Deck 24: The Cold War, 1945-1954

Question 1

___________ was the legislation that created the Defense Department, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the National Security Council.

Answer 1

National Security Act of 1947

Question 2

Authored by George Kennan, the ____________ reoriented American foreign policy following World War II.

Answer 2

Containment policy

Question 3

The government report To Secure These Rights called for __________ action to fight lynchings, segregation, and job discrimination.

Answer 3

Federal government

Question 4

The border separating North and South Korea was established at the _________.

Question 5

__________ was created as a multinational organization made up of member nations who could bring their concerns there instead of to the battlefield.

Question 6

How was U.S. membership in NATO an important historical departure?

Question 7

_____ was a secret document written in 1950 that revised the containment policy and redirected the defense program in the United States.

Question 8

________ broke the color line in major league baseball in 1947 when he was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Question 9

Define the mission the CIA received in the National Security Act of 1947.

Question 10

Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Josef Stalin were referred to as the __________.

Question 11

John Turchinetz

A) Felt "a little different" after World War II
B) Fought in World War II.
C) Felt the loss of normality after World War II.
D) All of the above.

Question 12

Who caused the Cold War?

A) The United States.
B) The Soviet Union.
C) Both countries were equally responsible.
D) No one knows the answer.

Question 13

Which of the following was a source of the conflict between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)?

A) The fact that the State Department recognized the Soviet Union in 1933.
B) The belief that capitalism and Communism cannot coexist.
C) Josef Stalin's betrayal of the United States at the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
D) President Roosevelt's mistrust of Josef Stalin at the Japanese surrender in September 1945.

Question 14

In February 1945, the Americans, British, and Soviets agreed to all of the following except

A) The division and ultimate reunification of Germany.
B) Self-determination for nations.
C) Collective action through the United Nations to handle international problems.
D) A permanent Soviet occupation of Poland.

Question 15

What role did Poland play in the discussions at Yalta?

A) Against American wishes to the contrary, the Polish prime minister was not allowed at the meeting.
B) Stalin worried that the Soviet Union was threatened by an unfriendly or anti-Soviet government in Poland.
C) The Americans worried about losing a good trade partner in Poland.
D) The American government wanted a pro-American government as a buffer between the Soviet Union and Switzerland.

Question 16

Why did President Truman come to believe that the danger posed by American Communists was far bigger than their numbers?

A) Effective Soviet counterintelligence.
B) The threats posed by the Soviet nuclear bomb.
C) A series of sensational spy scandals.
D) Winston Churchill convinced Truman that this was the case.

Question 17

How did the U.S. development of the nuclear bomb affect U.S.-Soviet relations?

A) Since the two nations were already at war, it made little difference.
B) The bomb turned a trusted and amicable relationship into a tense situation.
C) U.S. refusal to heed Soviet warnings not to detonate the bomb caused severe friction.
D) U.S. secrecy about the development of the bomb further strained U.S.-Soviet relations.

Question 18

By the spring of 1946, Truman's administration favored

A) A global economy based on free trade.
B) The construction of military bases around the world to keep aggressors from harming the United States.
C) The swift reconstruction of postwar Germany and Japan.
D) All of the above.

Question 19

The Iron Curtain

A) Was built by the Soviets across the border between East Germany and Poland.
B) Was the first of many physical barriers built across Eastern Europe to protect the Soviet world.
C) Was a metaphorical division between the nations supportive of the Soviet Union and those that supported the West.
D) All of the above.

Question 20

About the Soviet Union, George Kennan wrote that

A) There can be no peaceful coexistence between capitalism and socialism.
B) President Truman needed to bluff the Soviets into believing the United States would launch a nuclear strike.
C) Stalin's military was so weak following the war that it did not pose any threat to the United States.
D) The United States needed to build hydrogen weapons.

Question 21

Which of the following best summarizes the official meaning of the Truman Doctrine?

A) The United States must support free peoples in their struggle against subjugation.
B) The United States must fight Communism wherever it occurs.
C) The United States must fight religious radicalism in the Middle East.
D) The United States must reunify Berlin.

Question 22

Why, according to George Kennan, did the United States have to embrace a policy of containment?

A) Communism was inherently contagious.
B) European cultures were incapable of fending off Russian values.
C) The Soviet state entertained expansive tendencies.
D) The Soviet Union practiced the same ideology as Nazi Germany.

Question 23

Which of the following was a result of the Marshall Plan?

A) By 1950, participating countries exceeded prewar production levels.
B) The investments of the Marshall Plan funded the complete rebuilding of Germany by 1960.
C) Marshall Plan funds restored full employment in the Soviet Union.
D) Marshall Plan funds rebuild the German military to prewar capabilities by 1951.

Question 24

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was

A) A mutual defense treaty made up of European and North American nations pledged to protect one another in case of an attack by the Soviet Union.
B) A military trade agreement designed to help European member nations recover economically.
C) A buy-American trade agreement.
D) A military alliance designed to coordinate an attack on the Soviet Union.

Question 25

The National Security Act of 1947 accomplished all of the following except

A) Reorganizing the military branches.
B) Creating the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
C) Requiring annual military service for American men.
D) Creating the National Security Council.

Question 26

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was created in 1947 by

A) NATO.
B) The National Security Act.
C) The FBI.
D) The Selective Service Act.

Question 27

Under the Rio Pact,

A) Truman committed the United States to lower greenhouse gas emissions.
B) Latin American nations vowed to fight domestic Communism with military force.
C) Brazil promised to sell all its petroleum exports to the United States.
D) The United States provided training, weapons, and advisers to Latin American militaries.

Question 28

As a result of the global Cold War

A) The United States paid less and less attention to the rest of the world.
B) The United States neglected Europe in favor of the Soviet Union.
C) Territories of formerly little strategic interest became vital to security.
D) Africa enjoyed a new era of prosperity and peace.

Question 29

When the Soviets blockaded Berlin and refused to allow food and supplies to be transported from the West into the city, President Truman responded with

A) What is now known as the Berlin Airlift.
B) Flights of cargo planes carrying food and supplies into Berlin.
C) The relocation of two squadrons of B-29 bombers to England; these were the same kinds of planes used to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
D) All of the above.

Question 30

The Cold War became global because

A) America exported goods and democracy.
B) Strife in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America was seen as a part of the conflict between the United States and USSR.
C) If the American economy was going to recover from the Great Depression, the Soviets had to be defeated.
D) No statement is accurate.

Question 31

Why were Americans startled by the news that U.S. troops would be fighting in Korea?

A) No one could have imagined the United States being at war again.
B) Americans thought this was a region covered by Australian forces.
C) Korea had been a peaceful and prosperous ally to the United States for decades.
D) Korea was not considered strategically important until 1950.

Question 32

In June 1950,

A) Harry Truman and his military advisers were taken entirely by surprise by the invasion of South Korea.
B) The Communist Chinese invaded North Korea and then moved down the peninsula.
C) The North Korean army invaded South Korea.
D) Troops led by Syngman Rhee moved across the 38th parallel.

Question 33

General MacArthur's early successes in Korea were reversed when

A) The Soviet Union used its veto in the United Nations to halt the fighting.
B) The Allies abandoned South Korea because of heavy combat losses.
C) Communist Chinese forces entered the war on the side of North Korea.
D) He urged President Truman to negotiate a settlement in Korea.

Question 34

At the conclusion of the war in Korea, the country was divided between North and South Korea at

A) The 17th parallel.
B) The Yalu River.
C) The Yellow Sea.
D) The 38th parallel.

Question 35

The guideline for American policy known as NSC-68 warned about all of the following situations except

A) The Soviet Union was proceeding to "create overwhelming military force."
B) The United States needed to double its defense spending.
C) Every individual faced the "ever-present possibility of annihilation."
D) The Soviets were building an atom-fusing, thermonuclear hydrogen bomb that would threaten world peace.

Question 36

The term "reconversion" referred to

A) The process that the Republican Party went through following FDR's four terms as president.
B) The natural shift of American values back to more traditional values.
C) The attitudinal shift among the nation's Democrats to trim back the federal programs brought on by the New Deal and the war effort.
D) Restoring the nation's economy and society back to prewar status.

Question 37

The one thing most Americans feared above all else following the war was

A) Veterans suffering from yet undefined posttraumatic syndrome.
B) A Communist infiltration of the American population.
C) The economic slide into a postwar depression.
D) A Communist takeover of American values.

Question 38

The GI Bill of 1944 provided veterans with

A) Transportation back to their hometowns.
B) Up to three years' college education paid for by the federal government.
C) Guaranteed employment in their prewar jobs.
D) Guaranteed employment in the growing defense industry.

Question 39

At the end of the war, American labor

A) Had never been more powerful.
B) Had organized to call strikes and other work stoppages.
C) Prospered.
D) All of the above.

Question 40

The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947

A) Made it easier for employers to hire nonunion workers.
B) Expanded workers' rights to form unions.
C) Expanded workers' rights to engage in political activity.
D) All of the above.

Question 41

The Treaty of Detroit 1950 covered what topic?

A) The agreement, still in place, between the city of Detroit and the National Football League, which moved the Detroit Lions to Michigan.
B) The relationship between the UAW and American Indian leaders to increase the number of Indians obtaining work in the automobile industry.
C) Workers' contracts lasting at least five years and a pension plan.
D) Unions reasserting their demand to participate in management in postwar America.

Question 42

Women were challenged by the postwar reconversion because

A) Both government and employers believed women should return to their homes at the end of the war.
B) Many believed returning veterans should be employed, not women.
C) Three-quarters of American women who wanted to work found jobs.
D) All of the above.

Question 43

Despite their gains in employment, American women workers faced

A) Split shifts.
B) Long commutes to their workplaces.
C) Discrimination.
D) None of the above.

Question 44

After the war, African Americans

A) Expected to enjoy the rights and privileges they had acquired during the war.
B) Celebrated the end of discrimination in the sale and rental of housing.
C) Were lucky to find work.
D) All of the above.

Question 45

The court decisions Smith v. Allwright (1944), Morgan v. Virginia (1946), and Shelly v. Kraemer (1948) resulted in

A) The realization that African Americans might have the court on their side.
B) The Supreme Court striking down various discriminatory practices.
C) African Americans being encouraged to challenge inequality in other areas of American society.
D) All of the above.

Question 46

"To Secure These Rights"

A) Was the report filed by a presidential committee looking at various discriminatory practices common in America.
B) Was supported by President Truman.
C) Called for federal action to prevent lynchings, voter suppression, and other discriminatory actions.
D) All of the above.

Question 47

__________ was the first African American man in decades to play in major league baseball.

A) Medgar Evers
B) Jackie Robinson
C) Philip Randolph
D) Larry Doby

Question 48

What was the result of the reconversion experience of labor, women, and African Americans?

A) Reconversion was better than they feared and worse than they hoped.
B) They confronted the limits of their power.
C) They changed the society around them.
D) All of the above.

Question 49

Considering President Truman, Democrats worried that

A) He did not share their ideals.
B) He would shrink back from the Communists.
C) He would not support their plan for national health insurance.
D) All of the above.

Question 50

In the election of 1948, Truman was expected to lose because

A) Segregationists were expected to undermine the Democrat vote.
B) The progressives were expected to undermine the Democrat vote.
C) The president suffered low approval ratings.
D) All of the above.

Question 51

Why were U.S. troops stuck with a "die for a tie" situation in Korea?

A) Korean troops were so formidable.
B) Soviet troops gave everything on the frontlines.
C) Nuclear weapons were not an option.
D) The United States had already committed so many troops in Vietnam.

Question 52

Hollywood was sensitive to the era, producing movies that

A) Reflected Americans' fears and insecurities.
B) Were more pro-American propaganda than anything else.
C) Stressed the failures of the New Deal and Square Deal programs.
D) All of the above.

Question 53

Truman's loyalty program resulted in

A) Thousands of people losing their jobs with the federal government.
B) An energized Supreme Court that refused to back down on civil rights and due process rights.
C) An increasing fear that Communists had infiltrated almost every aspect of American life and employment.
D) All of the above.

Question 54

Alger Hiss was accused of having once been a member of a secret Communist cell in the government. He had been employed as

A) An aide to Congressman Richard Nixon.
B) An aide in the State Department.
C) A Treasury Department official.
D) An FBI agent.

Question 55

All of the following except which refer to the Hiss-Chambers case?

A) There was little evidence to convict Hiss of perjury.
B) Hiss admitted that he had known Chambers under an alias.
C) The Pumpkin Papers consisted of microfilm stored in a hollowed-out pumpkin on Chambers's Maryland farm.
D) At the time of the controversy, Hiss was president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Question 56

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were

A) Tried, convicted, and executed for conspiring to steal American atomic information.
B) Related to Klaus Fuchs, who had been arrested by the British for selling American atomic plans.
C) Anti-Semites.
D) Found not guilty because federal prosecutors had no incontrovertible evidence proving their guilt.

Question 57

Joseph McCarthy spearheaded an anti-Communist hysteria that

A) Resulted in brutal lynchings comparable to those of the New South.
B) Brought Americans back to the importance of real politics.
C) Destroyed the lives of thousands of Americans.
D) Despite its drawbacks, managed to extinguish Communism in the United States.

Question 58

Was the Cold War a way of securing peace? Discuss.

Question 59

Why was President Truman so willing to send troops to defend South Korea?

Question 60

Why did Americans pay so much attention to Senator Joseph McCarthy?