Deck 4: World Politics and Economics: the Cold War

Question 1

The different periods of rising and falling tensions during the Cold War

A) Were far less stable compared with the shifting alliances and wars of earlier years.
B) Were not shaped by the personalities and beliefs of superpower leaders.
C) Were influenced by domestic politics.
D) Occurred during a period of a multipolar balance of power.

Answer 1

Were influenced by domestic politics.

Question 2

The structure of the international system during the Cold War can best be characterized as

A) Bipolar.
B) Multipolar.
C) Tripolar.
D) Imperialist.

Answer 2

Bipolar.

Question 3

Those who argue that the Soviet Union should be held responsible for the Cold War believe that

A) The USSR was inherently aggressive and expansionistic.
B) The United States should not have adopted the policy of containment.
C) Stalin's expansionist policies were supported by many people outside the Soviet Union.
D) The Soviets were content with their subjugation of eastern Europe.

Answer 3

The USSR was inherently aggressive and expansionistic.

Question 4

Those who believe that the United States was primarily responsible for starting the Cold War argue that

A) The United States increased tensions by trying to expand its overseas export markets in eastern Europe after World War II.
B) The Soviet Union was forced to react to American misperceptions of an aggressive Soviet foreign policy.
C) The American use of an atomic bomb at the end of World War II made the Soviets more aware of their own security.
D) All of the above.

Question 5

Those who blame the United States for the beginning of the Cold War use which level of analysis?

A) System
B) Domestic
C) Individual
D) Bipolar

Question 6

Which event occurred at the end of World War II, causing alarm for Soviet foreign policy makers?

A) The American invasion of the Soviet Union
B) The German reunification
C) The explosion of the atomic bomb
D) Détente

Question 7

Those who believe that ideological conflict caused the Cold War use what level of analysis?

A) System
B) Domestic
C) Individual
D) Bipolar

Question 8

All but which of the following actions by the Truman administration helped create a more tense relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union?

A) Marshall Plan restrictions that made it insulting for the Soviet Union to accept aid
B) The formation of the United Nations
C) The withholding of economic assistance
D) Truman's tough rhetoric with Soviet leaders

Question 9

The United States and the Soviet Union were the two dominant powers in the world after World War II because

A) They were the only two capable of projecting influence.
B) They were the only two capable of challenging each other for global leadership.
C) They were the only states that could threaten the other's survival.
D) All of the above.

Question 10

Those who argue that the Cold War was inevitable because the United States and the Soviet Union were the two dominant powers at the conclusion of World War II use which level of analysis?

A) Systemic
B) Domestic
C) Individual
D) Marxist

Question 11

Those who use the systemic level of analysis to explain the origins of the Cold War point to the importance of

A) Individual leaders.
B) Ideological competition.
C) The responsibility of the Soviet Union for initiating the Cold War.
D) Zero-sum games and the security dilemma.

Question 12

Those who believe that the Cold War was mostly a misunderstanding use which level of analysis?

A) Domestic
B) Systemic
C) Individual
D) Ideological

Question 13

Those who emphasize the importance of misunderstanding and misperceptions in creating the Cold War argue that

A) After the original misperceptions occurred, a process of action-reaction between the superpowers developed.
B) The superpowers comprehended the basic defensive nature of each other's policies.
C) Soviet misperceptions of American interests were the cause of the Cold War.
D) Ideological competition was primarily responsible for the Cold War.

Question 14

Which of the following was not one of the nations that the United States and the Soviet Union clashed over in the early years of the Cold War?

A) Iran
B) Greece
C) Saudi Arabia
D) Turkey

Question 15

When the Soviet Union retreated from the Middle East in 1946, the Truman administration concluded

A) That appeasement was the best policy toward the Soviet Union.
B) That the best way to counter Soviet actions was to stand firm.
C) That the Soviet Union would cease all its expansionist activities.
D) That the Soviet Union could be forced out of eastern Europe.

Question 16

The decision by which nation in 1947 to reduce its commitments in Greece and Turkey forced the United States to take a much more active international role?

A) France
B) Japan
C) Germany
D) Great Britain

Question 17

The Truman Doctrine called for the United States to

A) Help nations throughout the world gain and keep their freedom.
B) Support Greece and Turkey with economic and financial aid.
C) Assume global and moral responsibility for stopping the Soviet Union.
D) All of the above.

Question 18

Who wrote the "Long Telegram" and developed the philosophy of containment?

A) Harry Truman
B) John Foster Dulles
C) George Kennan
D) Fidel Castro

Question 19

The Soviet Union did not accept Marshall Plan assistance because

A) Stalin feared the revitalization of Great Britain, France, and Germany.
B) Eastern Europe had already recovered from World War II.
C) Stalin believed an American invasion of the Soviet Union was imminent.
D) All of the above.

Question 20

Which of the following was not among the effects of the Marshall Plan?

A) It restored Britain, France, and eventually Germany to major-power status.
B) It stopped the movement toward European integration.
C) It thwarted communist control within western European countries.
D) It facilitated the eventual integration of West Germany into the European economy.

Question 21

The Western powers responded to the Soviet blockade of land access to West Berlin by

A) Allowing the Soviets to control the entire city.
B) Mounting a massive airlift.
C) Going to war against the Soviet army in eastern Europe.
D) Reunifying all of Germany.

Question 22

By joining NATO, the United States

A) Renounced isolationism.
B) Demonstrated the will to resist Soviet aggression.
C) Accepted membership in an entangling alliance.
D) All of the above.

Question 23

Foremost among the dramatic changes taking place in the world economy after World War II was

A) The emergence of Soviet hegemony.
B) The emergence of British hegemony.
C) The emergence of American hegemony.
D) The lack of an economic hegemon.

Question 24

In the period of U.S. hegemony, the United States dominated the world in terms of

A) Production.
B) Cultural superiority.
C) Containment.
D) None of the above.

Question 25

The effects of the lend-lease program and the destruction of European physical and capital stock ensured

A) The Soviet Union would dominate all of Europe.
B) A prominent role for U.S. finance following the war.
C) Britain would remain the economic hegemon.
D) Germany would be divided.

Question 26

American hegemony coincided with

A) A rapid resumption of growth in the world economy.
B) The growth of international trade.
C) The growth of international investment.
D) All of the above.

Question 27

The conferees at Bretton Woods established

A) The Cold War.
B) The policy of containment.
C) The IMF and the World Bank.
D) The Berlin Blockade.

Question 28

The IMF coordinated national currencies by

A) Establishing fixed exchange rates.
B) Advancing credit to countries with balance-of-payments deficits.
C) Providing high-interest loans to the United States.
D) Both a and b

Question 29

What new purpose did the World Bank find in the 1950s and 1960s?

A) Lending money to the United States
B) Lending money to the developed countries of the West
C) Lending money to lesser-developed countries
D) Lending money to individuals

Question 30

During the Chinese Civil War, U.S. foreign policy could be best characterized by which of the following statements?

A) The United States took the side of the forces led by Mao Zedong.
B) No one in the United States believed that developments in Asia would have an impact on the global balance of power.
C) The United States' policy was caught between a repressive right-wing government and the possibility of a communist government.
D) The United States' economic and military assistance was decisive in determining the outcome of the war.

Question 31

Stalin believed which of the following about China?

A) A strong, communist China might pose more of a threat than a divided China under the Nationalists.
B) Communist strategy was more important than Soviet national interests.
C) The United States and communist China would work closely together.
D) The Soviet Union should never give any assistance to the communists.

Question 32

Which document called for a major expansion of America's armed forces in an effort to add military instruments to the policy of containment?

A) The U.S. Constitution
B) SALT Treaty
C) NSC-68
D) PPD-25

Question 33

After World War II, the Allies took which of the following actions in Korea?

A) Allowed for Korean unification under Kim Il Sung
B) Divided Korea into U.S. and Soviet zones of occupation
C) Allowed for a neutral and united Korea
D) Permitted free and open elections in all of Korea

Question 34

The invasion of South Korea brought to mind the lessons learned

A) At the end of World War I.
B) At Munich.
C) During the Concert of Europe.
D) During Yugoslavia's break with the Soviet Union.

Question 35

The intervention of which country in the Korean War was a factor leading to the stalemate?

A) The Soviet Union
B) Japan
C) China
D) The United States

Question 36

The Eisenhower strategy of responding to Soviet aggression with large-scale nuclear retaliation was called

A) Flexible response.
B) Massive retaliation.
C) Containment.
D) START.

Question 37

Korea was a turning point in the Cold War for all but which of the following reasons?

A) It led to increased pressures in the United States to reduce military spending.
B) It heightened the confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union and China in Asia.
C) It led the United States to believe that all communist threats were detrimental to American interests.
D) It helped to promote a military buildup in Europe.

Question 38

Which of the following does not describe the situation of many Third World nations in the 1950s?

A) They had previously been controlled by European colonial empires.
B) They were politically unstable.
C) They remained outside the conflicts of the Cold War.
D) They established the Nonaligned Movement.

Question 39

U.S. intervention has taken place in

A) Guatemala.
B) Iran.
C) South Vietnam.
D) All of the above.

Question 40

The Sputnik launch had what kind of an effect on international relations?

A) Americans no longer had to worry about the possibility they could become victims in a nuclear war.
B) The Eisenhower administration significantly changed its defense policies.
C) The United States feared that the Soviets had gained a major technological advantage.
D) The Soviet Union chose not to publicize its technological advantage.

Question 41

In 1958, when Khrushchev demanded that the United States withdraw its forces from West Berlin, the United States reacted by

A) Staging a massive airlift of supplies.
B) Launching an invasion of East Germany.
C) Launching Sputnik.
D) Refusing to accede to Khrushchev's demands.

Question 42

The Berlin Wall was erected to

A) Stem the flow of professional, intellectual, and skilled workers fleeing to the West.
B) Punish the United States for its interventionism.
C) Stop the "brain drain" in East Germany.
D) Both a and c

Question 43

Which of the following is not one of the reasons Khrushchev placed missiles in Cuba?

A) He may have been trying to exploit American political weakness.
B) He may have been trying to redress the U.S.-Soviet strategic balance.
C) He may have been trying to stop the "brain drain" and flow of refugees.
D) He may have been trying to forestall another attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro.

Question 44

Which crisis was the most severe of the Cold War?

A) The Berlin Blockade
B) The Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union
C) The U.S. invasion of the Dominican Republic
D) The Cuban Missile Crisis

Question 45

The United States took what action against the Soviet Union and Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis?

A) A naval blockade around Cuba
B) An invasion of Cuba
C) Surgical air strikes against Cuba
D) Nuclear attack against the Soviet Union

Question 46

As a result of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the United States promised to

A) Remove Fidel Castro from power.
B) Not invade Cuba again.
C) Remove its nuclear missiles from Cuba.
D) Remove the Berlin Wall.

Question 47

The Cuban Missile Crisis had what effect on the Cold War?

A) Soviet leaders set about challenging America's nuclear superiority.
B) There was a sudden relaxation of Cold War tensions.
C) The United States became overconfident of its abilities.
D) All of the above.

Question 48

China tested an atomic bomb in

A) 1950.
B) 1964.
C) 1970.
D) China never developed nuclear weapons.

Question 49

President Johnson initially chose what option to prevent a Vietcong victory in the South?

A) Withdrawal
B) An intermediate level of escalation
C) A full-scale level of escalation
D) Use of nuclear weapons

Question 50

As a result of the war in Vietnam,

A) The American public's enthusiasm for competition with the Soviet Union increased.
B) The United States' credibility with its allies was strengthened.
C) The Soviet Union was able to increase its standing in the Third World.
D) The U.S.-supported regime in South Vietnam stabilized.

Question 51

The Bretton Woods system fostered what outcome?

A) The rise of western European and Japanese economic power
B) The rise of U.S. economic power
C) The rise of Soviet economic power
D) None of the above

Question 52

President Nixon did not do which of the following in 1971?

A) Withdraw all U.S. troops from Vietnam
B) Suspend the U.S. commitment to convert dollars to gold
C) Impose domestic wage and price controls
D) Impose a 10 percent tariff on imports

Question 53

The condition that exists when nuclear states can survive a first strike with sufficient nuclear forces to retaliate in a second strike and inflict unacceptable damage on their opponent is known as

A) Nuclear utilization theory.
B) Mutual assured destruction (MAD).
C) Flexible response.
D) Massive retaliation.

Question 54

During the 1972 summit, U.S. and USSR interests were compatible in which of the following ways?

A) The superpowers established an alliance against communist China.
B) The superpowers wanted to decrease the costs of the escalating arms race.
C) The superpowers agreed to reunite Germany.
D) The superpowers agreed to the Brezhnev Doctrine.

Question 55

For the United States, détente was intended to

A) Give the Soviet Union a stake in the international system.
B) Explain its intervention in the Dominican Republic.
C) Justify the increased arms buildup of the 1980s.
D) Allow it to establish superiority over the Soviet Union.

Question 56

For the Soviet Union, détente meant

A) That the Soviets would make political gains without directly challenging the United States.
B) The Soviets would promise to halt future aggressive actions.
C) Cold War competition would continue.
D) All of the above.

Question 57

During the Yom Kippur War, the United States and the Soviet Union both

A) Pressured the oil-producing nations of the Middle East to impose an oil embargo.
B) Engaged in massive resupply operations of their respective allies.
C) Sent troops into Egypt, resulting in the first clash of U.S. and Soviet forces during the Cold War.
D) All of the above.

Question 58

Despite Jimmy Carter's efforts, which of the following made it more difficult to establish better relations between the United States and the Soviet Union in the late 1970s?

A) The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
B) The Cuban Missile Crisis
C) The Vietnam War
D) Ostpolitik

Question 59

Which of the following statements best characterizes the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan?

A) The Soviets realized that there would be serious international political consequences for their invasion.
B) The invasion was denounced by only the United States.
C) The invasion proved disastrous for Soviets as they became bogged down in a quagmire.
D) The invasion was not the first time the Soviets had deployed troops outside eastern Europe.

Question 60

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan resulted in

A) A U.S. boycott of the 1980 Olympics.
B) Increased Cold War tensions.
C) Increased defense spending by the United States.
D) All of the above.

Question 61

The Reagan Doctrine involved

A) Increasing support for arms control.
B) Increasing the prominence of international economic problems in U.S. foreign policy.
C) Abandoning the policy of containment.
D) Supporting anticommunist insurgencies.

Question 62

Mikhail Gorbachev's policies of glasnost and perestroika emphasized

A) Political openness and economic restructuring.
B) Supporting communist insurgencies.
C) Soviet domination over eastern Europe.
D) The supremacy of communism.

Question 63

The popular movement known as Solidarity assumed power in 1989 in what country?

A) Czechoslovakia
B) The Soviet Union
C) Poland
D) Yugoslavia

Question 64

Which of the following statements does not characterize the collapse of communism in eastern Europe?

A) Established regimes took considerable time to topple.
B) It was brought about by a deterioration in living standards.
C) The Soviet Union did not use force to keep governments in power.
D) The liberalization that spread to eastern Europe originated in the Soviet Union.

Question 65

Which of the following is not among the explanations advanced to explain the end of the Cold War?

A) The "great man" theory of world politics
B) Growing similarities in ideologies and ways of life
C) The collapse of the Soviet Union
D) An increase in bipolarity

Question 66

Those who argue that growing ideological similarities between the superpowers helped bring about the end of the Cold War use which level of analysis?

A) Systemic
B) Domestic
C) Individual
D) Capitalist

Question 67

Those who argue that U.S.-Soviet antagonism diminished because of changes in the international balance of power argue that the real winners of the Cold War are

A) Japan and Germany.
B) The American people.
C) The Third World.
D) The Soviet Union and eastern Europe.

Question 68

What U.S. program proposed the creation of a highly ambitious ballistic missile defense system?

A) SDI
B) SALT
C) ABM Treaty
D) INF Treaty

Question 69

Those who argue that the decline of bipolarity brought about the end of the Cold War use which level of analysis?

A) Systemic
B) Domestic
C) Individual
D) Capitalist

Question 70

Mikhail Gorbachev's approach toward reversing the downward trend in superpower relations is supported by what school of thought?

A) Realism
B) Liberalism
C) Capitalism
D) Communism

Question 71

The Soviet concern that U.S. development of the atomic bomb upset the balance of power is supported by what school of thought?

A) Realism
B) Liberalism
C) Capitalism
D) Communism

Question 72

Identify the six principal explanations for the "outbreak" of the Cold War.

Question 73

Explain why some argue that the Soviet Union was to blame for the Cold War.

Question 74

Explain why some argue that the United States was to blame for the Cold War.

Question 75

Explain the differences in ideologies that might have led to the Cold War.

Question 76

Explain how Stalin and Truman can be blamed for the start of the Cold War

Question 77

Explain how bipolarity may have caused the Cold War.

Question 78

How could the Cold War have been all a misunderstanding?

Question 79

Define the Truman Doctrine. What did it call for, and why is it important?

Question 80

Define the Marshall Plan.