Deck 27: Cold War America

Question 1

Who of the following did NOT believe we should have the same policy in the Far East as in Europe?

A) General MacArthur
B) General Bradley
C) Senator Taft
D) None of these individuals believed the same policy should be adopted.

Answer 1

General Bradley

Question 2

Stalin made numerous demands to control territory along the Soviet borders; and with the coming of peace, he continued to push for a role in controlling the ________, which linked Soviet ports on the Black Sea with the Mediterranean Sea.

A) Dardanelles
B) Suez Canal
C) Strait of Gibraltar
D) Strait of Hormuz

Answer 2

Dardanelles

Question 3

Several factors explain the rise of the cold war. Which of the following does NOT describe these factors?

A) geopolitical: the Truman administration harbored suspicions about Soviet designs on its neighbors
B) ideological: both Soviet communism and the "American dream" represented ends and means that the other side hated
C) economic: both the U.S. and USSR were economically devastated after World War II
D) historic: the Soviets remembered earlier invasions; the Americans remembered the prewar Nazi-Soviet pact

Answer 3

economic: both the U.S. and USSR were economically devastated after World War II

Question 4

"The Truman Doctrine marked a new level of American commitment to a cold war." On what basis does the text make this statement?

A) The Truman Doctrine for the first time committed the U.S. to a peacetime military alliance.
B) Truman publicly and finally rejected Stalin's offer of friendly negotiations between onetime allies.
C) Truman's pledge to support free peoples who resisted totalitarian takeover signaled an open-ended
) intent to oppose the Soviets anywhere in the world.
D) Sending military advisers to Greece was the first step in U.S. involvement in the Middle East quagmire.

Question 5

During a five-day period, a(n) ________ layer trapped a toxic brew of air pollutants over the town of Donora, Pennsylvania, killing some twenty people and sending half the town's population to the hospital.

A) sulfur dioxide
B) inversion
C) metal dust
D) carbon monoxide

Question 6

Which statement about what might be termed the "second Red scare" after World War II is true?

A) Rooted in fears of a Soviet invasion, it essentially began as a reaction to revelations that the Russians had the bomb.
B) The administration, the House of Representatives, and the Senate all conducted probes of possible
Subversive activity.
C) With Truman's blessing, the McCarran Act of 1950 was passed, requiring all Communists to register with the attorney General.
D) American fears of Communist subversion eased once the Truman administration set up an internal loyalty program.

Question 7

With his "Fair Deal," Truman hoped to keep his working coalition of ________ together.

A) labor and farmers
B) southern Democrats and Republicans
C) Square Dealers and New Dealers
D) liberal Democrats and Dixiecrats

Question 8

President Eisenhower proposed to follow a course that politically would "take that straight road down the middle." By the 1950s, "the middle"
Meant all EXCEPT

A) promoting New Deal-style government responsibility for managing the economy and providing social programs.
B) containing the Soviet threat through active involvement around the world.
C) recognizing that limited, regional conflicts had global connections with the potential for nuclear
Destruction.
D) rejecting Communist ideology while recognizing the value of allowing leftists to advocate their beliefs in a pluralistic, free society.

Question 9

Identify the countries in which early cold war crises occurred. What do these countries have in common?

Question 10

What was the policy of containment?

Question 11

How did the United States use nuclear weapons to deter aggression?

Question 12

What were the major steps taken to prevent subversion in the United States?

Question 13

Why did Truman relieve MacArthur of his command in Korea? Was he justified?

Question 14

Describe the major problems that prevented orderly conversion from a wartime to a peacetime economy.

Question 15

What major conflicts between the Soviet Union and United States resulted in the beginning of the cold war?

Question 16

How did the United States use nuclear weapons to deter aggression?

Question 17

Explain important ways in which both the United States and the Soviet Union contributed to the worsening of cold war tensions.

Question 18

Explain why you think George Kennan became an opponent of the policies recommended under NSC-68.

Question 19

Explain why staunch anti-Communists were especially concerned with the possibility of subversion in the film and television industries.

Question 20

Many historians feel that Harry Truman as much as Joe McCarthy gave force to the postwar "Red scare."
Explain why you agree or disagree.

Question 21

Explain whether you feel President Truman was an effective leader on the civil rights issue.

Question 22

Why do you think the New Deal remained controversial in the elections of 1948 and 1952?

Question 23

How did the cold war affect the film industry and popular culture? Explain by discussing both the content of films and the reactions of the larger political community.

Question 24

How were the rights of African Americans advanced or blocked during the Truman years?
ch27 Key