel.
E) establishing international health, science, and food agencies.

Question 53

At the wartime Yalta conference, the Big Three allies

A) agreed that none of them would acquire any territorial concessions in East Asia.
B) drafted a comprehensive peace settlement for the postwar world.
C) agreed to establish a postwar international peacekeeping organization.
D) agreed that the Soviet Union would enter the war against Japan within three months of the surrender of Germany.
E) agreed to the postwar division of Germany.

Question 54

Match each 1948 presidential candidate below with his political party.

A) A-1, B-3, C-2, D-4
B) A-4, B-2, C-1, D-3
C) A-3, B-1, C-2, D-4
D) A-1, B-4, C-3, D-2
E) A-2, B-3, C-4, D-1

Question 55

President Truman's reaction to the invasion of South Korea demonstrated his commitment to the American foreign policy of

A) confrontation.
B) rolling back communism.
C) détente.
D) multilateralism.
E) containment.

Question 56

NSC-68 called for

A) the invasion of North Korea by United Nations troops.
B) a blockade of the China coast and bombing of Manchuria.
C) a program of spying on the Soviet Union.
D) the reorganization of the Defense Department.
E) a massive increase in military spending.

Question 57

In an effort to uncover communists within the federal government, President Harry Truman established the

A) Committee on Un-American Activities.
B) Central Intelligence Agency.
C) FBI anticommunist unit.
D) McCarran Internal Security Act.
E) Loyalty Review Board.

Question 58

The United States was able to obtain United Nations support for its military action in Korea because

A) the Soviet Union was temporarily absent from the U.N.Security Council.
B) the members of the Security Council supported the U.S.containment doctrine.
C) the U.S.pledged that it would only defend South Korea, not attack North Korea.
D) the U.N.saw this as a key test for the future of democracy in East Asia.
E) the U.S.pressured and bribed other members of the Security Council to back its action.

Question 59

The United States' participation in NATO

A) reaffirmed our long-standing commitment to the defense of Europe.
B) marked a dramatic departure from the traditional avoidance of American entangling alliances.
C) created strong resentment in much of western Europe.
D) helped to resolve the problem of divided Germany.
E) forced severe American troop reductions in East Asia.

Question 60

Post-World War II Japan

A) was, like Germany, divided into Allied occupation zones.
B) was destabilized by a civil war between nationalist and communist elements.
C) resisted the imposition of American-style democracy.
D) was governed from the island of Formosa (Taiwan) until 1949.
E) underwent a dramatic democratization under American military rule.

Question 61

How important has the post-World War II baby boom been to recent American history? Indicate its impact on each decade since 1945.What importance is it likely to have in the next twenty-five years?

Question 62

Why did President Truman relieve General MacArthur of his command in Korea? Do you think that it was a wise decision? Why or why not?

Question 63

Contrast the United States' tremendous success story in postwar Japan versus its failure in China.Who was responsible for the "fall of China"?

Question 64

Weigh the contributions made by both the United States and the Soviet Union to the developing Cold War.Do you think that the Cold War was inevitable? Why or why not? If so, at what point did it become inevitable?

Question 65

What was gained and lost in the American migration to the suburbs after World War II? How did new social problems and issues develop as the suburban migration took place?

Question 66

Identify the factors that produced the anticommunist witch hunt after World War II.List some of its most important short- and long-term consequences.

Question 67

Assess the validity of the following statement, "though he was decidedly unpopular when he left the presidency, President Truman is one of America's ten "greatest" presidents."

Question 68

Trace the origins of the Cold War, considering the historical background of American-Soviet relations, the wartime relationship, the role of ideology, and early postwar developments.

Question 69

To what extent did the successful Communist revolution in China and the Soviet development of the atomic and hydrogen bombs create such anxiety and recriminations in the United States? Why did the fear of international Communism turn into a hunt for "reds" inside the United States?

Question 70

To what extent was American postwar policy more successful in both containing Communism and avoiding war in Europe than it was in East Asia?

Question 71

Critically analyze the rationale for the postwar policy of containment.Show how it was applied in the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, NATO, and Korea.

Question 72

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?

Question 73

How did Harry Truman manage to pull off the greatest upset in American political history? What was the relative importance of Truman's personality, Dewey's overconfidence, and the practical interests of various voting blocs in Truman's victory?

Question 74

The National Security Act of 1947 created the

A) Joint Chiefs of Staff.
B) Central Intelligence Agency.
C) Federal Bureau of Investigation.
D) Selective Service System.
E) Department of Defense.

Question 75

Evaluate the tradeoffs at the Yalta conference in 1945.Was it a "sellout" to the Soviet Union, as numerous critics charged? Why or why not?